[Glasofruix]

A bit of EQing helps a lot on these cans especially if you want more bass, i'm not a bass head and i amp mines so i get a plentiful amount of booms in my ears and that's enough for me.

 

[painted klown]

  A bit of EQing helps a lot on these cans especially if you want more bass, i'm not a bass head and i amp mines so i get a plentiful amount of booms in my ears and that's enough for me.

Yeah, a lot of people on here love using eq, and I have considered it, but I have been so stuck in the mind set that eq=bad, from my time spent in the world of full size audio. It has a tendency to turn you into an audio purist so-to-speak.
 
In addition to that, I have to confess that I have never really played around with equalizing my audio, so I don't really know how to do it properly.

 
To be honest, I am afraid I will do more harm than good. There is a thread on this forum that is a tutorial on how to properly eq your setup, and I read through it a bit and was confused by it. Embarrassingly, I admit that I find eq to be intimidating, so I shy away from it. I like to blame this on my "pure signal" mentality I have developed over the years.

 

[Glasofruix]

Just play around with the EQ settings until you get a result you like, there's nothing more to it.

 

[joshwalnut]

  Just play around with the EQ settings until you get a result you like, there's nothing more to it.

That and always equalize down, you can equalize up, but then you gotta slide the preamp knob down.
 
These headphones are really sensitive to equalization, but the bass can only increase so much until it sounds like crap.

 

[eirepaul]

Stay away from eq - a really good amp will increase the low end punch in these phones. I use a Schiit Asgaard and it seems to be a good match.

 

[palmfish]

Stay away from eq - a really good amp will increase the low end punch in these phones. I use a Schiit Asgaard and it seems to be a good match.

Refusing to use EQ is like ordering a Whopper with cheese and not taking the onions off even though you don't like them because the Whopper was designed to be eaten with onions.

If you dont like the *#%+@& onions, take them off...lol

 

[palmfish]

Analogy #2:

Relying on impedance matching and mystical synergy to "tune" your headphones is like doing brain surgery with a jack hammer. EQ is a laser scalpel.

 

[bmeat]

void

 

[bmeat]

void

 

[streetdragon]

Refusing to use EQ is like ordering a Whopper with cheese and not taking the onions off even though you don't like them because the Whopper was designed to be eaten with onions.

If you dont like the *#%+@& onions, take them off...lol

 

Analogy #2:

Relying on impedance matching and mystical synergy to "tune" your headphones is like doing brain surgery with a jack hammer. EQ is a laser scalpel.

100% agree. Eq has a much more direct control over the final end result of the sound you receive. 

 

[Headzone]

 
Yeah, a lot of people on here love using eq, and I have considered it, but I have been so stuck in the mind set that eq=bad, from my time spent in the world of full size audio. It has a tendency to turn you into an audio purist so-to-speak.
 
In addition to that, I have to confess that I have never really played around with equalizing my audio, so I don't really know how to do it properly.

 
To be honest, I am afraid I will do more harm than good. There is a thread on this forum that is a tutorial on how to properly eq your setup, and I read through it a bit and was confused by it. Embarrassingly, I admit that I find eq to be intimidating, so I shy away from it. I like to blame this on my "pure signal" mentality I have developed over the years.

I can't use eq either, yet I advice others to do so.

 
For me it is because I've used so many bad equalizers, so I'm stuck in the mindset that they're all bad, where some equalizers are actually nearly/completely transparent.
 
edit: it also makes me paranoid, because I know every dB up you pump the bass, you get more and more distortion because you force the cone to handle more power. Hard to explain

 

[palmfish]

  I can't use eq either, yet I advice others to do so.

 
For me it is because I've used so many bad equalizers, so I'm stuck in the mindset that they're all bad, where some equalizers are actually nearly/completely transparent.
 
edit: it also makes me paranoid, because I know every dB up you pump the bass, you get more and more distortion because you force the cone to handle more power. Hard to explain

 
They use EQ in the studio when the recordings are made. Adding or subtracting a few dB here and there on your end will not add any distortion.

 

[Headzone]

   
They use EQ in the studio when the recordings are made. Adding or subtracting a few dB here and there on your end will not add any distortion.

I know very well how much distortion, effects, eq and compression is applied to audio before it's "ready for mainstream". 
 
Last weekend at my friends lan parties I also eq'd the bass on my monitors at +7dB around 80hz. To make them sound better for the other people. But I could hear how it affected the mids negatively. I imagine more so in a headphone; where one driver has to handle the whole frequency spectrum. 

 

[palmfish]

  I know very well how much distortion, effects, eq and compression is applied to audio before it's "ready for mainstream". 
 
Last weekend at my friends lan parties I also eq'd the bass on my monitors at +7dB around 80hz. To make them sound better for the other people. But I could hear how it affected the mids negatively. I imagine more so in a headphone; where one driver has to handle the whole frequency spectrum. 

 
Every transducer has its limit.
 
In a loudspeaker, it's often the crossovers that limit power handling - not the drivers.

 

[painted klown]

Ok all. With this encouragement of this thread, along with the sine wave generator linked in this thread ( http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial ), I decided to try to eq the sound a bit.

What I did is use the macro function of the SW generator to figure out how to set the eq. I created a macro for each frequency band that was adjustable, and had it at 0 db.

I then went through each frequency and subtracted db's from the various bands until I thought they sounded equal in volume. The problem with doing this is that high frequencies always seemed louder, when perhaps they weren't louder at all, but just "excited my brain" more, and therefore seemed louder. I don't know, it was tough to do, but I played with it seemingly forever, and thought I had them fairly level.

I then punched the settings into my players eq (for this test I used JRiver, as I really like the eq on there) and started listening away.

I have to admit, that I REALLY liked what I heard. The phones almost seemed to take on a different sound signature to my ears. Much more mellow, and the bass semmed fuller, because everything else was pulled down. I did subtractive eq only, to make sure I didn't risk overdriving the 'phones and causing damage.

To test, I played a sine sweep (repeatedly) from 20k to 20 hhz and it did sound a lot smoother/even than I had ever heard it before. Usually there are a lot of peaks in there that make me wince when they come along, however, with my eq settings enabled, I could play it all the way through with no ear bleed issues.

One thing I found, now that I have cut some frequencies rather drastically, I don't have the same volume level I did before. Not that it was very loud to begin with, but now it definitely feels as if I could use an amp.

I will continue to do more listening tonight and see how I feel about it with "fresh ears".