Don't mind me, just gryping about the path the industry followed, seemingly in disregard to basic realities. All my rigs have at least one flavor or another of eq that I use for loudness compensation. Most of my listening is done at way below reference levels, so I can't live without it.
Indeed. A good system will get out of the way of the music. Your rig is so good that it will get completely out of the way of whatever is on the source material, exposing all it's glory, or faults as the case may be. Many recordings leave a lot to be desired. (This is further justification for an equalizer/tone controls.)
I may be a stubborn old fool, but at least I'm in good company. Toole himself endorses eq/tone controls, and also criticizes their absence on modern kit.