> For speakers they modify what gets sent to the hardware so that the actual output then does match the frequency response
As I understand, this is not a magic pill: it probably won't help to pull out frequencies which are suppressed by 30-40 dB and I assume that if the frequency response graph is too wavy (lot of narrow peaks and dips), it won't help either.
Also, you need to have calibration files to use this method, right?
Yes you need calibration files for supported models. You can see the details and explanation at the asahi audio repository. They also criticize the MacOS curves, and point out how some Windows vendors are doing the same DSP approach.
By the way I now realized that simply adding an equalizer before the amp might be not enough; speakers typically produce different sound in different directions, so for a perfect sound you need to somehow track location of the head and adjust filter curves.
Interesting, does that means Mac speakers may be great for certain sounds, but not others.
I mean, Apple uses high quality speakers to begin with, as far as laptops go. I'm sure they're not making 40 dB corrections, that would be ginormous.
Yes, I would be very surprised if they weren't using specific calibrations for each model. That's pretty basic.