How to equalize your headphones: advanced tutorial (in progress)

[Joe Bloggs]

What would make you want to wear the pfe112 and have them sound like the etys though, instead of just wearing the etys? Comfort?

Have you checked with a sine sweep to see that the red dampers are cutting away the resonance instead of just lowering all the treble frequencies?

 

[luisdent]

Comf

What would make you want to wear the pfe112 and have them sound like the etys though, instead of just wearing the etys? Comfort?

Have you checked with a sine sweep to see that the red dampers are cutting away the resonance instead of just lowering all the treble frequencies?

Comfort, and theyre better for grab and go portable use without an amp

 

[Schonen]

Too much work. I just use the EQ built into foobar and when it sounds good to me I save a profile for each set of headphones I own. Simple.

 

[luisdent]

What would make you want to wear the pfe112 and have them sound like the etys though, instead of just wearing the etys? Comfort?

Have you checked with a sine sweep to see that the red dampers are cutting away the resonance instead of just lowering all the treble frequencies?

Yes. They are reducing the 2-3khz area a bit and some others. Just a bit, but it really helps..

 

[doublekbang]

   
I'll be going on a business trip this weekend... brief instructions for you, since you say you have a calibrated speaker setup
 
1. Set Sinegen to output 1000Hz at -10dB level to Virtual Audio Cable.  Don't hit the Power button yet!
2. In VSTHost, load Electri-Q, click the "M" button to the lower right, set the Mode to Digital and Quality to Normal.
3. Choose M->Skin->Gain Range->30dB
4. Add a control point by clicking on the line, right click the point to change the band type to Basic->Gain only.  Then drag the point down to -20dB, the whole line should go down to -20dB.  (these steps are necessary to give you the digital headroom for the bass boost you need to create the equal loudness contour for the loudspeakers.

For some reason I can only get it to 15 and not 20. I must have not added a control point correctly or loaded the electri-Q correctly is what I'm thinking :|

 

[Joe Bloggs]

For some reason I can only get it to 15 and not 20. I must have not added a control point correctly or loaded the electri-Q correctly is what I'm thinking :|

Wow. This thread shall forever be immortalized as one of my countless projects that never got finished

Anyway, to answer your question: A single control point only goes down to -15dB. My bad You can add another Gain control point to make the total gain -20dB.

 

[doublekbang]

Wow. This thread shall forever be immortalized as one of my countless projects that never got finished

Anyway, to answer your question: A single control point only goes down to -15dB. My bad

You can add another Gain control point to make the total gain -20dB.

So what I got so far is when I click the line it automatically adds 5 control points. I delete 4 to get one. Then the setting change to gain only, digital and 30 db. Then it goes down to 15. When I add some control points and mess around with the points a bit it becomes a jagged line. My question is is it meant to be a jagged line or there is a way to make the line completely straight as right I now seem to have to experiment with the control points and get a sort of straight line hoping for the best straight line possible

 

[doublekbang]

never mind I got it lol

 

[doublekbang]

Wow. This thread shall forever be immortalized as one of my countless projects that never got finished

Anyway, to answer your question: A single control point only goes down to -15dB. My bad

You can add another Gain control point to make the total gain -20dB.

 
Ok ok I do need to ask, regarding your 16 steps I'm more in the 2nd stage of "You have a good headphone setup you are relatively satisfied with in overall signature but would like to improve its technical abilities (especially if you want smoother highs): listen to your headphones through Sinegen and smooth out its frequency response (especially in the treble), then create your equal loudness contour from your EQed headphones"

so I just wanted to ask is the dragging the point to -20db still applicable?

Edit: Actually I'm using a mac, I was doing your method on a PC to get a feel on what I am supposed to do, now that I have understood a bit I am trying to transfer the principles I learned on the PC onto a Mac with Soundflower and AU Lab. I guess I am now stuck at the making equalise loudness like in post http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial/750#post_8208522. Right now with using AU Lab and soundflower I am getting something like this http://postimg.org/image/tl8cxkbc5/

As you can see in the bottom I make an example of how the Q function (that's what it's called in AU Lab) can be made wider. I was just wondering is it possible to get the true equal loudness curve like demonstrated in Electri-Q or is it ok to just leave like as it is. I would imagine if I leave it as it is at some frequencies in between it would get oddly uneven in terms of loudness :|

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Ok ok I do need to ask, regarding your 16 steps I'm more in the 2nd stage of "You have a good headphone setup you are relatively satisfied with in overall signature but would like to improve its technical abilities (especially if you want smoother highs): listen to your headphones through Sinegen and smooth out its frequency response (especially in the treble), then create your equal loudness contour from your EQed headphones"


so I just wanted to ask is the dragging the point to -20db still applicable?


Edit: Actually I'm using a mac, I was doing your method on a PC to get a feel on what I am supposed to do, now that I have understood a bit I am trying to transfer the principles I learned on the PC onto a Mac with Soundflower and AU Lab. I guess I am now stuck at the making equalise loudness like in post http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial/750#post_8208522. Right now with using AU Lab and soundflower I am getting something like this http://postimg.org/image/tl8cxkbc5/


As you can see in the bottom I make an example of how the Q function (that's what it's called in AU Lab) can be made wider. I was just wondering is it possible to get the true equal loudness curve like demonstrated in Electri-Q or is it ok to just leave like as it is. I would imagine if I leave it as it is at some frequencies in between it would get oddly uneven in terms of loudness :|

I don't think I've ever finished that part of the guide
The gist of what you want to do (when correcting headphones you are pretty satisfied with to start with) is to null any narrow peaks or nulls above 1kHz without greatly changing the overall balance of the phones or trying to make all frequencies sound equal. I would just note down about how many dBs louder or softer the narrow peaks and nulls sound than the surrounding frequencies, then experiment with the Q factor of the correcting filters for the smoothest correction.

Apart from that, I don't quite follow what your question is

 

[jiiteepee]

  Too much work. I just use the EQ built into foobar and when it sounds good to me I save a profile for each set of headphones I own. Simple.

 
I kind of agree ... I just try cancel the frequency response "errors" of headphones/speakers using eq (save cancellation eq as a static preset) and then, if needed, eq by taste while listening.
 
Previously I used this VSTHost-VAC-Electri-Q method as well but as being a complicated setup, I switched to EqualizerAPO + my own GUIs made for to control it. I also have added couple features to the GUIs for to prepare the cancellation preset (on upcoming version 0.40 it's possible to load a frequency response image for to prepare eq against it and then inverting the eq).

 

[doublekbang]

   
I kind of agree ... I just try cancel the frequency response "errors" of headphones/speakers using eq (save cancellation eq as a static preset) and then, if needed, eq by taste while listening.
 
Previously I used this VSTHost-VAC-Electri-Q method as well but as being a complicated setup, I switched to EqualizerAPO + my own GUIs made for to control it. I also have added couple features to the GUIs for to prepare the cancellation preset (on upcoming version 0.40 it's possible to load a frequency response image for to prepare eq against it and then inverting the eq).

How did you cancel the frequency response 'errors' ?

 

[streetdragon]

How did you cancel the frequency response 'errors' ?

you can try with pink noise, any part that stands out you can reduce it until no partucular tone catches your attention.

 

[doublekbang]

you can try with pink noise, any part that stands out you can reduce it until no partucular tone catches your attention.

so right now I play pink noise in the background and then play sinegen and then play around with the frequencies in sinegen like normal but like you said reduce any frequency that catches my attention is that correct?

 

[streetdragon]

  so right now I play pink noise in the background and then play sinegen and then play around with the frequencies in sinegen like normal but like you said reduce any frequency that catches my attention is that correct?

Well... I am not exactly sure what sinegen does but yeah other than that it's pretty much right.