[FuelMan]

10-band EQ can't quite substitute PEQ and often turns out a bit extreme for some headphones/IEMs. The Q-factor basically allows you fine tune the range of the hump/dip (as usually you don't have a sudden spike in a specific frequency point, rather a gradual rise/dip and Q-factor determines how gradual/steep that change would be).

I often use EQApo on Windows and it's immensely helpful in many cases e.g. the SHP9500 with a good PEQ preset is immensely enjoyable, same applies to the Tin T4 which with oratory1990's preset has all it's peaky issues resolved. I wish Android had some system-wide support by default without having to go through third-party apps or Magisk modules.

Proper EQ adjustments can yield great value and allow for compensation of IEM signatures found to be lacking; keeping in mind that "less is more" in most situations. Just hard to compensate for a horrible signature but it works well for those sets you'd like to "ever so slightly" reduce or increase presence of a certain part of the spectrum. And depending on the area, if you're lucky, a graphic EQ will have a band close to the area of adjustment needed so you don't have to destroy neighboring frequencies, as @kmmbd mentions above. In theory (but no hard and fast rule here) a "tighter" Q-factor is best for cutting while a slightly larger Q works well for adding signal, at least this is a common rule for production, but again, depending on the AMOUNT of adjustment needed, these rules might need to be trashed for any given situation.

I find the "pseudo" PEQ on my Hiby R5 to perform a very unique and effective adjustment. They call it the "MSEB Tuner" and it uses PEQ & algorithms. It presents itself in a manner that doesn't require the detailed understanding of PEQ; it's interface is constructed in a way that allows the user to make adjustments relative to the outcome rather than a specific frequency. Initially I thought I would rather have a straight-forward PEQ but after a few weeks of working with it, I find it extremely useful, especially to compensate for poor production quality. Below is the layout and TBH, IMHO this Hiby R5 appears to be offering EXTREME VALUE for $299! Especially for streaming with the "8.1 Open Android" OS!

Screen 1

Screen 2

* I have no clue as to why the text on some lines is overlapping. I need to get with MuiscTek or Hiby since this is a new unit less than 3 weeks old. Hopefully they can resolve this. Pretty sure I'm on the latest firmware.

 

[alhsou]

Proper EQ adjustments can yield great value and allow for compensation of IEM signatures found to be lacking; keeping in mind that "less is more" in most situations. Just hard to compensate for a horrible signature but it works well for those sets you'd like to "ever so slightly" reduce or increase presence of a certain part of the spectrum. And depending on the area, if you're lucky, a graphic EQ will have a band close to the area of adjustment needed so you don't have to destroy neighboring frequencies, as @kmmbd mentions above. In theory (but no hard and fast rule here) a "tighter" Q-factor is best for cutting while a slightly larger Q works well for adding signal, at least this is a common rule for production, but again, depending on the AMOUNT of adjustment needed, these rules might need to be trashed for any given situation.

I find the "pseudo" PEQ on my Hiby R5 to perform a very unique and effective adjustment. They call it the "MSEB Tuner" and it uses PEQ & algorithms. It presents itself in a manner that doesn't require the detailed understanding of PEQ; it's interface is constructed in a way that allows the user to make adjustments relative to the outcome rather than a specific frequency. Initially I thought I would rather have a straight-forward PEQ but after a few weeks of working with it, I find it extremely useful, especially to compensate for poor production quality. Below is the layout and TBH, IMHO this Hiby R5 appears to be offering EXTREME VALUE for $299! Especially for streaming with the "8.1 Open Android" OS!

Screen 1

Screen 2

* I have no clue as to why the text on some lines is overlapping. I need to get with MuiscTek or Hiby since this is a new unit less than 3 weeks old. Hopefully they can resolve this. Pretty sure I'm on the latest firmware.

I agree this is an excellent DAP. When I returned my EU Sony A105 to get the Japanese one (because of the volume cap on the EU version) I was about to cancel my order from Japan to get the R5 but it was too late. The A105 is also very good and better in some aspects but overal the R5 is a better package and has probably better battery life as well.

I’m happy with the Sony now.

and for your issue: have you tried clearing the MSEEB app’s cache via settings > apps ? That will probably resolve this.

 

[Nimweth]

Bad news. I heard from a Chinese supplier that the cyan-coloured version of the BL-05 has been dropped and the two varieties will be gunmetal and silver. Boring. I was looking forward to that!

 

[yorosello]

I thought the green metal from the beta is not a bad color

 

[Slater]

Bad news. I heard from a Chinese supplier that the cyan-coloured version of the BL-05 has been dropped and the two varieties will be gunmetal and silver. Boring. I was looking forward to that!

You could always paint it yourself

 

[alhsou]

Couldn’t wait on my KBear F1 and **** Pro to arrive so ordered the Audio Technica M40X with next day shipping (was the only audiofile grade thing available locally next to the Klipsch R6 II)... man those Chinese are making good stuff. What a piece of garbage these are for 100 euro. Typical of a brand with a lot of legacy... they made 1 good product in the 80s and now everyone still associates them with quality.

EDIT: I think there’s something wrong with them they distort like crazy on busy tracks. It’s like these are fakes but I bought them from the biggest retailer here. Can’t get my head around it. How is it possible that a Chinese 25USD IEM like the ZS5 sounds waaaaay better than these to me.

EDIT 2: it was a source issue. The Sony A105 really can’t drive any headphones, it’s made for IEMs.

 

[Slater]

Couldn’t wait on my KBear F1 and **** Pro to arrive so ordered the Audio Technica M40X with next day shipping (was the only audiofile grade thing available locally next to the Klipsch R6 II)... man those Chinese are making good stuff. What a piece of garbage these are for 100 euro. Typical of a brand with a lot of legacy... they made 1 good product in the 80s and now everyone still associates them with quality.

EDIT: I think there’s something wrong with them they distort like crazy on busy tracks. It’s like these are fakes but I bought them from the biggest retailer here. Can’t get my head around it. How is it possible that a Chinese 25USD IEM like the ZS5 sounds waaaaay better than these to me.

You don’t hear too much about the 40X. From everything I’ve ever seen, the 50X is the one most people recommend.

And yes, there’s plenty of fakes out there. Did you get yours from an authorized AT dealer?

I’ve even heard of slime ball people who will buy a fake on purpose, then go and but the real thing. Then they put the fake in the genuine box, and return it back to the store. Since it’s still ‘brand new in box’, stores just put it right back out on the shelf.

I even knew of 2 guys in college that had their own heat shrink wrapping machine. They would buy massive amounts of CDs, DVDs, and computer software, rip the content, re-shrink wrap everything and take it back for full refund. I’m pretty sure they ran a massive warez site (or something other shady operation); they were pretty secretive about it all.

 

[kmmbd]

M40X is still a decent pair of headphones. You likely got a fake or faulty pair.

As for the M50X, it's the worst headphone I've tried till now and something I won't ever recommend. I bought one years back and sold them off after a week of painful listening sessions that still haunt me. Even KZ ZS6 is better and that thing was a hot mess.

 

[alhsou]

You don’t hear too much about the 40X. From everything I’ve ever seen, the 50X is the one most people recommend.

And yes, there’s plenty of fakes out there. Did you get yours from an authorized AT dealer? I’ve even heard of slime ball people who will buy a fake on purpose, then go and but the real thing. Then they put the fake in the genuine box, and return it back to the store. Since it’s still ‘brand new in box’, stores just put it right back out on the shelf. I even knew of 2 guys in college that had their own heat shrink wrapping machine. They would buy massive amounts of CDs, DVDs, and computer software, rip the content, re-shrink wrap everything and take it back for full refund. I’m pretty sure they ran a massive warez site (or something other shady operation; they were pretty secretive about it all).

The build is way too nice to be fake. I think it was a source issue with my DAP. It seems like even trough these are only 32Ohms the Sony A105 has a lot of trouble driving them. Don’t get me wrong they get Really loud on this DAP butit lacks punch or power behind the mids and low end. When I plugged them in my Denon receiver just as a test they sounded waaaay better and more in line with what the reviews suggested.
Guess I will be getting an AMP/DAC next for at home.

 

[baskingshark]

The build is way too nice to be fake. I think it was a source issue with my DAP. It seems like even trough these are only 32Ohms the Sony A105 has a lot of trouble driving them. Don’t get me wrong they get Really loud on this DAP butit lacks punch or power behind the mids and low end. When I plugged them in my Denon receiver just as a test they sounded waaaay better and more in line with what the reviews suggested.
Guess I will be getting an AMP/DAC next for at home.

Well I have the Audiotechnica M40X and I think it marketed to be more of a studio monitor/mixing headphone than one for casual music appreciation. I actually use it for mixing purposes, as it is quite neutralish and balanced, above average technicals, though cause of the tuning, I find it boring for casual music listening. Have been using it for a few years, I don't find it scales much better with a dedicated DAC/AMP, as it is quite drivable even with lower powered sources like a smartphone.

The M50X is a bigger brother of it with boosted bass, so it seems to be more popular out there for music appreciation.

Anyway this is a budget/obscure earphone thread, so maybe we can discuss about the M40X in the headphone threads, so as not to derail the thread; but I do think the M40X shines better for mixing and monitoring purposes.

 

[Slater]

The build is way too nice to be fake.

I’m sure you’re probably right. Just don’t underestimate the quality of the fakes. Long gone are the days of the Sony logo misspelled as “Sonny” in blurry text and stamped on crooked. Today’s counterfeits are often virtually indistinguishable from the genuines.

I bought some Sennheiser Momentums a few years ago, and they turned out to be fake. The counterfeit build quality actually exceeded the OEM headphones. And the genuine is a very high quality constructed headphone. I knew because I had a genuine pair to directly compare them. I was totally and utterly flabbergasted.

They had to have been made in the exact same factory. The microphone capsule in the cable was even noticeably better quality than the OEM Sennheiser microphone. It even had a proper serial number sticker under the earpads! Talk about attention to detail.

The only difference was the sound. The counterfeit used a different driver and it was immediately noticeable since I had the genuine to A/B. But if I didn’t, I would have never known.

 

[jeejack]

(dd-audio store, all stores are probably in the same boat)

I ordered a pair of blon 05 today from DD-Audio store and they told me that it will be sent on April 30

 

[RikudouGoku]

I ordered a pair of blon 05 today from DD-Audio store and they told me that it will be sent on April 30

Yes saw that nearly all stores updated the eta date.

 

[gotosleep]

M40X is still a decent pair of headphones. You likely got a fake or faulty pair.

As for the M50X, it's the worst headphone I've tried till now and something I won't ever recommend. I bought one years back and sold them off after a week of painful listening sessions that still haunt me. Even KZ ZS6 is better and that thing was a hot mess.

Don't wanna derail this thread but when I got my m50x ,I thought it was the best thing ever ,a year later I bought bqeyz kb100 ,I felt like throwing my m50x in the bin.
M50x was a really bad purchase.Still people keep recommending them in reddit and youtube.

Once I got downvoted to oblivion for saying they are bad for music.Well what can you do

 

[chinmie]

the reason the ATH M50 is popular because it is strong and reliable, which ended up being among the standard gears that people use in studios. from my experience, reliability and familiarity that makes a gear becoming "standards of the industry".

my old M50 (not the newer X series) has gone to many things and many people using it, and it's still alive and kickin'. i bought it some 15 years ago. i don't use it much nowadays, so i gave it to my son for drumming. i doubt even he would kill it anytime soon.

i personally like the M40x sound more than the M50 (less bass, more balanced sound) for listening/mixing, but the old M50 is more enjoyable for tracking.

about the topic of newer and cheaper chifis sound better than them? yes, i would safely say so myself. the ZS10 Pro (haven't yet tried the ZSX) and Blon BL03 are a much better buy in my book. buuuut... in a studio environment that multiple people using them? no. they'll get ruined quickly.