How to equalize your headphones: A Tutorial
Mar 28, 2009 at 11:04 PM Post #211 of 1,153
My recent setting :

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Probably very close to final. (HD 555 foam mod)

Sounds much less fatiguing, more detailed and enjoyable
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What more could you want
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Mar 29, 2009 at 3:58 AM Post #212 of 1,153
Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I've added foam at the back of my ear pads to angle the drivers(a la R10/cd3k) and the resonances have turned nuts again
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so, no sticky sticky then?



It is better to EQ through hardware or software than through modification, IMO.

Also, this thread feels pretty sticky to me!
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Mar 29, 2009 at 10:14 AM Post #214 of 1,153
Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It is better to EQ through hardware or software than through modification, IMO.

Also, this thread feels pretty sticky to me!
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well, that's the other way around actually....adding dampening killed a lot of cup resonances software EQ couldn't do anything about
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and angling the drivers towards the head is aimed at improving the soundstage...all I was saying is that it changed the resonances, so I had to work on them (again).

ok good, it's as sticky as it could get
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Mar 30, 2009 at 11:23 AM Post #215 of 1,153
Uhm, well, my HD 555 equalization (to flat, and with a punchy bass, thanks to three small spikes in that register, and with reduced ear resonances) - quite a reverse of your versions, and the most likeable headphone sound I have ever experienced as a result
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(even though I have quite an experience with hps).

To my ears and with line sweeps, it sounds almost flat throughout the entire spectrum.

eraser_svk, I also believed that this or that equalisation was final, but as you discover the new one, you immediately fall in love with it and cannot stand the previous one any longer
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And, finally, sticky it is!
 
Mar 30, 2009 at 8:03 PM Post #217 of 1,153
It doesn't seem to be that much more advanced than Electri-Q. (Which also has a Linear Phase mode). Electric also has a greater variety of filter types available.
 
Mar 30, 2009 at 10:03 PM Post #218 of 1,153
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashirgo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Uhm, well, my HD 555 equalization (to flat, and with a punchy bass, thanks to three small spikes in that register, and with reduced ear resonances) - quite a reverse of your versions, and the most likeable headphone sound I have ever experienced as a result
smily_headphones1.gif
(even though I have quite an experience with hps).



I see this must be pretty set-up specific, and even ear-specific.
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I'm very interested in trying this with my HD 555's, but will probably wait until they're more fully burned-in.

Has anyone with the E-Mu 1212m card tried doing this with PatchMix? Figure I'm already running through it so it'd be simpler for me just to insert the parametric eq's into the existing path without adding another program into the mix.
 
Mar 30, 2009 at 11:27 PM Post #219 of 1,153
Quote:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It doesn't seem to be that much more advanced than Electri-Q. (Which also has a Linear Phase mode). Electric also has a greater variety of filter types available.


well, you can set different settings for L/R within the same instance...can ElectriQ do that?

when you run a sine, it's pretty obvious that each driver has its own FR and that a stereo EQ is much of a compromise
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also it does all kind of crazy resampling/oversampling in double 32float, and the more samples you let it cache the higher the SQ supposedly..

I might play around some more, even if I don't like the idea that it resamples everything to 96Khz using a sinc algorithm
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Mar 31, 2009 at 5:27 AM Post #221 of 1,153
If you are careful you can get your own personal response in just a few minutes. It will take a while to truly refine it, though.

As for the results, what you will get is a far more accurate response from your headphone. It will be as flat as it can possibly be for your ears. Music will sound more balanced and even more detailed in some cases. You can either continue listening to it this way, or perform further equalization to get the exact sound you want. It is better to perform further equalizations after you find your flat response, because then you will know just what kind of response you are getting, and your equalizations will actually mean something. If you were at a venue mixing for a band, you wouldn't just start using the sound board's EQ right off the bat, would you? Of course not! You would try to perform some room correction first so that you can then use the board's EQ with confidence. It's the same concept here.
 
Apr 1, 2009 at 3:00 AM Post #222 of 1,153
BTW, this kind of EQ will change the volume...so it's a good idea to run 2 vu-meters, one prior to your EQ and one later.

I used a VST chainer in order to do so, and I've had quite a surprise
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I've tried a 0dB pink noise test tone, but it doesn't get as loud as some loudness war songs
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Apr 2, 2009 at 5:34 PM Post #223 of 1,153
I apologize in advance if this is already posted but I didn't feel like reading all 15 pages of replies. This might seem like an exercise in futility to some but it was a fun process.

I did a fairly rough eq on the Sennheiser HD-280 and here are my results:

Attachment 15733

Peaks/Nulls:
+7.9 dB @ 150Hz 0.9 bw
-8.2 dB @ 2kHz 0.5 bw
+3.4 dB @ 4819Hz 0.8 bw
-8.2 dB @ 10kHz 0.8 bw

As you can see, this is a very lumpy curve. It accounts for a slight null in the mid-bass a fairly pronounced peak in the upper-mids/low-treble and the rising treble that eventually falls off around 14kHz. I won't say it makes silk out of a sow's ear but it helps a bit. There are some channel disparities that would take some definite work to get sorted out too and probably wouldn't be addressed with anything other than an outboard parametric with controls for each channel. In any case, here ya go.
 
Apr 2, 2009 at 6:23 PM Post #224 of 1,153
.....one more thing......

I had the volume in the eq at 0 dB in the above example. I don't know what sort of effect it has but I shelved it down by 2 dB and I thought it made a bit of difference when I compensated with the gain on my headphone amp.
 
Apr 2, 2009 at 6:33 PM Post #225 of 1,153
That could "compress" your music, reducing its dynamic range, removing some background noise. It is just my guessing, though.

As to your equalisation, you had better see some frequency response graphs of your headphones, provided by HeadRoom, and shape that curve so that the hypothetical freq. response of HD 280 could get closer to some "reference" models (take HD 800 or HD 600 for comparison).
 

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