MP3 players: EQ and Nano 3rd Gen

EQ and Nano 3rd Gen

I have ITunes set up with every song associated with a specific equalizer setting and I once read that if you set the EQ on your IPod to Flat, then the EQ set in ITunes would be the one used on the IPod. This was supposed to help extend battery life and I thought it was sensible since it stopped the need to keep changing the EQ when I changed song types.

On the 3rd gen Nano I find that if I set the EQ to Flat, then it is just that. I can hear a substantial difference when I set it to Rock, R&B etc.

On the support page Apple states the following with regards to battery life:

Equalizer: Adding EQs to playback uses more of your iPod processor, since they aren’t encoded in the song. Turn EQ off if you don’t use it. If, however, you’ve added EQ to tracks in iTunes, you’ll need to set EQ to “flat” in order to have the effect of “off,” because iPod keeps your iTunes settings intact.

Based on that bit of info I can't tell what setting would allow me to utilize the EQ set in ITunes. And if Flat is equal to off on the IPod, then what is Off equal to??

Any answers out there? And sorry for the long winded post but TIA.