[VNandor]

Out of curiosity, if I had any form of hearing impairment (essentially meaning my ELC doesn't match the generic one here), using this sweep would yield me inaccurate results, is that right?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

It might. Or it might yield a correction curve that sounds even better because it compensates for your hearing loss. I don't know

 

[tkoreaper]

...

 

[VNandor]

So if I understand correctly, I have to figure out my own ELC, apply it to the playback chain as an EQ curve while listening to a sine sweep, do further adjusments until it actually sounds equally loud, then remove the ELC EQ curve?
 
I wonder how I can know my ELC. Using headphones (calibrated to be flat) is an obviously bad idea because with that, I would compensate for not only for my ELC, but for my HRTF as well for example, and a whole bunch of things that come with listening to headphones, is that right?
 
Also, I wonder if it's possible to amplify the signal by let's say 5dB but it would only boost the frequency I hear by let's say, 3dB and the amount the driver attenuating the boost depending on both the frequency and amplitude? Because that could lead to a less accurate EQ curve I guess.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

So if I understand correctly, I have to figure out my own ELC, apply it to the playback chain as an EQ curve while listening to a sine sweep, do further adjusments until it actually sounds equally loud, then remove the ELC EQ curve?

That was the gist of my "advanced tutorial" thread, yes.

I wonder how I can know my ELC. Using headphones (calibrated to be flat) is an obviously bad idea because with that, I would compensate for not only for my ELC, but for my HRTF as well for example, and a whole bunch of things that come with listening to headphones, is that right?

I never had a reference-grade ELC source to start with in my EQ journey, i.e. ideally you want studio monitors calibrated to flat in a reference listening room, a loudspeaker system that sounds fantastic to start with to be your ELC source, whereas all I had at the time were crappy IEMs whose sibilance character I wanted to correct. I used an incremental process of

1. Listening to music, noting down aspects that obviously sounded no-good
2. Listening to tone sweeps with a generic equal loudness curve applied, concentrating on frequency regions that sounded bad in (1)
3. Alternately applying corrections while listening to said sweeps (which allows you to pinpoint problem frequencies but is less revealing of your adjustments' effect on the overall musicality of the result) and while listening to music (which has the inverse characteristics)
4. Procuring some new earphones / speakers every now and then, and comparing notes with instrument-based results (e.g. innerfidelity FR curves for earphones, measurment mic measurements for speaker systems) as yet another reference point for adjusting the ELC curve.

So all in all, it's been 7 years of so of adhering to this methodology for me and I know my ELC so well now that it can be used as pretty much the sole info source for tuning new equipment to my liking. But early in my journey, the ELC I used went from generic to tentative, and I was cautious about its accuracy, at first letting auditions of new equipment reshape my ELC at least as much as using the ELC to reshape their frequency response...

Also, I wonder if it's possible to amplify the signal by let's say 5dB but it would only boost the frequency I hear by let's say, 3dB and the amount the driver attenuating the boost depending on both the frequency and amplitude? Because that could lead to a less accurate EQ curve I guess.

That I believe isn't something to worry about, unless you're driving your transducers into heavy distortion. :eek:

 

[Ruben123]

So after not seeing the forest anymore because of all the trees in front of it (Dutch saying) about EQ'ing, I contacted @Joe Bloggs but it is of course better for all users to read with us.
 
 

  Hi Joe,
 
After reading several different topics of the same matter, namely eq'ing headphones, Ive been left with some questions about which tutorial to follow.
 
I use an Android phone for which Ive downloaded V4A, and there are only in the app itself (I might even have an ancient version) two options about how to EQ: via the convolver and the DDC. Im not sure what the differences are and which I should use, regarding making earphones sound more neutral (so correct them). Im also interested in making my own irs file for some earphones, and found a tut by you on xda. But... that's using the known FR charts right (and invert the FR)? There is also a 3rd method I understood, when you listen to sine sweeps and correct the sound while you listen. As you may see Im a little lost What do you recommend? It is so easy to buy another cheap Chinese IEM (dang I might just be doing that also, do you know the brand Knowledge Zenith? Great budget IEMs -> check the ED9 @ $8 some time). Though outside for the Monoprice 8320, Sennheiser HD439 and Havi B3 there are no FR charts available so I guess I have to "sine-sweep-EQ" the other earphones? If you want me to open a topic about it so everyone can read with us that's ok too!
 
Kind regards,
Ruben

And his response so far:
 

 Using the convolver, you'd EQ a Dirac impulse, save the resulting wav file as an .irs file (same thing as a wav file just with a different extension to avoid it being media scanned), and use that as the convolution file.

Did you try the video in my 2016 EQ guide? http://www.head-fi.org/t/794467/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-2016-update

 
Joe I havent seen the video yet, and I sure will be doing that. The OP of this thread is about the sine sweeping method, I assume the most accurate one.

 

[Ruben123]

Started myself I really struggle now. I made a eq file in Electri-q. Now I open foobar2000 (I have to do that right?) and downloaded both winamp dsp bridge and a VST wrapper. They appear in /preferences/dsp manager, I can move them to "active dsp" but then what? I really dont understand what to do now I found the VST plugin menu, though trying to open two different VST plugins I get an error (yohng plugin and hydrogenaudio plugin https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,84947.0.html). The error is that the plugin does not appear to be a vst plugin. What should I do now?
 
 
 
And what do I have to do after this? Open the irs file I downloaded and use the Electri-q EQ I made over it and save it to an .irs file?

 

[VNandor]

  Started myself I really struggle now. I made a eq file in Electri-q. Now I open foobar2000 (I have to do that right?) and downloaded both winamp dsp bridge and a VST wrapper. They appear in /preferences/dsp manager, I can move them to "active dsp" but then what? I really dont understand what to do now I found the VST plugin menu, though trying to open two different VST plugins I get an error (yohng plugin and hydrogenaudio plugin https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,84947.0.html). The error is that the plugin does not appear to be a vst plugin. What should I do now?
 
 
 
And what do I have to do after this? Open the irs file I downloaded and use the Electri-q EQ I made over it and save it to an .irs file?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/624628/the-foobar2000-help-thread-got-problems-or-questions-ask-here
 
If you can't get Electri-q working (I know I couldn't) you could try EasyQ to see if that works for you.

 

[Ruben123]

After installing EasyQ I now also managed to get ElectriQ working But what then? I try to open the Dirac44 irs file but that doesnt work.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

irs are impulse response files which are just wave files with a renamed suffix (the intention was to avoid them being scanned as music files).

Are you looking to use the test tone video I provided as the calibration source or?

 

[Ruben123]

Well now the software all works and I got something done, I was not so sure what I had to do next. How I should load the impulse file in foobar. But as I understand I should rename the Dirac file to a wav file and load it in foobar? That should be easy.
 
I already used the video for EQ'ing my earphones in Electri-Q already, thanks Very handy!

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Oh, I see which part you're talking about now! You want to export your EQ as an impulse response for use on Viper4Android right?

On my computer, if I drag the .irs file to Audacity it opens up just fine. But yeah, if you have trouble with opening it wherever you want, you can always rename it to .wav first.

Yes, you can
1. rename the Dirac irs to a .wav extension
2. load the wav in foobar
3. "convert" the wav to another wav with DSP settings applied (namely the EQ)
4. rename the result to an .irs extension

and that should give you a result equivalent to editing the Dirac file in Audacity.

 

[Ruben123]

That seems exactly the info I was needing! Will sure try it tomorrow, thanks
If it works in audacity too (so on Linux) it d be even greater.

 

[Ruben123]

I was just thinking, could we also use this guide to eq our speakers or do low cost room treatment? I sometimes play music via my notebook and if I just can sit down in my room, play some sinus waves, eq a bit via the software mentioned... Of course I just sold my (hardware) Sony eq so my CD and mp3 player won't be affected.

ADD:
Another post seemed a bit over done, but it seemed to have worked!! Only thing is I cant rename my .wav to a .irs. When I do that, I get a .irs.wav file lol. Viper does recognize it though because my earphone seems to sound different (besides much less loud because of the EQ applied of course). How can I rename it to a .irs instead of .irs.wav?

 

[Ruben123]

Here I am again! My EQs dont seem to work, and I dont know why. I can use the ElectriQ in Foobar, load the preset, open the Dirak44 (and 48, as I dont seem to get information if the playback is 44 or 48), select the DIrak.wav file in Foobar, convert to WAV, rename it to .irs and load it in V4A. I dont hear any differences between on and off, but I do so with already downloaded configurations. Do I have to "add" the EQ file to the Dirak file somehow?