I am still looking for the “best” solution to use EQ to tune my Tidal hiRes tracks. So far I have tried:
1. Roon EQ on my PC: very good parametric EQ, but I just can’t justify the cost of Roon
2. HiBY Music on my Android DAP. It streams my Tidal tunes in 44.1, and the EQ works, but not as good as Roon.
Any other suggestions?
I use Audirvana to play back everything, because it is the best sounding player so far by far. I am thrilled to bits that they have included Tidal and Qobuz streaming support for a $10/mo subscription, especially since most streaming software sounds like junk compared to even a not so good local file player, and I don't mean just because it's streaming. I bought the headphone only version of Sonarworks EQ software, and it's systemwide driver gives me ultra-corrected sound for any application. They put microphones with correction profiles in a dummy head's ears, and created EQ profiles of a tonesweep for over 200 models of headphones, so far. If I can use player software that supports plug-ins, which Audirvana does, I can argue that software EQ now has less footprint than any EQ ever has before. If you have not tried the trial version of Sonarworks SoundID, you should. It has been the single upgrade that beats all of the rest for me, ever since. You are free to argue that my original HD 800's also needed it the most, but I just spent $400 to upgrade to the version that will measure my speakers also, so that I can like them also, again. Also, with Sonarworks, I find out why the original HD 800's set off a flurry of post $1k offerings, with everyone trying to figure out how to beat HD 800 at everything besides just frequency response. Apparently, they had to cost over $3k to be able to say that. My next headphone purchase will be another pair of 800's, not even bothering with the slightly improved 800S version, thanks to Sonarworks, as well as the insane amount of money I spent for this big fat high purity copper cable that not only makes them sound huge over stock.
If you somehow don't find that Audirvana is a far better player than the rest, as many somehow don't, (scratches head), you can skip the $10/m and just use the Sonarworks systemwide EQ driver for the not-very-good Tidal default playback app.
I think Sonarworks uses like 100 parametric EQ points for their automatic microphone corrections. You will not beat them by doing it yourself by ear, and your ears have probably never even heard what a perfectly corrected tone sweep sounds like in the first place, anyhow. So, Sonarworks SoundID is the software that can correct your playback better than your own EQ, and it's systemwide virtual device driver will let it works all the time, in all software. Even web-browser videos or video games. With the default Tidal app playing exactly EQ'd output at the same time. Oh, and let's not forget that Hollywood movies are the second best reason for good sound, although reasons all dwindle after music. Not so much Hollywood movies, though, due to their soundtracks, those are still worth getting some better playback gear.
