Of course, Clare is equally right...
And some things are more equal than others...
I think GE's got a bad name in the late 70's and early 80's from the audiophile community because they had somehow, and inextricably, become synonymous with 'tone adjustment' in mass produced commercial stereo systems. The great general public was now pretty much unaware of the 'primary' function of a graphic equalizer. Way back in the early days of wildly differing music and recording production standards, graphic equalizers were provided for the end user to 'equalize' the tonal frequencies in the listening environment, as the studio from which the LP was recorded and cut was not necessarily brilliant.
One album could sound vastly different to another. It was therefore important to adjust certain frequencies in order to reduce boom and high presence frequencies harmonically added because of room reflections etc.
It was, of course, less of a problem by the 70's as production methods, and mixing rooms were near reference, and of a standard, which meant equalizers were almost unnecessary from this time onwards, Or at the very least, you only needed to set it to the room equalisation once, and then forget it.
Today we tend to be more purist in our approach. High spec amp., with just Bass and Treble (2 'medium width Q' bands) tone controls, high quality speakers with reference curve response - with added warmth and colouration to taste, speaker stands, and correct placement, along with desirable furniture lay out, is the way to go.
I use multi-band fully parametric EQ, with filters, to mix with in the studio but that is purely for tonal adjustment of the actual sound, and not for room equalisation.
Ex-Record Producer (15 years) & Mastering Engineer
Audiophile, but not Audio-Nutter. I have my ears tested annually for my job (mastering audio), to check reception and frequency detection.