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How to equalize your headphones: A Tutorial - Page 4

post #46 of 877
3/12/09 at 3:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek View Post
The Burn in Wave generator does not allow for the sweeping of the sine wave by hand, though, which is important for determining where the peak is and how loud it is relative to other frequencies.
Ah, ok. Thanks. That makes much more sense now because I was doing some sweeps and having a difficult time finding resonant peaks.
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post #47 of 877
3/12/09 at 6:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek View Post
Awesome! Now that's what I'm talking about. Looks awfully familiar too...
well my DT770/600Ω is only a few days old, so it's hardly broken in.....and/or my ears are getting tired, I believe this sort of exercise requires fresh ears.

each correction fixes something, whatever the snare drum of "I wanna be your dog" at 600Hz, the hiss at the beginning of the KB1 sountrack at 10K, the 7K resonance...but it sounds sort of "muddy" now, so I'll try to find a good balance tomorrow w/ fresh ears

also, this is about cutting bands to kill resonance, but probably increasing bands would also be needed?

I've tried the SineGen thingie, in the trebles it goes completely nuts
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post #48 of 877
3/12/09 at 6:56pm
Thread Starter 
If it sounds truly muddy, you may have cut too much. Either that, or your ears are tired and not used to the flatter response. Also, if you find a spot that clearly has a suckout, you can of course fill it in.
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post #49 of 877
3/12/09 at 7:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek View Post
If it sounds truly muddy, you may have cut too much. Either that, or your ears are tired and not used to the flatter response. Also, if you find a spot that clearly has a suckout, you can of course fill it in.
what does a clear suckout sound like ?

so the only way to find resonance is to kill that 7K spike, then listen carefully to many different types of music until you catch them ? like that nancy sinatra intro hiss ?

yeah my ears are too tired for today, for sure..
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post #50 of 877
3/12/09 at 7:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
what does a clear suckout sound like ?
I don't really hear any dips in my setup, although if they were there, it would be noticeable as a drop in volume within a specific, narrow frequency range when sweeping the sine wave.

Quote:
so the only way to find resonance is to kill that 7K spike, then listen carefully to many different types of music until you catch them ? like that nancy sinatra intro hiss ?
The resonance is the 7kHz spike. The best way to fine any peaks or dips is to use a program like SineGen. When I sweep the sine wave, there are clear peaks at 7400hz and 13000Hz (roughly). Those are the resonances. Listening to musical material is for verifying your response, not for actually finding any problems.
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post #51 of 877
3/12/09 at 8:05pm
the key is to educate your ears, so you know what to look for....when I run SineGen I can hear that it goes crazy in the trebles, but it goes too fast...prolly there's an option to make it slower, I'll look further into it tomorrow

anyway, thanks for your help! I like to run my displays at D65/2.2 and I was craving for a way to calibrate my DT770
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post #52 of 877
3/12/09 at 8:10pm
Thread Starter 
What do you mean it goes too fast? You should be able to drag the "frequency" slider as quickly or as slowly as you need. When I'm really looking for accuracy, I can move it super slowly by tapping the up arrow key.
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post #53 of 877
3/12/09 at 8:41pm
cool tutorial. though i prefer to keep my headphones without tweaking thee equalizer, this would surely help me in the future if i ever decide to change my mind!

=D
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post #54 of 877
3/12/09 at 8:43pm
ok good to know! well I'd like each step to be 0.05 kHz then.
well for instance 8.30 resonates, 8.40 is almost silent, 8.50 kHz a bit louder and then the upper freqs seems OK, meaning I have to kill 8.30 and increase 8.40 to make it even w/ the others?

that's w/ a sine wave, but same goes for triangle

it's like calibrating a display w/o a sensor, I'm colorblind but not deaf though

PS: damn the 10K resonance sounds awful w/ triangle, hard to miss
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post #55 of 877
3/12/09 at 8:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by uraflit View Post
i prefer to keep my headphones without tweaking thee equalizer, this would surely help me in the future if i ever decide to change my mind!
just make sure to use 32float stuff, I suspect foobar doesn't use this resolution for winamp/VST plugins.

Ozone4 works internally in 64float, and ffdshow sends 32float to Ozone4 & my audio drivers....this will lower distortion as much as possible.

in both apps you can also set noise shaping/dithering(to 24 integer for instance)...some basic 16 integer EQ in winamp wouldn't sound too good IMO.
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post #56 of 877
3/12/09 at 9:18pm
Although I hardly use EQ, I find this thread very interesting indeed! Ive been eqing before but I usually eq just by hearing average peaks of all my music basically saying it is the headphones anomaly instead of the recordings themselves. I never really took eqing to this level with my cans. The only time I did hardcore eqing was with my car audio setup before while using an RTA. Ive also heard how a great home audio eq (like an accuphase digital eq ive heard) makes the sound but was never actually around when the owner set it up.
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post #57 of 877
3/12/09 at 11:29pm
I think I've got it exactly where I want it now, so I'll post mine.

The headphones are Grado SR225's (old version) and they are running straight out of the soundcard.

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post #58 of 877
3/13/09 at 12:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek View Post
I only just barely understand the concept of acoustic impedance as it is (too much math!), so I cannot provide a good technical reply to this. There are ways to test for this though. The best way I can think of would be to use a pair of studio monitors that you know to have a flat output, and a pair of headphones that you know to have a flat output (such as STAX, for example.)

Use the SineGen program with both the speakers and the headphones and note where the perceived amplitude of the sound increases. With the speakers, the sound will be more or less uniform, with an increase around 2.5-3kHz due to the pinna. If the speakers are truly flat, there will not be any sharp peaks in the upper mids or highs. With the headphones, however, the response will start to become increasingly jagged above 2kHz, with a sharp peak in the 5-8kHz range. You can verify the presence of the problem by taking the headphones off, placing them on the desk and turning the volume up to where you can hear a 1kHz tone clearly. If you run the frequency sweep again, it will suddenly appear to be much more uniform in amplitude. Put the headphones back on, and the problem comes back.
Ah yes I see now. That's clever. Also, I downloaded SineGen, it's quite useful, thanks!
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post #59 of 877
3/13/09 at 4:18pm
well I suck at hearing resonances in SineGen and the sine.wav is very nice but you never know which exact freq is resonating...so it's kinda hard to get it "right"

anyway, I stick to the intro hiss of the KB1 soundtrack, it's perfect for my needs

I've tried Electri-Q and it seems to sound more transparent than Ozone4(even in digital mode), and its GUI is more convenient..I like it!

so killing the 7K spike is piece of cake w/ the KB1 soundtrack, and it fixes most resonances I could hear.

I'm afraid of killing unneeded freqs at this point..but even this small spike makes a HUGE difference

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post #60 of 877
3/13/09 at 7:44pm


sounds less fatiguing, more balanced and detailed. my setting is far from final though.

headphone : HD 555 with foams removed (so theoretically HD 595)


oh and thanks for this thread
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