How to stop worrying and enjoy the audio? (AKG K712 w/ Magni 2)
Jul 21, 2017 at 6:55 PM Post #16 of 21
Sonarworks is a great starting point. However, they are technically charging money for something you can do for free with enough research and effort. Some of the parametric EQ settings have been shared (if you care to look for them) so you can copy their presets for certain headphones. (I verified that they sound the same.) You could try the free trial to see if you like it. Their compensation curve is proprietary as well. The diffuse field and Harman curves have a more established history.

Here are some threads to start you off on your EQ journey.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/796791/the...ve-the-most-ideal-sound-for-non-professionals
http://www.head-fi.org/t/794467/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-2016-update
http://www.head-fi.org/t/615417/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-advanced-tutorial-in-progress
http://www.head-fi.org/t/587703/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial-part-2
http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial

Personally, I use VST parametric equalizers in foobar2000. Here's some free software for that. (The expensive equalizers are nicer, but unnecessary.)

http://www.rs-met.com/freebies.html
http://www.yohng.com/software/foobarvst.html

Wow thank you, this is so awesome!! Great information, I need to get started reading
 
Jul 21, 2017 at 7:11 PM Post #18 of 21
If anyone has any burn-in information bookmarked, I wouldn't mind seeing it... :) I'm already googling it, of course...

Pink noise is most commonly used for this.

http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_pinknoise.php

But I wouldn't bother with it. Despite owning countless headphones and experimenting with burn-in techniques, I have never once noticed burn-in. (Though I'm not saying it doesn't exist.) It's better to just use the headphones normally, and if, subjectively speaking, they improve for you over time, you can consider it a bonus.
 
Jul 22, 2017 at 1:41 AM Post #20 of 21
Each and every reference headphone I've tried had a certain character.

They all do because totally, absolutely flat from 20hz to 20,000hz doesn't exist yet.


In your opinion, what would be something with a flatter response?

HE400i is practically flat from 10hz to 1000hz, then it takes a dive downhill. To its credit, it doesn't rise back up to a treble peak higher than where 1000hz is.

There's also the HD600, which has a smoother graph, but it doesn't go as low before it rolls off the bass and it still has that peak centered at 3500hz.

There's also the LCD-2 - pre-Fazor drivers had it practically flat on either side of 1000hz, except it was much stronger below that point, slides down a bit, then past that is barely jagged.
 
Jul 22, 2017 at 2:05 AM Post #21 of 21
They all do because totally, absolutely flat from 20hz to 20,000hz doesn't exist yet.

I'd say other factors determine the true character of a headphone, such as impulse response (relating to transient speed), distortion, the technology, excursion, and articulation of the drivers, and so on. You can make the frequency response of various headphones roughly the same with enough equalization, but you can't change the other factors, and at that point, when the stock tuning has been rendered moot, you'd have a much better grasp of how they really differ.
 

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