It took a long while to "re-train" my ears to get used to the flat response. It's hard to find speakers that can truly output a flat response and still be affordable. Growing up, I tended to bump the bass and treble way too much. I've owned a variety of speakers over the last couple of decades (Advent, Cerwin Vega, Infinity, Polk, Boston Acoustics, even Bose), and I can say I'm extremely impressed with the reproduction of the Axioms. If I need to adjust the sound, I prefer to do it in the preamplification stage, but I do really don't do that anymore either. Now, when I listen to music that is "equalized" (usually in pubs or restaurants), it just doesn't sound natural to my ears.