[Verizon Droid Charge] ezas:
What phones are you using. If cheap 'buds' than that is 1/2 your problem. Also the EQ circuit sucks on these phones, but overall the Sound Quality (SQ) is pretty good.

First if you are not using Voodoo sound, start using it. Just trust me on that. Currently on the Charge you have to use Voodoo control plus (The paid version) to use Voodoo sound. Voodoo sound uses the Hifi digital circuit in your phone instead of the analog circuit. With this installed the tone control I use is the Bass boost circuit which I adjust for the phones I'm using and I don't use EQ at all. Unlike the stock EQ circuit on this phone the bass boost circuit in voodoo sound does not suck the life out of the sound.

If you are using cheap ear buds finds some different phones. I have yet to find 'buds' that I like the sound of but I have not tried many of them either.

You do not need to spend a lot. Try the Koss KSC75 for $19. These sound really good and sound even better under a beanie. They do not have a lot of bass (more on that later) and the beanie pushing them closer to your ears gives them more bass and that is my favorite combination. For in in-ear phones I like the Skull Candy Titan. These are $39 and have a lot of bass, but not flabby bass. I also have a set of Sennheiser PMX70 which have the least amount of bass. All of these have a nice 'live' (as in not 'dead' sounding) sound. The only 'EQ' I use on these is to control the amount of Bass each gets which I do using Voodoo Sound bass boost. None of these are more than $40.

For really cheap phones but better than the stock crap 'buds' many people like the JVC Marshmallow (in-ear) and JVC Gummy (buds). Also the Skull Candy Inkd ($10) are good in you like more bass/rock sound. Some people HATE skull Candy phones in general but I'm not one of them.

A good source for anything related to headphones for portable players is anythingbutipod.com here is there headphone section: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=22

I have tried the EQ on this phone from multiple players and by using the DSP Manager that comes with CM7. None of them sound good to me.

EQ is a funny thing and not something you learrn to use well overnight (I was a live sound engineer in another lifetime, and have 21 band EQ on my home stereo).

If all you have is presets in your EQ all you can do is try them till you find the one you like the most (hate the least). If you have a custom setting here are some guidelines.

In general it's better to cut frequencies, instead of boosting the ones you want. Want more bass, cut some of the high frequencies. Try to keep your cuts and boosts to less 3db (6db max). More than that and you are trying for something that is not there. To get a good idea of what each band does, run it all they way up and down to see what it really is boosting and cutting.

Also as you EQ you are making the signal stronger and weaker depending on how much you cut or boost. This in itself changes the sound. In general as you turn up the volume (signal) you hear more bass and treble, and conversely as you turn down you hear less bass and treble. So play with that before dik'ing with EQ

Try to do your EQ'ing so that the loudness stays about the same, or at least use the pre-amp gain to adjust for it. The EQ in the Mixzing media player shows when you are clipping which is a cool feature. It also lets you change how many bands you have control over and if you want to use smoothing which adjusts nearby bands as you move one band.

I wrote all this because it's close to pointless to ask for other peoples' setting since it depends on the phones, the music, and the volume you like to listen to, and your own preference in how it 'should' sound.

Edit: Mixzing Basic Player has the best EQ in the players I've tried.