Do equalizers only work with older AVR?pre mic auto set up.
I only ever used EQ with 2-channel. Even then, some people had a good ear for adjustment, and some couldn't EQ their way out of a wet paper bag. Then came the plug'n play era where everything is done for you and most people nowadays just haven't had to develop the skill or the want. EQ'ng tracks or albums was part of the social aspect of group listening sessions that could last hours or even days when a new album came out.
There is no shortage of people complaining about bright speakers and all the other ills and troubleshooting that plague audio now that graphic EQs have been demonized so. People upgrade and change speakers and gear like underwear, and they try to fix their sound with tubes and other gimmicks. You would think that since they figured out what all is so wrong with the old ways, that most problems would have been solved by now but instead, seems like they have gotten even more complicated.
It's kind of comical to me to watch a certain faction of modern audio purists complain about the limitations of graphic EQ or tone controls, yet set out to EQ instead with awkward, expensive and clunky wall treatments and such that are even more bandwidth limited with trying to chase down acoustic problems with next to no flexibility of adjustment at all.
There are no rules that say you can't approach this hobby with and without EQ. It works for some things and is unnecessary for others. With older mainstream music, it helps to have some of the gear and methods of the time that the recording engineers were targeting their sound for, including car audio. Audiophile grade thinking and methods only fit a very tiny section of the population.