eheh Nice drawings m8, ;)
Like I said on a small system it won't show especially if u r using it on the very low spectrum of the audio range... don't forget most of our speakers don't reproduce bellow 40-50hz (even with subs)... so natural most of the difference will b hidden, also we're not particular good in hearing extrem low bass (it's more feeling the preassure then hearing)...
try this on higher freq's... chances r yer mixer won't have a high pass that will go above 80-100hz though. Also if there wasn't much difference then u would have most dedicated eq. software let ya choose between bell, shelving and cut!
but u r right in thinking that in the low freq. u hear basically no difference in most comon setups.
but if u use say a max of a shelving cut around -24 db (most eq.s won't do more that that... but u have some software that will go as fas as 32) all u r doing is attenuating everything bellow (or above) your cut point by that amount (yes I know that U have 2 account 4 the filter poles)... with a cut u'd get the equivalent of a -infinite cut... meaning all goes...
again on most systems won't make a difference, so as a security do a shelving of -12/ 16 db... so if the guys at the mastering need some "bass air" they can always bring it back in... with a cut it's gone 4 ever... so if the effect is almost the same 2 ya, just go with the safer option... that's my view anyways!
:)
Z