[pageman99]

Well, I broke down and bought a like new pair of UM2's on the for sale forum.

Now I need suggestions on which frequencies to equalize and how many db's etc. to make them sound flat.

Currently own Senn 595's which I'm pretty pleased with. Though my poor wallet has it's eye on fotm K701's. Ah well, been through this before with golf and mountain biking. Lets not talk about cars.

I've got a DEQ2496 with 31 bands of adjustment and a 15 db +/- range, so I can pretty much do anything. Just need a place to start.

Mostly listen to classic rock both hard and soft, jazz and classical with an emphasis on piano and chamber music.

Thanks

 

[Max Minimum]

Recently I owned both the ER-4P and the UM2 simultaneously and my preference was to eq them both so that they sounded pretty similar, meeting somewhere in the middle between the two sound signatures. I also have the 595's and like their frequency balance. I don't remember my exact settings, but I raised the mid and upper treble a good bit, maybe 6+ db? Well, really I lowered everything else...

 

[pageman99]

Thank you!

Anyone else with more specifics?

 

[countach]

From my experience with UM2, it depends of the volume level you are listening to.

In loud volumes (as I listened music before) you need to lower all freq between 20 Hz to 12 Khz, in the way it describes in my signature.

Listening at normal/low levels, there is no need of EQ, maybe a tiny raise of the high frequencies, but no more.

Being a former loud levels lover, I've discovered myself enjoying the same with low levels, its a question of adpatation, so I recommend you not to choose the loud levels way.


BTW, UM2 can deliver a lot of power and dB to your ears, all in the magnificent a glorious way, but in that case, yes: you have to trim the sound shape using EQ. If not, it will sound too muddy and mid-low bloated, with no crystal highs.

 

[pageman99]

Thank you Countach! Exactly the type of info I was looking for. This place is great.

More???

 

[Julz]

Call me old fashioned, but how about actually listening to them first, before deciding if they need EQ ?

 

[roy_jones]

They need EQ. I know everyone's system is different, and someone might have a brighter setup then anothers, but I feel pretty confident in saying that no matter your system, the upper end is going to need some sort of boost, ideally.

 

[CookieFactory]

I don't know, I use them out of a 5th gen iPod and I don't need any EQ. I think the biggest difference maker in the sound is, seal being equal, the distance from the eardrum. Different tips don't inherently have different sound, but they do affect how the earphones sit in your ear.

 

[pageman99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Julz Call me old fashioned, but how about actually listening to them first, before deciding if they need EQ ?

Oh, I will, but I'm assuming the other threads here are pretty accurate. And I'm really looking for guidelines more than anything because of my equalizer.

I agree with you 100%, but when you work with the DEQ2496 it ain't just a matter of listening then moving a few levers. (edited for clarity)

This device is the equivalent of a sound engineer's master control board and it's easy to totally confuse your listening faculties (at least mine) because of the overwhelming power and number of choices. 31 band graphic equalizer, parametric equalizer, dynamic equalizer, compression, expansion, knee, attack, decay, symettry, assymetry blah, blah.

So any help, even in general terms is a running start.

Heck, I just spent $78 on books at Amazon about mastering, mixing and hearing perception.

Fascinating stuff, at least for me.

I can take the DEQ and make my Senn 595 sound like Grados. To do this I shorten attack and decay times and increase the high end frequencies among other things.

No not exactly the same sound but close enough for now until I train my hearing back to where it was when I was an active audiophile 30 years ago.

BTW, and on a different note the DEQ and SRC also use the AKM dac chips used in many very high end dacs and currently there is a thread in one of the other forums about the Grand Central controller for $600 with the same AKM chips. And it's sound is very highly regarded according to listening tests at headfi meets.

I use the SRC2496 to upsample and reduce jitter to <2 nano seconds, (it also can strip copy protection, a tool which I don't use) then I run coax into the DEQ2496 to equalize.

The DEQ and SRC together cost me less than $500. Pretty good.

Yes Behringer stuff is probably less reliable than other stuff. Other boards have also questioned the sound quality. But IMO they simply nevr used the DEQ and SRC properly or were talking w/o hands on experience.

There's an awful lot of snobbism on other boards IMHO.

Sorry for the rant, but as I'm typing this, I've been on hold for 20 minutes trying to buy 6 Volex shielded power cords. Frustrating, ya know.

 

[pageman99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CookieFactory I don't know, I use them out of a 5th gen iPod and I don't need any EQ. I think the biggest difference maker in the sound is, seal being equal, the distance from the eardrum. Different tips don't inherently have different sound, but they do affect how the earphones sit in your ear.

You're absolutely right about the seal.

Luckily, I have custom earmolds that I can just plug the UM2's into. We'll see. I'll update after I get the UM2's, probably Friday, if I'm lucky.

On another note, as many of you know the UM2 $300 uses the same drivers as the ES2 $600 plus earmolds. The only difference is that the ES2 has separate bores for the low and high drivers.

So I'm hoping that with the custom molds I'll get 90% of the ES2 for 40% of the price. I expect to have to EQ to get from 75% to the 90%. Again, we'll see.

The fun's in the experimenting, at least on the equipment side. The bottom line is increased enjoyment of the music.

BTW, if it's not already obvious, I won't use these on the go. I need them to keep from driving my girl riend nuts at loud listening levels since my Senns are notorious sound leakers.

 

[pageman99]

Just an update for what it's worth.

Got them yesterday.

Finally got to play with them last night. It took a bit of fiddling to get the right flanges/adaptors into the custom molds I already own, but it was time well spent.

There's no doubt the UM2 uses the same drivers as the ES2's.

They needed NO equalizing, and the sound was quite pure and sweet. Not as big sounding as my Senn 595's but certainly purer. I could see using these as a sole set of phones. Wouldn't say that about the 595's which are very good, but maybe a hair 'loose'.

Nothing loose about the UM2's. I'd have to guess the heavy bass sound/treble loss many report is a function of the source/amps most folks use, and/or the universal adaptors. My earmolds are a perfect fit so all the distortion issues go away. My Ear+ HD Purist is still a week away, too, so I'm just listening through a Pioneer receiver. Can't wait to see how they sound with a top notch amp.

I thank you all again for the fast responses to my question.