[bigshot]

Good response is a process, not a destination. It takes a lot of time and tweaking.

 

[jcx]

how about repeatability? - just taking off and putting the same headphones back on your head give "clearly audible" frequency response differences each time - even on Tyll's dummy head:
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/expert-tests-innerfidelitys-headphone-measurement-repeatability-and-reproducibility

 

[ultrabike]

Yes. Positional changes will likely change somewhat the HP response (make things a bit time-variant), and would make EQ less than 100% effective. This is one of the reasons I feel notches are challenging.
 
However, deviations, depending on the headphone and conditions, might be appropriately dealt with by adjusting for the HP smoothed response. It might not be perfect, but I feel sonic improvement would definitively be achieved.  People with good amounts of experience measuring headphones have expressed some of their on thoughts on deviation issues as well: http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/expert-tests-innerfidelitys-headphone-measurement-repeatability-and-reproducibility-page-2#comment-482802
 

 

[Vkamicht]

Also don't forget that if you start equalizing a brand new headphone it's treble response will shift as the pads wear in and the drivers move closer to your ears. It's always good idea to re-visit and re-balance your EQ later down the road. Hell, my pads are more than worn in and I still do a sine sweep once a month, usually to find the peaks have shifted slightly.

 

[viveksaikia22]

I believe EQ comes handy when you want to normalize the frequency by reducing certain frequency rather than increasing the frequencies. Increasing the frequencies always screws up the sound, in my case.

 

[streetdragon]

but if you have a -12db preamp then any increase to the knobs not more +12db should be ok right?

 

[bigshot]

With digital EQ, the correction is applied before the preamp stage. If a recording is normalized up to 100%, there is going to be clipping with any positive correction. It's always best to EQ subtractively.

 

[xnor]

Nah, digital signal processing is usually done with normalized floats (+- 1.0), so you can apply any amount of gain with an EQ and it doesn't matter if you apply digital gain before or after.
 
streetdragon: When you talk about knobs, do you mean graphic EQs? Some graphic EQs are not very accurate, so if the user interface says +12 dB it could boost a few dB more. If you want more detailed info please tell us what EQ you're using.

 

[bigshot]

Is the ipod EQ normalized and floating? I can seem to make that distort. I had some problems with the parametric in my Yamaha receiver too.

 

[streetdragon]

Well uhh i am just using the Poweramp music player for the Android, (best player there imo) well i know the range is +14 to -14, and there are markings there to tell so i can roughly tell how much i am amping (accuracy to about 0.5db i think...?) this player has an inbuilt toggleable limiter function. (when i turn it off it does produce clipping sound) how is the ipod eq like? never used one before.

 

[bigshot]

The ipod EQ sucks royally. It's the one thing I don't like about it.

 

[streetdragon]

so is there any way to use a decent or good eq on an ipod touch or any other ipod?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

Well uhh i am just using the Poweramp music player for the Android, (best player there imo) well i know the range is +14 to -14, and there are markings there to tell so i can roughly tell how much i am amping (accuracy to about 0.5db i think...?) this player has an inbuilt toggleable limiter function. (when i turn it off it does produce clipping sound) how is the ipod eq like? never used one before.

 
The preamp slider for Poweramp is the leftmost one.  You should lower it until you don't hear clipping with the limiter off (the limiter itself still distorts sound a bit when it is working to suppress clipped samples caused by boosting).  Alternatively, if your ROM supports it, the DVC function in the newest version of Poweramp lets you boost frequencies without worrying about clipping.  It works by lowering the preamp and boosting the system volume automatically to match the desired volume.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Quote:

In my opinion, the ideal is to have both a parametric AND a graphic equalizer. A parametric is great at achieving the overall response curve, but it desn't generally have enough bands to cancel out all of the small bumps and dips. You need a 1/4 octave graphic equalizer for that. Digital EQs don't drift as much as analogue ones.

 
Have you used Electri-Q?  That's a parametric equalizer with a graphic readout and more bands than I've ever found use for:
 

 
Look at how many bands there are (count the dots) and look how sharp a notch you can make.  This was my EQ for an actual pair of phones (though a pair less used), not just playing around.
 
 
Quote:

That's a bingo.
I keep returning to this, and I can't find many people who are addressing the issue of equalization.

 
There was PiccoloNamek's excellent tutorial (which is getting a little out of date now that he seems to have left head-fi)
http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial
I'm trying to continue where he left off with this new guide, still a work in progress
http://www.head-fi.org/t/615417/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-advanced-tutorial-in-progress

 

[liamstrain]

ElectricQ doesn't work on Mac's unfortunately. There are many good parametric EQ VST and AudioUnit plugins though. 112db makes a great one, if spendy. 
 
 
Quote:

 
so is there any way to use a decent or good eq on an ipod touch or any other ipod?

 
 
iPod touch, yes. There are a few good apps. Equalizer from Audioforge is a basic parametric eq for iPod touch. 
 
Regular iPod, not really.