[elektrikgypsy]

I'm with PapaThrust on this one. And yes, I'm salivating over the X3, having bought and loved most of the FiiO range so far, but haven't pressed the button on one because of the lack of eq options. 
 
I'd like to contemplate the step up from my Nano 3rd gen through an E12, but - here's my dirty secret - I'm using the 'loudness' preset of the Nano. Because it gives me almost *exactly* the sound signature I want to heartily enjoy my V-Moda M80s when out and about. Do I need the extra bass and treble lift of that preset? No, not really. What I actually need is to be able to drop down the specific bit of the upper midrange that I find a bit shouty and fatiguing, without losing any of the other frequencies. And I could do that with a parametric. But at least the loudness eq preset on the Nano kind of does that, even if it lifts the treble and bass a bit. I can live with, and often enjoy that, but leaving the eq flat takes away a lot of the pleasure. 
 
The X3 is very much what I've been hoping for from FiiO (either that or a lower priced small DAP that would send data to my E17) but I won't buy one without some kind of customisable eq. 
 
The perfect product? An X3 with save-able custom parametric (find the setting that works best for each set of headphones and then just leave it!) and an amp bypass for when connected to an E12. That'd be me sorted.   

 

[KT66]

No, I  never use EQ, I like my music and audio "warts 'n' all" 

 

[zzffnn]

^ Fairly well, we respect that.

The thing is, headphones like your Grado SR60 will take away musical content under 50 Hz and exaggerate music at 2000 Hz. With SR60s, you will not get your music "warts n all". Parametric EQ can fix both problems for you (give you true "warts n all"), if you know how to use it and understand that not all EQs are the same.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I'm afraid I've sold out on the PEQ team D: I submitted your suggestion to the firmware developer for PEQ on the X3 and X5, but I was the first to point out that it's hard to make an intelligible and intuitive interface for it on a mobile device, much less one without a touchscreen like the X3/X5.

  Perhaps if we offloaded the curve editing to a PC utility and allowed uploading custom EQ files?  This would reduce the strain on the firmware coding department and allow easy creation of elaborate and accurate EQ parameters...

 

[zzffnn]

I'm afraid I've sold out on the PEQ team D: I submitted your suggestion to the firmware developer for PEQ on the X3 and X5, but I was the first to point out that it's hard to make an intelligible and intuitive interface for it on a mobile device, much less one without a touchscreen like the X3/X5. :blink:   Perhaps if we offloaded the curve editing to a PC utility and allowed uploading custom EQ files?  This would reduce the strain on the firmware coding department and allow easy creation of elaborate and accurate EQ parameters...

Thanks Joe. I use PEQ on a Rockboxed Sansa Clip+ though (which is a mobile DAP w/o touch screen) and I think it works just fine. However, I admit that calculating Q factor without visualization is not for everyone.

 

[jazzman7]

Another approach would be to simply have a "slider" type interface for the 10 bands, with fixed Q's, and then allow separate tuning of Q's and frequencies via a numeric input on a different page that updates the numbers on the "slider" type page, just like Rockbox.   You could have a "reset" button that would push all the Q's to a fixed value (such as 1.0) and even frequencies to nice values and the gains to zero, if someone gets unhappy with what is happening. 
 
Be sure to have a precut slider, too, with both a mild amount of positive gain and lots of negative gain.  This is sometimes missed and is the cause of the distortion most often heard. 
 
Numeric input is important as it is hard to get precise with finger sliding, although importing of parameters fixes this. 
 
Creating EQ parameter files on the PC for the programs that allows file import is not hard.  Rockbox allows this, as does past versions of Equalizer on iOS (the current version has an import bug that the author will fix in the next bug release).   Both programs use text files with simple formatting such as parameter name/value/line feed.  Import and export is very useful and promotes sharing of EQ curves, along with an email utility for devices that have WiFi (Equalizer on iOS has emailing capability, but I admit mostly emailing my EQ curves to myself as backup).
 
Generating the actual EQ curve as a graphic is not done under Rockbox, whereas it is done under Equalizer.  The math is out there -- e.g.
http://www.musicdsp.org/files/Audio-EQ-Cookbook.txt
and this math does work. I have written code for myself that generates the curves that seems to confirm what Equalizer for iOS produces visually.

 

[jakeGListen]

Long time lurker of these boards first post. I myself would love to have a parametric eq option on my Fiio x3 .. I'm a full time audio engineer and deal with a ton of different types of audio interfaces on a daily bases. It's my opinion that the four buttons available on the Fiio would be plenty to navigate through parametric Eq settings. No touch screen is required. And I believe that distortion would be kept at a minimum if the parametric was used properly in cutting out the problem freq's
Now if someone wants to use it to start boosting I'm sure it would distort and fall apart in the same way the ITunes eq falls apart with today's over compressed hot recordings. My 2 cents.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Long time lurker of these boards first post. I myself would love to have a parametric eq option on my Fiio x3 .. I'm a full time audio engineer and deal with a ton of different types of audio interfaces on a daily bases. It's my opinion that the four buttons available on the Fiio would be plenty to navigate through parametric Eq settings. No touch screen is required. And I believe that distortion would be kept at a minimum if the parametric was used properly in cutting out the problem freq's
Now if someone wants to use it to start boosting I'm sure it would distort and fall apart in the same way the ITunes eq falls apart with today's over compressed hot recordings. My 2 cents.

Hi!

Based on your experience with audio interfaces, any suggestions on how to use the four buttons (and a select key) to navigate a parametric EQ?

 

[jakeGListen]

Hi!
We'll a parametric has three parameters.
Q, gain, frequency
So I don't see why you can't have a page that offers
Parametric band 1
Parametric band 2
Parametric band 3
And so on
You would use your track advance to navigate up and down to select band 1,2,3 etc and use your play/pause button to enter
Next screen would have
On/off
Frequency 60hz
Q. 1.0
Gain. -3.0 db
And there again you would use your previous track and next track to move up and down and your volume up volume down to change values and if someone feels that an exact number for Q is too comicated for casual users you can always just have three options of wide, normal , narrow.

I've see interfaces like this on many products such as Crown digital amps and even pioneer head units in cars. It's very simple.
1

Based on your experience with audio interfaces, any suggestions on how to use the four buttons (and a select key) to navigate a parametric EQ?

 

[jazzman7]

Another option would be to do what Rockbox does:  Put horizontal sliders with text just above each to change the values.  See the image below.   The sliders could be made vertical instead, obviously.  The "Edit mode" allow you to see what is being changed.  
 
The image is old, though.  Rockbox has 10 bands as opposed to five.  The gains are adjustable down to the nearest tenth (0.1) dB and have a large swing (I think -20 dB to 20 dB).   The Q parameter is adjustable by tenths (0.1) down to a value of 0.1.  The frequencies are all tunable to the nearest single Hz.  
 
http://download.rockbox.org/manual/rockbox-ipodvideo/configure_rockbox/images/ss-equalizer-320x240x16.png

 

[MDH12AX7]

I love RockBox because of it's Parametric EQ. I have not upgraded my Sansa Clip Zip because in doing so, I would lose access to RockBox and its EQ. As soon as one of the new crop of Hi Res DAP's (Fiio X3, iBasso DX50, Hifiman 601) is included in the Rockbox build or has a factory installed Parametric EQ, I will buy it. The Hifiman HM-601LE is in development now, but is not part of the current Rockbox release. I would love to have a Fiio X3 with a parametric EQ. I would buy it right now!

 

[nialanesnak]

I worked for 8 years in professional audio.
In ALL recording sessions I assited, I saw EQs (parametric or 30bands) used by sound engineers.
Sorry to precious audiophiles: the sound you hear, with your high end $$$ystem, has been EQualized.
Threre is no TRUE sound: change the mic postition of a few cm, and it sounds different; is the sound now bad?
Change your sitting location in an audience: the 2 sounds you hear will be (very) different, whith huge phase shifts!
Sure EQing will alter sound (phase shifts mostly); but appart from distortion which might be reduced to unhearable by carefull design, the EQed sound won't be bad - just different.
So please stop shouting EQs are bad!
 
Dear James, parametric EQ on X3 would be a great enhancement.
Please do not forget to make it totally defeatable for specialist$.
--
Alain.

 

[littledreamer]

Any update on when or if any kind of eq will be added to the X3?
I love my new X3, but need more sub-bass with one pair of cans. 

 

[cdst]

I guess they r busy with x5 and future x1, so, features for x3 is not a top priority.

 

[Achmedisdead]

  Any update on when or if any kind of eq will be added to the X3?
I love my new X3, but need more sub-bass with one pair of cans. 

http://www.digizoid.com/