The thing about these programs is yes they change the sound but will you like it. This program works better than this program, oh I like the bell curve or the U curve, you can chase your tail to no end. In the end, we all hear different but we also have a sound we like, like how we like spices in our food. Our audio systems are built or should be built for us to enjoy our music and not the gear, which you also could keep changing to no end until you burn out and get out of the hobby due to frustration. Power Cords can make a profound change to one piece of gear, what then more so than a interconnect or speaker wire. Then you run the DSP programs again to change that sound. I had a Cello parametric equalizer back in the day, it started off fun, then it drove me nuts, I started to use it on every LP I played, it changed the sound of the LP, but it was never as it was cut to sound, I could bring a piano more forward, vocals and on and on but at the expense of something else on the record. I sold it, and after a few weeks with just my preamp and phono preamp I started to relax and enjoy the music and my system and not fret that every recording was not perfect to my idea of sound.
The room acoustics and setup do matter. Folks who make gear and build speakers know what they are doing and decide what the voicing on their gear is as they hoped it would be. Tilt a speaker back or forward will change the sound, put larger 2" high support feet under a speaker the speaker will sound different, bass response and imaging, but also you then I sitting to the speaker 2" lower below the tweeter/or midrange which will alter the sound.
Even what I hear and my wife hears sound different, I am 6'5" she is 5'2" when she sits in my chair she is hearing a different sound when I sit there, just our height difference impacts how we hear the speaker. sound where we sit. Moving the chair up or back changes the sound and imaging. I read a line by a record producer years ago and he said a flat speaker in an audio room sounds terrible, lifeless, blah, but that speaker is great for the mixing room where we bring out instruments and vocals, etc.
The goal is to build it to where listening to your music is enjoyable to our own taste, not looking for perfection because there is no such thing. The old KISS is still valid in audio. Enjoy it, not turn it into work. I know gear junkies, who buy and buy and buy, looking for the sound they never like in the end because they always hear a flaw or not to their taste after a while, some left hobby due to frustration. They ruined it for themselves, nothing is perfect for them after a while, they loved the new piece of gear and saw the audio gods talk to them, but give it 6-months to a year, they start finding faults in the playback and off they go to the races again. They taught me a lesson and remember to this day.
