Actually, programs should sound fine without the equaliser turned on if the Mp3 file is made correctly.
Sometimes I do find that Winamp doesn't have as good an equaliser as Media Player, and this is from experience. Winamp tends to distort at small increases.
Ah yeah, thats what I usually use too to pump up either ends of the equaliser, though my Creative speakers can't really handle the strain sometimes hehe...or the house
I find that messing around with it too much though changes the state of the song, and it doesn't sound as good anymore. Plus the fact, unless you save the state in the MP3 file, you'll have to keep changing it for each song.
I've used the equaliser and favour "Full BAse and treble" (this is similar to WMP Rock setting), however, WMP still sounds a lot clearer. Compare the same mp3 in both and tell me Winamp doesn't sound muffled in comparison.
In the past I have used winamp, but I realized that windows media player is the only way to go. I watch a lot of anime and when my codecs got messed up Windows media player was the only player that would work. I highly recommend windows media player over winamp unless you're trying to watch internet porn.