I would say that everyone should do some research on what general parameters you want for your strings. How stuff do you want to feel? What tuning do you play most? How bright do you want to sound? What kind of music do you play most? Do you have a sensitivity to nickel like some of us including myself do? Those are to me the biggest questions for anyone who is starting out. After that you should start looking at all the sound demos and get a picture in your head about what strings are going to give you that sound you're after. Honestly the market is very saturated with options and they all say a similar thing about who's the best and so forth. I'd say generally any brand that's not just a fly by night Amazon special with no name will be good. Some are definitely better than others but it's going to be more relative to you as to what's the best. If you're picking a bass I would suggest hearing others play with different setups to see if you can picture yourself playing it and if it'll work for you. The combination choices are insane for bass and string so be patient and make sure you're happy with that bass regardless of strings and it'll make finding your setup much easier. I found the general tones I really like and I know what I sound like enough these days that I can pretty much buy a bass and know what I'm getting myself into. As far as strings I've tried so many that I have a good idea just on experience alone. Some basses will take to a certain string better than others but it's very relative to how you play and what your amp or signal chain is. That's another Rabbit hole is amps and speakers or headphones. If you can test something totally clean and unaffected by EQ it's usually more accurate when testing strings. However since you're playing with EQ definitely try both. Lots of knobs can do great things for shaping tone. Personally though I rely on more of the strings tone than trying to do any heavy eq shaping. Pickups have Thier own eq built in a lot of times which is why I think we go through so much gear changing once we're committed to chasing tones through the endless options these days. Hope my rant is helpful. Main thing is pick up a bass and keep playing.
