EQing your E500s / SE530s with Rockbox!!!!

I’m excited to tell everyone about my final EQ settings for the Shure E500/SE530. Everyone seems to talk about the Shures’ Rolled off highs. Even some complain about the slight boominess of the upper bass. After a week of working on EQ adjustments using Rockbox firmware and my iMod, I think I’ve finally annihilated any of the problems that plagued the Shure E500. What I never knew about the Shures was how well they respond to EQ. I didn’t seem to take up any of the headroom in doing this procedure. Each additional EQ adjustment was done carefully after many hours of listening in different increments.
I’m going to explain the instructions hoping that Rockbox is a familiar firmware to you, if not please feel free to email me and I will help you.

Step 1: Go to Hardware Equalizer and click on High Shelf Filter. Make the cutoff Frequency 9Khz. Then raise the Gain by 6 DB.

Step 2: Also in the menu Hardware Equalizer…..click on Low Shelf Filter. Make the cutoff Frequency 105HZ. Then RAISE (yes RAISE) the gain by 3db. This may surprise you as the Shures are already Bassy. But don’t worry……….the problems that plague the bass are well above 105 HZ………….which is what we will do in my next step. PS DON’T FORGET TO ENABLE HARDWARE EQUALIZER otherwise none of this takes effect.

Step 3: also known as getting rid of the boom……Go to Equalizer. Click on Graphical EQ. Make the first Peak Filter (PK) -3db / 300 Hz / 0.9 Q

Step 4: stay in the Equalizer………Make the High Shelve +12.5 / 12000 HZ / 0.5Q

Again make sure you enable this EQ setting.

Step 5: To get full affect of the soundstage of the Shures, change the stereo width to 200%
If for some reason the sound is a little bright for you simply……lower the gain on the High Shelve till it feels right. For classical music I found that 12.5 was perfect whereas for rock, I brought it down to 6 or 7.

The whole experiment was done with a Corda Move. Please let me know what you think. I have a pair of UE10s and I think this EQ Setting along with the stereo width just about Equals it!

did you do the Hardware EQ too?

If you're listening to hip hop and stuff like that I would imagine 6 DB Gain on the 12000 Hz would be enough.....thats my assumption. And any song with an annoying tape hiss as well.

150 Works too!

correct

I looked at the Headroom graph as well and I raised the 5Khz range but it made it sound tinny. So I stuck without it. You should have seen maybe over 50 variables I tried out before arriving at this final EQ adjustment.......the Stereo Width is really important to bringing out the EQ as well.

Absolutely............no headphone should cost so much and still need to be EQed tremendously to achieve optimum sound.

THAT BEING SAID......I think the Shures have a gift for being able to be EQed so well. The EQ settings I suggested is just my preference. Some people may still prefer the default sound of the natural E500s......However, the sound is really improved for me, almost to the point of being a brand new monitor. If a headphone can be so greatly improved by EQ then I feel it is a strength of the headphone and not a weakness. The reason I feel this way is I dont think all headphones can take to EQ so well. The Shures are Rolled off in the highs but at the same time are perfectly capable of reproducing sparkling highs. Its that simple, and its amazing for me.