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Extreme EQing to compensate for headphones weak points?

post #1 of 3
3/29/11 at 11:01pm
Thread Starter 
I'm wondering whether its a silly idea or whether it has any merit.

Lets say I take the graph from headphone.com, for my HD555's, and adjust the EQ in foobar to add and remove the appropriate dB at as many frequencies I can, in attempt to achieve a flat theoretical EQ curve.. Is it a completely retarded idea or ??
Edited by Dirtyworks - 3/29/11 at 11:02pm
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post #2 of 3
3/31/11 at 11:32pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I've been toying with this idea the last few days and I have to say its interesting. Not in a non-pleasing way, though.

I could definitely hear more neutrality in the tone of the cans. Though, I've learned that it sounds better if you adjust it so none of the EQ peaks are more than a few dB above 0 and that all the other frequencies are adjusted in relation to this, otherwise you run into digital distortion. I've also found that using the default Windows output causes compression while listening to music with heavy peaks (really bassy music, for the most part). That compression is removed whilst using WASAPI though.

Overall, I think this might be suited more for darker sounding cans and to give cheaper sound cards/DAC's a push in their weak spots. It woke up and made me appreciate my HD428's a little more, while my HD555's just sounded sharper and more lively - especially with thrash metal and string heavy "classical" music. If I may, a solo violin sounded woodier.
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post #3 of 3
4/1/11 at 6:29am

An alternative might be to listen to a frequency sweep and try to establish your equal loudness contour given a certain volume.

The best is probably  in-ear measurement: http://www.smyth-research.com/technology.html

Indeed, when using EQ one better lowers instead of boosting to avoid digital clipping.

Try this one: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

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