To EQ, or not to EQ? That is the question. (Carried over from ASG-1 thread)

^Pass the popcorn please.

If a headphone has every quality I could ever hope for but maybe just lacking just in highs, lows or mids I have no problem eqing just one area up as it's not too hard and if it's great every where else for you I say it's worth a try. Now when multiple parts of the frequency range are not to your liking then it gets a lot more tedious, in my opinion, to get everything sounding how you like it. At this point I'd say a different headphones may be for you. Also, while not a true basshead, I do have sometimes crave a little BOOM! in my headphones for certain tracks or just in the mood to harass my ear drums. To each their own though :)

I say do whatever sounds best to YOU, EQ or not. All that matters is if the person with the equipment is happy.

Lol, does that come with a prize?

can anyone post their EQ settings on the Cowon J3.

I don't believe in EQuing headphones for the reason that an audio engineer took his time to tune the drivers to his liking.  Essentially, the tuning on the drivers is the audio engineer's own work of art.  Like I would never alter an artist's work of art, I wouldn't alter the audio engineers.  However since it is your equipment, it is up to you, if you want to EQ, EQ, no one's gonna shoot you.  If you don't, don't, no one's gonna harm you :)  As long as your ears are happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

I think in an ideal world no eq would be the way to go, however the amps in most portable setups are not neutral enough by default to let the headphones truly do their thing. I can't get away from the fact that my ACS T1s really benefit from the eq of the Cowon J3. My experiences have been totally different with high end non portable gear where my Naim amps didn't even have or need basic tone controls. I think eq compensates for the amp in a portable player rather than the phones connected to it.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Well maybe I didn't like his tuning job, and I feel the need to alter the power output to a few EQ bands to help his creation reach it's full potential.

My car sounded better after having it tuned using a 32 band parametric EQ. Cant see why my headphones couldnt be improved also. Granted my cars EQ was a little better.

Personally, I prefer to EQ. Sometimes a small adjustment in EQ settings can make a huge difference in sound quality.

 

That exactly how I feel.  With most of my IEM's I really don't feel the need to do a lot of EQ'ing but say on my Creative Aurvana 3 I do kick the bass up a few notches just for that extra thump with house and techno.  Like you said though if its more than just one part of the frequency range thats lacking then its just a cluster f!@# to have to deal with.

I think everybody who's anybody should know how I feel about EQ

I just wish high quality parametric EQ were more available on mobile devices

Edit: Now have emu for iPhone and a cowon which i plentiful for eq settings! Still have not tried equing my sag-1s though! Have not found need too!

Edited by Swimsonny - 3/26/12 at 11:58pm