Br777
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2010
- Posts
- 3,930
- Likes
- 298
UPDATE 9.15.11
as with many of my posts, i am not only sharing my perspectibe, but attempting to learn as well. In that process, this post has taken on a life of its own and become much more a learning experience about true neutrality, and properly eq'ing headphones, which up until this moment it seems i have not been doing as well as i thought.
thus this thread is no longer about me sharing my "perfect settings" and is really a progression of me sharing my initial settings, and a lot of learning that follows..
I will leave the OP in its original form so that ya'll can benefit from the learning process as I have, but
thanks!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I like to EQ headphones. I like to play "sine wave generators" or "rolling frequency sweeps" through headphones over and over, listen for imbalances to the best of my ability, and then use an equalizer to "fix" the imbalances so that the volume of every frequency is as close to the same as possible.
I do this with every pair of headphones try/own. I often find major imbalances, and after fixing them am amazed at how imbalanced some headphones were, amazed at how anyone could say the stock sound of said headphones was any good, and most of all amazed at how much better they sound when eq'd "flat."
let me just say now that everything I am saying, and doing in this thread is for FUN.. I'm not here to start flame wars, and I'm certainly not going to waste time trying to convince anyone or argue with anyone.
So...I bought the LCD-2's. I have owned several "high end" cans, including another pair of "high end" orthos, so i knew what i was in for. The LCD-2's sounded great, but i was shocked at their lack of bass/sub bass, especially when SOOOOOO many people say they have excellent extension and amazing bass reproduction.
I then set out over the coarse of probably 2 weeks to dial in the "perfect" eq settings for these headphones that would sound good with any music based on "fixing" imbalances through the whole of the headphone spectrum, and most importantly "fixing" the bass/sub bass region. I should be clear that i did not eq the bass/sub bass section "flat" i simply made it sound the best i could for all music types.
In my humble opinion i have done a pretty good job, and to my ears, when i a/b back and forth between no eq, and eq'd with my settings, the LCD-2 sound pretty anemic, and even a bit sibilant without EQ. i definitely do not care for the flat sound at all.
Dont worry, you wont need golden ears to tell a difference, between my settings and flat settings.. its pretty obvious.
in order to really get a feel for the difference, one of the best tips i can give is to try these settings exclusively for several hours, or even better, a few days with music you know well. Then, after you have gotten accostomed to the eq, try switching back to the flat settings mid song at some point... the difference will be much more impactful. Its best if you can set it up so that all you have to do is hit a buttom to a/b flat vs. eq'd, and to make sure the volume levels are the same for the two
so here is my "challenge" try my settings, which i will detail below in as many formats as possible, and tell me that you honestly think the stock sound of the LCD-2 is better. I dare you! To me its no contest. again folks, this is all in good fun.
my rig - Ipod touch 4g with equalizer app - lod - RSA SR71B - balanced out - LCD-2 rev.2
Settings for the "Equalizer" App
for the i-devices - the best eq app in my opinion
frequency settings from left to right
+2.0 @ 23hz Q. 0.3
+5.5 @ 65hz Q 1.0
-1.0 @ 605hz Q 1.0
+1.0 @ 1580hz Q 0.6
-5.0 @ 3500hz Q 1.5
+5.0 @ 8300hz Q 8.0
+1.5 @ 20000hz Q 1.0
and most importantly - set the pre-amp to -7db to avoid any chance of distortion
Settings for Foobar/Electri-q
+2.0 @ 20hz BW 3.0
+5.5 @ 65hz BW 1.0
-1.0 @ 605hz BW 1.3
+1.0 @ 1580hz BW 1.4
-5.0 @ 3500hz BW 0.6
+5.0 @ 8300hz BW 0.1
+1.5 @ 20000hz high shelf setting BW 6.9
all peak types are type I except the high shelf.
i use the "digital" setting and do not check "eco"
and most importantly - create an all pass @ -7db to avoid any chance of distortion
If you are trying to recreate these settings with an EQ that i have not given exact settings for, even slight differences can make a big difference, so i cant guarentee that you will get the same results.
as with many of my posts, i am not only sharing my perspectibe, but attempting to learn as well. In that process, this post has taken on a life of its own and become much more a learning experience about true neutrality, and properly eq'ing headphones, which up until this moment it seems i have not been doing as well as i thought.
thus this thread is no longer about me sharing my "perfect settings" and is really a progression of me sharing my initial settings, and a lot of learning that follows..
I will leave the OP in its original form so that ya'll can benefit from the learning process as I have, but
just know that this OP no longer reflects my opinion on the matter at hand.
thanks!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I like to EQ headphones. I like to play "sine wave generators" or "rolling frequency sweeps" through headphones over and over, listen for imbalances to the best of my ability, and then use an equalizer to "fix" the imbalances so that the volume of every frequency is as close to the same as possible.
I do this with every pair of headphones try/own. I often find major imbalances, and after fixing them am amazed at how imbalanced some headphones were, amazed at how anyone could say the stock sound of said headphones was any good, and most of all amazed at how much better they sound when eq'd "flat."
let me just say now that everything I am saying, and doing in this thread is for FUN.. I'm not here to start flame wars, and I'm certainly not going to waste time trying to convince anyone or argue with anyone.
So...I bought the LCD-2's. I have owned several "high end" cans, including another pair of "high end" orthos, so i knew what i was in for. The LCD-2's sounded great, but i was shocked at their lack of bass/sub bass, especially when SOOOOOO many people say they have excellent extension and amazing bass reproduction.
I then set out over the coarse of probably 2 weeks to dial in the "perfect" eq settings for these headphones that would sound good with any music based on "fixing" imbalances through the whole of the headphone spectrum, and most importantly "fixing" the bass/sub bass region. I should be clear that i did not eq the bass/sub bass section "flat" i simply made it sound the best i could for all music types.
In my humble opinion i have done a pretty good job, and to my ears, when i a/b back and forth between no eq, and eq'd with my settings, the LCD-2 sound pretty anemic, and even a bit sibilant without EQ. i definitely do not care for the flat sound at all.
Dont worry, you wont need golden ears to tell a difference, between my settings and flat settings.. its pretty obvious.
in order to really get a feel for the difference, one of the best tips i can give is to try these settings exclusively for several hours, or even better, a few days with music you know well. Then, after you have gotten accostomed to the eq, try switching back to the flat settings mid song at some point... the difference will be much more impactful. Its best if you can set it up so that all you have to do is hit a buttom to a/b flat vs. eq'd, and to make sure the volume levels are the same for the two
so here is my "challenge" try my settings, which i will detail below in as many formats as possible, and tell me that you honestly think the stock sound of the LCD-2 is better. I dare you! To me its no contest. again folks, this is all in good fun.
my rig - Ipod touch 4g with equalizer app - lod - RSA SR71B - balanced out - LCD-2 rev.2
Settings for the "Equalizer" App
for the i-devices - the best eq app in my opinion
frequency settings from left to right
+2.0 @ 23hz Q. 0.3
+5.5 @ 65hz Q 1.0
-1.0 @ 605hz Q 1.0
+1.0 @ 1580hz Q 0.6
-5.0 @ 3500hz Q 1.5
+5.0 @ 8300hz Q 8.0
+1.5 @ 20000hz Q 1.0
and most importantly - set the pre-amp to -7db to avoid any chance of distortion
Settings for Foobar/Electri-q
+2.0 @ 20hz BW 3.0
+5.5 @ 65hz BW 1.0
-1.0 @ 605hz BW 1.3
+1.0 @ 1580hz BW 1.4
-5.0 @ 3500hz BW 0.6
+5.0 @ 8300hz BW 0.1
+1.5 @ 20000hz high shelf setting BW 6.9
all peak types are type I except the high shelf.
i use the "digital" setting and do not check "eco"
and most importantly - create an all pass @ -7db to avoid any chance of distortion
If you are trying to recreate these settings with an EQ that i have not given exact settings for, even slight differences can make a big difference, so i cant guarentee that you will get the same results.