[jasonb]

Understood.

Imo, your ears are always the best guide. And as mentioned in my previous posts, I believe there are also a few spots in the upper treble, and in the 6 kHz and 1.25-1.5 kHz areas where the K371 appears a bit too depressed, and lacking in some brightness. While there are other areas (such as around the 8-10 kHz region) where it is probably a bit too bright. And it doesn't appear to me like the EQ curve you're using from AutoEQ would necessarily be ideal for making adjustments to those particular issues. That is really all I'm saying here.

I have only listened to these headphones a few times at Guitar Center though (including yesterday), under less than ideal conditions. And am basing my opinions on how to perform the corrections mostly on my computed difference curve (based on the Average of 19 HPs), and to some extent also Rtings compensated graph. So my suggestions could be totally wrong, or off base, or "bogus" (as the kids like to say). The only way to know for sure though is to try some of them.

Fwiw, I'm not really trying to advocate for one approach or another here (even though it may seem that way). I frankly don't care what approach anyone else uses to correct or compensate their headphones or other equipment,... unless they're using it to produce music that I (and others) may eventually want to listen to on our correctly calibrated and adjusted gear. That is what tone controls are for though.

It's based off of this measurement which is oratory1990's measurement.

 

[ADUHF]

It's based off of this measurement which is oratory1990's measurement.

Oratory does some very good raw plots. So I have no issues with that.

He appears to be using the Harman target though for compensation, which is not as accurate as some other approaches imho for the reasons I've previously stated above. And only useful for rough estimation purposes.

The AutoEQ curve you are using is also based on the Harman curve, and essentially Oratory's compensated curve (in red) turned upside-down, with a little smoothing added in the upper treble. Which is represented by the green curve on this graph...

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/AKG K371

 

[ADUHF]

Fwiw, here is my K371 difference curve also turned upside-down, and cropped and scaled to better match Jaakko's plot above, to make the comparison a little bit easier.

I would not really recommend using this as an EQ correction curve for the K371, because of the pronounced spikes in the upper treble. But perhaps it may give you and others a little better idea where some adjustments may be useful in the K371's frequency response. FYI, the darkest horizontal lines on the graph are increments of 1 dB. So the full dB range of the plot is 35 dBs (like Jaakko's graph above). The frequency range of the graph is also 20 to 20k Hz, just like Jaakko's.

When I'm EQ-ing my headphones I don't usually apply or start with a 100% correction. I'd start with smaller adjustments more on the order of 50% of what's shown above. And then gradually work my way up until the corrections sound good to my ears. If the graph shows that correction of -4 dBs is needed at some frequency, for example, then I would probably start with just a -2 correction there, and slowly work my way up (or down in this case) closer to -4. Or if the graph shows that a +6 correction is needed, I may start with only a +3 correction, and build from there. And so on...

I would also smooth over many of the smaller details to reduce the chances of overshoot. Because large adjustments over very small bandwidths generally don't work that well.

Imo, a 10 dB correction at 16 kHz, and 5 dB correction at 12 kHz like the graph is showing above is probably too much. And would likely put a strain on your ears. So I suggest starting with much smaller values, particularly in those areas. Treble measurements are never 100% accurate, and there is always a higher risk of overshoot and over-correction there, especially when making large adjustments over such small bandwidths.

If I had an easy way to apply some smoothing to the above curve, particularly in that area, I would. But I'm afraid I don't.

 

[ADUHF]

Same curve as above, but extended all the way down to 10 Hz in the bass (instead of just the 20 Hz on the graph above).

 

[ADUHF]

Another AutoEQ correction curve based on the Rtings measurements...

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/rtings/rtings_harman_over-ear_2018/AKG K371

 

[ADUHF]

There is one other thing I should perhaps mention on this EQ business. If you try to use my plot above as a guide for your EQ adjustments, then you will either need to figure out an appropriate "preamp" value, to ensure that there is no clipping in the volume of your audio content. Or you will have to transpose the baseline level of the EQ curve to a somewhat higher value to ensure that all of your EQ adjustments are in the negative, or reductions (rather than increases) in amplitude.

Calculating an appropriate pre-amplification value for an EQ curve is not difficult. You simply take the largest gain or + value in the final EQ curve, and invert it to get the preamp value. If the largest gain value on the final EQ curve is +5 dBs, for example, then you would use -5 dBs for your preamp value. Pretty simple.

If you don't want to use a preamp value, then you can simply transpose the baseline level of the final EQ curve yourself, so that all of the adjustments on the curve are negative, or reductions in amplitude. If, for example, the highest value in your EQ curve is +5 dBs (like in the previous example), then you would simply subtract 5 dBs from all the values in the curve to make that peak value the new baseline level of 0 dBs.

 

[Mark Up]

I tried swapping pads a while back. None worked as well as stock pads, which I find not quite deep enough. Has anyone else here had luck with pad swaps?

 

[thesheik137]

I tried swapping pads a while back. None worked as well as stock pads, which I find not quite deep enough. Has anyone else here had luck with pad swaps?

Don't waste your time. I have tried multiple yaxi pads (msr7 comfort and stpad2) and they both reduce subbass, which is the unique selling point of these headphones. Although they are more comfortable and have larger inner diameter, only the stock pads provide enough seal for the subbass to fully come through. And any pad that increases distance of the driver fron the ear will have less bass.

 

[jasonb]

Ear reduction surgery may be the answer for some....

The sub-bass is one of the best parts of this headphone, so anything that reduces that kills the fun of this headphone.

Another thing I've been playing with is the autoEQ that has the sub-bass reduced and then using the bass tuner in the Wavelet app set to transient compressor, +3, under 100hz. Adds some punch and dynamics. After getting used to my Focal Elear with Utopia pads, everything else could use more punch and dynamics.

 

[Mhog55]

For someone who is looking for the more fun, musical, and exciting sound, which of these 2 headphones would be recommended? I listen mostly to hard rock and hair metal if that helps. I'm after something on the less expensive side to use at the gym. I've been using various earbuds, and refuse to use any of my more expensive cans. Is one of these headphones significant more durable and better built than the other?

 

[jasonb]

For someone who is looking for the more fun, musical, and exciting sound, which of these 2 headphones would be recommended? I listen mostly to hard rock and hair metal if that helps. I'm after something on the less expensive side to use at the gym. I've been using various earbuds, and refuse to use any of my more expensive cans. Is one of these headphones significant more durable and better built than the other?

Don't see these being a good gym headphone. A true wireless IEM would be more more convenient for that.

 

[Mhog55]

Don't see these being a good gym headphone. A true wireless IEM would be more more convenient for that.

None the less, which would you choose? I prefer wired, and don't use in ears.

 

[jasonb]

None the less, which would you choose? I prefer wired, and don't use in ears.

I don't see them being durable enough, but the K371 would be my vote i guess.

 

[bcaulf17]

For someone who is looking for the more fun, musical, and exciting sound, which of these 2 headphones would be recommended? I listen mostly to hard rock and hair metal if that helps. I'm after something on the less expensive side to use at the gym. I've been using various earbuds, and refuse to use any of my more expensive cans. Is one of these headphones significant more durable and better built than the other?

K371 should have the more fun tuning.

 

[dogtagkz]

Pad rolling report. I changed the stock pad to YAXI stPad2. Non scientific impression with only my ear as my measurement gear. Reading this is for pleasure.

Sub-bass is a bit impacted, just a tad, maybe its the rumble. I don't know if it is placebo, but slight increased in soundstage, or maybe it is the increased in its airiness. Need more listening time and ab test. Happy to report that the shouty upper mid bit is still there.

The pad is deep enough that the top of my ear doesn't touch the driver, which I something that I experience with the stock pad. Fit is good, the way the headphone clamped my noggin now is similar to my HD650. which is good for me. I don't get the 'sloppiness' feel anymore. Stability is on the good side.

To compare with another earpad, I have a generic HM5 hybrid earpads (aliexpress, not the original brainwavz), fitted on my HD330. Rolled it before, nope, didn't like it. Couldn't even finish a single track. Sounds horrid.

All in all, my take is that it doesn't stray away from the K371 stock sound sig, with improvement in fit. Good stuff.