[rjruiz]

First off, I am no audiophile but I know a few terms from working with car audio for a short bit to include crossovers, curves, EQ, clipping etc.. Here's my equipment; iPhone 5 utilizing the app: EQ 10 Equalizer for the iPhone 5 by David Ross and my trusty Senn's IE8's set at a little more then half way bass boost on both left/right monitor.  I listen to mostly heavy metal and I guess I'm a basshead with moderation if there is such a thing.  Pictured below is what I have my EQ settings currently at, and so far I hear no clipping for most of the songs I listen to.  The set point for the curves 1-5 are completely customizable in terms of frequency and dB.  The slider at the bottom is for gain which goes from -infinity(-50) to 0dB in .01 increments.
 
Here are my curve points:
1(lows) -            81.4Hz @ 8.01dB Q: .500(fixed, I think)
3(lows-mids) -   255.4Hz @ 2.18dB Q: .920
2(mids-highs) - 912.9Hz @ 1.15dB Q: .920
 
Gain is set at -12.67dB.
 
Don't worry about the 4, I was playing around with it for the highs.  First question is how high is too high in terms of dB on the curves and the gain working together without sacrificing SQ and clipping of course?  Second, I want strong punchy bass and midbass and the mids(guitars to shine), I like the highs where they are right now, flat, but I want good balance as well...any recommendations on curve settings?  Third, am I hurting my IEM's in any way by using any type of EQ on them?
 
TIA!
 

 
 
Rick

 

[rjruiz]

Just wondering if there's any update on this?

 

[MindsMirror]

You're not going to hurt anything, except maybe your ears if you put too much of one frequency and need to increase volume to hear the rest.
 
All you need for the gain is -8.01dB to offset the maximum point. Imagine if you increases all frequencies by 8dB, you would need a -8dB gain to offset it and avoid clipping. If you have 8dB in only a certain frequency, that's less than 8dB gain in all frequencies, so you need less negative gain to offset it. However you still need a -8dB offset to deal with the extreme case of a full scale sine wave at that frequency.
 
Reducing gain will reduce SNR, so set it as high as you can without causing clipping.
 
I don't like to use any EQ, so I can't recommend settings to you. Use whatever sounds good to your ears. Maybe you could search for a frequency response chart for your headphones and try adjusting settings based on that.

 

[rjruiz]

  You're not going to hurt anything, except maybe your ears if you put too much of one frequency and need to increase volume to hear the rest.
 
All you need for the gain is -8.01dB to offset the maximum point. Imagine if you increases all frequencies by 8dB, you would need a -8dB gain to offset it and avoid clipping. If you have 8dB in only a certain frequency, that's less than 8dB gain in all frequencies, so you need less negative gain to offset it. However you still need a -8dB offset to deal with the extreme case of a full scale sine wave at that frequency.
 
Reducing gain will reduce SNR, so set it as high as you can without causing clipping.
 
I don't like to use any EQ, so I can't recommend settings to you. Use whatever sounds good to your ears. Maybe you could search for a frequency response chart for your headphones and try adjusting settings based on that.

Okay thanks! I see what you mean about the gain to offset the increase, makes sense.  Sidetracking a bit though, what about using an LOD/amp to improve the SQ of the iPhone 5?  Seems Fiio never made an LOD for the lightning connector on the iPhone 5?

 

[MindsMirror]

  Okay thanks! I see what you mean about the gain to offset the increase, makes sense.  Sidetracking a bit though, what about using an LOD/amp to improve the SQ of the iPhone 5?  Seems Fiio never made an LOD for the lightning connector on the iPhone 5?

I don't know. I recently got a Grado SR125i which are my first good headphones, and am wondering the same thing.

 

[rjruiz]

 
I don't know. I recently got a Grado SR125i which are my first good headphones, and am wondering the same thing.

Nice! I love Grado's, I have a pair of SR80's somewhere that I can't find (so mad at myself).  I'm relatively new to amps and headphones myself, but I've heard that Grado's in particular do come alive with amping.