How to equalize your headphones: A Tutorial

[tkach_john]

 
Great thread!
For now I have spotted 2 pikes with mine AKG K272HD headphones - 8300 and 13300 khz. Added "counter-spikes" of 8 and 6 db.
Happy with a result - hiss, which I hated so much, is now gone. Fantastic. I have always noticed this hiss before, but used to treat it as something inevitable. And now it is gone, just fantastic.
Glad I got flue, thus had a lot of time to read this topic, investigate and practice.
This topic changed my attitude to equalizing dramatically.
Thanks, @piccolonamek!

 

[Vkamicht]

Quote:

Before I close, I have a final request: if anybody should actually go through with this, I request that you post your results for everyone to see. If you choose to use Electri-Q, post a picture of your response. If you used another program, tell us which one and post the settings you use. Not only would it be interesting to see the different personal responses of people's ears, but the information will be useful as starting points to others who want to equalize their own headphones.

Here's my EQ for the DT 880
 

 
This took me trial and error over a timespan of maybe 2-3 months to get it "right." Every once in a while I would pop open the sine generator, check everything again, make small tweaks. I use the built-in hardware EQ (controlled via patch mix) of the 0404 PCI soundcard. It's not graphical at all - I used the sine generator with my ears only (and occasionally pink noise for a little help). Sounds almost completely flat to me. Around 5700 hz is still sensitive to my ear (perceived as slightly louder) but this is natural... I hear it on flat studio monitors too.
 
I generated this graph by internally recording a sine sweep after it has passed through the DSP then comparing the difference to the original
 
I consider this thread essential... once you eliminate most/all peaks and dips it's like you finally found the last piece of an enormous puzzle. Everything suddenly makes sense - what goes in, comes out. The music is the only thing coloring itself. If it's there, it's there, if it's not, it's not. That's what real detail is.
 
PS, soon as my T1 arrives, I'll be doing this process again. The results should be pretty interesting.

 

[tkach_john]

Don't know if this was already mentioned before, but anyway - the best way to "listen to sine" is on the can / can't hear db edge. This way you will not get your ears raped, and results will be more accurate. Just make sure that environment is quiet enough.

 

[monoethylene]

Quote:

Don't know if this was already mentioned before, but anyway - the best way to "listen to sine" is on the can / can't hear db edge. This way you will not get your ears raped, and results will be more accurate. Just make sure that environment is quiet enough.

As I am doing
 

 

[tkach_john]

Here are my current EQ settings for AKG K272HD headphones. The smallest peak was hard to find, and I hesitated much, but pink noise sounds "better" with it (removes some hiss), so let it be.
 

 

[MaciekN]

Funny thing, my Ms-1i turned out pretty flat, all it took was adjusting peaks at 2.5kHz and 3.5kHz by 5-6 dB. Although I must add they are slightly moded and I'm listening to them thru external DAC and head amp, which probably gives less peaks than a regular soundcard. The biggest difference I noticed is that now guitars, especially accoustic, sound so much more right. It surely changes them for the better but it is important to remember, that headphones are not meant to have flat FR: read some at HeadRoom's learning center- some peaks are desired, some are not.

 

[Vkamicht]

What I find interesting is how different headphones react to the same process. I spent about an hour trying to equalize my dad's HD-600 to "sound flat" in the same way I did with my DT-880. Once they sounded pretty close, as far as frequency-sweep was concerned, I listened to some music and it sounded way off compared to my DT-880. They definitely sounded "further away", perhaps a soundstaging issue here.
 
The DT-880 took a lot of time to get the 200-2000hz range right. There's a lot of resonance going on there, I suspect due to the semi-closed cups? If you look at headroom's graph of 880 vs 990 you can see the 990 doesn't have nearly as much of the harmonic distortion @ 500 hz. I would love to get a pair of those to try equalizing. I probably will buy a used pair to mess around with soon. I've got an HD-595 on the way and I'm looking forward to giving that one a try.

 

[AlexRoma]

Vkamicht, thank you for impressions but, could you please add your screenshots on EQ graph ?
 
I  do also own both DT880 & HD600, and I would be glad appling your results on my setup.

 

[Windsor]

Anyone figured how to simply do this process on a Mac?

 

[MaciekN]

Some thorough tests with sinegen showed that my Ms-1i were not as linear as I thought

 
Theoretically everything in range between 1800Hz~10kHz should go even a few (like 3) dBs down but I just couldnt listen to music that way, it sounded unnatural and overfiddled. This setting doesn't remove all the colouration, there are still some peaks around 8kHz but I couldn't remove them without messing the rest. The hump in bass is fully justified and put there only for flatter response. The ascent after 10kHz is probably to compensate my hearing only but what is alarming is that as I usually hear up to around 17.5kHz on Ms-1i 15.8Khz was the limit. Their FR is definetly not in specified 20Hz-22kHz range.
 
PS. Not to be taken- I recabled them with Klotz iy204 cable which extended the bass further down and evened out mids before making any attempts at equalizing. Damping the air chamber would probably take away some of the aggresive highs. In my opinion poeple should do as much as they can inside their headphones- only this way we can really know how given driver was meant to sound.

 

[EYEdROP]

Quote:

Anyone figured how to simply do this process on a Mac?

 
Download AudioTest (sinegen - like program, costs money but has a free trial). Then use AUparametricEQ plugin. Some audio players for mac support plugins (such as Play). Itunes does not. But you can use Audio Hijack Pro (also $ but free trial) to bypass all system audio and use any plugin you want with any program you choose. 
 
If you cant deal with the trial software, just download a HQ 20-20khz sine sweep and do it by ear, while using a program that has built in plugin support.   

 

[castlevania32]

Very interesting thread, unfortunately i can't find no graph for LCD-2...i wonder if it will benefit from equing. And i don't know if i have the courage getting into it as it seems taking some really serious time to get it done right :|

 

[MaciekN]

In 20 minutes you can remove biggest peaks and valleys, perfecting the graph may take weeks. Simply after you remove most of the colouration search for the rest by listening to your music. Casual listening of your favorite tracks over a longer period of time should reveal what stands out so you will know where to search later. There is also another option: remove the source of colouration by damping this or removing that. This way you will at once remove things you would be looking for for weeks as well as those biggest mountains in FR and really hear how your headphone's driver was meant to sound.
 

 

[Maciek1988]

Are the suitable eq settings the same (or similar) for all headphones of the same model or is each one different? An internet database of eq settings could be made, I guess.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Are the suitable eq settings the same (or similar) for all headphones of the same model or is each one different? An internet database of eq settings could be made, I guess.

Optimal EQ settings will vary for every headphone model (even one sample compared another of same model might have tiny differences) and our own taste how it should sound like. Often what sounds great to some people often sounds great for another but it doesn't necessarily have to be like that. Not to mention every equalizer works a bit different, ie same "setting" on one equalizer doesn't have to correspond to the same result using another one and might need a little different values to sound the same and also they got different quality etc, some may distort the sound more than it helps while some works a lot better and barely changes the original frequencies at all, just strenghtens or lowers the signal which is the ideal case.
 
It's best to familiar yourself with equalizing and IMO best way is to do it by your own ears but for newbies it might be difficult to tell how to adjust it. When you get more experienced you can tell which ranges have some excess emphasis or needs a little boost etc and will lead to the best possible result for you as you use your own ears and equalize the way you want it to sound like.