[pHEnomIC]

What is the science/strategy behind finely tuning an equalizer?

With most music i like to boost the bass and treble and keep the mids where they are at. Ive learned boosting brings in more distortion than keeping stuff where it is and cutting the mids instead, Ive noticed this to be somewhat true.

Anyone have any input?

 

[fraseyboy]

What sounds best to you?

 

[johnation33]

I used to use EQ but this forum has taught me its bad so now I don't.

 

[K3cT]

I use EQ mostly to minimize a headphone's faults. For example, typically my Denon D2000 has a midrange suckout and sometimes sibilant highs out from my laptop's out so boosting the frequencies between 2.5kHz at 5kHz to improve midrange and toning down at 10kHz to reduce sibilance make a significant difference.

 

[Maxvla]

Turn it off, imo.

 

[KevM2]

Adjust it until it sounds good to you. That's what ultimately matters. If you listen to a song equalized and it sounds better unequalized, why listen to it unequalized? The ultimate jury that you'll have to please consists of your ears.

 

[-=Germania=-]

If you are using an external DAC and using a digital output from your computer, many soundcards have a way to change the EQ of the digital output.

I noticed no degradation of the detail by doing this. If you do it on winamp or some other music playback software, it has a chance to mess it up - it doesn't directly deal with the hardware drivers - so somehow it needs to alter the playing of the song on the program. One less step - but probably makes no difference.

Some setups need EQ to sound good. You are teh one listening to it - who wants to pay for bad sound and force yourself to listen to something just because some guy on the internet said so.

EQ is generally bad just because it won't walways work on every song and has a chance to degrade the sound.

I doubt that you have a high end system where it will make much of a difference in the first place.

Go For it!

 

[PiccoloNamek]

Listen to a long section of pink noise. Listen for groups of frequencies that are much louder or more quiet than others. Equalize the headphone so that all frequencies sound equally loud, or as close as you can get it. If you do this diligently enough, your headphones will sound as good as they can for every song and genre.

 

[vvanrij]

Just a word of advise, IF you use a equalizer, make sure you have a high quality one (on par with the rest of your equipment), and also don't boost frequenties, but try to attenuate the others.

 

[olblueyez]

Start flat and adjust the freq's you want to change up or down so it doesnt become a line stage amp. Avoid the big V above the Zero marker.

 

[obobskivich]

I find that an equalizer for headphones is somewhat silly, however for speakers it can make a big difference in helping them "fit" a room

 

[PiccoloNamek]

Quote:

Originally Posted by obobskivich /img/forum/go_quote.gif I find that an equalizer for headphones is somewhat silly, however for speakers it can make a big difference in helping them "fit" a room

Equalizing headphones is not silly. In fact, headphones need equalization a lot more than loudspeakers do, because the proximity of the driver to the ear produces many irregularities in the frequency response of the headphone. Many manufacturers try to equalize their headphones to flat by tuning the driver, but sometimes they still need a little help, which is where equalizers come in.

 

[obobskivich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif Equalizing headphones is not silly. In fact, headphones need equalization a lot more than loudspeakers do, because the proximity of the driver to the ear produces many irregularities in the frequency response of the headphone. Many manufacturers try to equalize their headphones to flat by tuning the driver, but sometimes they still need a little help, which is where equalizers come in.

did you not read that I was giving an opinion?

sure, lets fight about it instead

 

[vvanrij]

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!

oh its on, ITS ON!!!!

 

[CompressionalFlagellation]

play some full spectrum noise, and measure via spl close to driver, then raise volume to about 80db. follow this with a frequency sweep, and on the way up, try to get all the frequencies close to 80db. make sure spl stays in the same spot.

haven't done this myself, but may try as an experiment. it's how i do it with speakers so... gonna have to see how it sounds.

just make sure to never cut or increase by more than 4db or so...