[Dansk]

A few years ago I got a pair of SR-80s that I've been increasingly less impressed with the more I listen to them.  Harsh and irritating don't begin to describe them.
 
I started comparing some frequency response charts (thanks to headphone.com) and I decided to try doing what I could with a graphic EQ to level them out, since buying my dream pair of HD650s is out of the question at the moment due to lack of funds.
 
Essentially, I inverted and copied the frequency response onto the EQ as closely as I could, and the results are surprisingly good.  I can stand to listen to them for long periods of time now, and they actually have some satisfying bass response.  At least I know that I have something I can live with until I'm able to upgrade now.
 
For any other owners of SR-80s who want to have a stab at it:  (And yes, the curve really is this wonky.)
 

 

[Gwarmi]

Is your music compressed and sub 256kbps?
 
Interesting EQ. That +12db hike down at 20 is huge.
 
Surprised by such a decrease at 10K, I usually notch
1-2 Db down around 2-4K to tame the spike with
some material.

 

[fabio-fi]

Cool. I have to try that with my headphones. 

 

[Dansk]

Quote:

Is your music compressed and sub 256kbps?
 
Interesting EQ. That +12db hike down at 20 is huge.
 
Surprised by such a decrease at 10K, I usually notch
1-2 Db down around 2-4K to tame the spike with
some material.

My music is exclusively FLAC, ripped from my own CDs, played in foobar, and piped through my soundcard's S/PDIF to a Beresford TC-7520 DAC/headphone amp.
 
Yes, the boost at the bottom seems wild, but it really does improve the sound.  It doesn't sound the least bit overdriven, and is entirely accurate according to =353]the frequency response chart I was using.
 
The cut at 10k is what made the most difference, IMO.  The Grados have an unholy amount of boost at 10k, that's what gives them their unique character that, apparently, some people like.

 

[wind016]

What type of EQ is that? If it is linear phase, just lower the frequencies and don't do any boosting whatsoever even if you're trying to compensate by lowering the pre-amp.
 
Using an equalizer is fine, but you're changing everything that makes a Grado a Grado. It's likely that Grado drivers can not handle that much sub-bass to begin with and they cannot appear detailed without being bright. I hope what you're doing will satisfy you until you get the Sennheisers though...

 

[purrin]

EQ will only do so much. You can change the FR, but no amount of EQ is going to get rid of the ringing that you see on SR80i waterfall plots like the one you see here. The ridges on the plot represent the "ringing," which are part of the John Grado sound signature, love it or hate it.

 

[Dansk]

Quote:

What type of EQ is that? If it is linear phase, just lower the frequencies and don't do any boosting whatsoever even if you're trying to compensate by lowering the pre-amp.
 
Using an equalizer is fine, but you're changing everything that makes a Grado a Grado. It's likely that Grado drivers can not handle that much sub-bass to begin with and they cannot appear detailed without being bright. I hope what you're doing will satisfy you until you get the Sennheisers though...

 
I don't know much about the EQ, it's just a DSP I found for foobar that had enough bands to do what I wanted to do.  Made by someone called xnor, apparently.
 
And yes, I realize I'm changing everything that makes a Grado a Grado; that was entirely the point, hence the title of this thread. 

 

[Dansk]

Quote:

EQ will only do so much. You can change the FR, but no amount of EQ is going to get rid of the ringing that you see on SR80i waterfall plots like the one you see here. The ridges on the plot represent the "ringing," which are part of the John Grado sound signature, love it or hate it.

Yeah, I realize there's a large element of silk purse/sow's ear here, but my goal wasn't to magically create a pair of Sennheisers from my Grados.  I'm just trying to do my best to make the SR-80s less offensive to listen to, and this EQ adjustment has succeeded much better than I thought it would.

 

[jupitreas]

I think that what the previous poster simply meant was that boosting the gain for specific frequencies with a linear EQ like you did might result in audible distortion and clipping. It is far better practice not to boost anything past say 3db and instead lower the rest of the frequency spectrum. In your case, simply leave the sub-bass at zero and decrease the rest of the frequency spectrum by the appropriate amount.
 
Quote:

 
I don't know much about the EQ, it's just a DSP I found for foobar that had enough bands to do what I wanted to do.  Made by someone called xnor, apparently.
 
And yes, I realize I'm changing everything that makes a Grado a Grado; that was entirely the point, hence the title of this thread. 

 

 

[Dansk]

Quote:

I think that what the previous poster simply meant was that boosting the gain for specific frequencies with a linear EQ like you did might result in audible distortion and clipping. It is far better practice not to boost anything past say 3db and instead lower the rest of the frequency spectrum. In your case, simply leave the sub-bass at zero and decrease the rest of the frequency spectrum by the appropriate amount.

Makes sense, but I'm betting the gain is applied before the EQ changes.  (I didn't realize the previous poster was talking about that when he asked if it was linear or not.)  There's absolutely no audible clipping or distortion, and it would be VERY noticeable if there was any, with a huge increase like +12dB at 20Hz.

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

Makes sense, but I'm betting the gain is applied before the EQ changes.  (I didn't realize the previous poster was talking about that when he asked if it was linear or not.)  There's absolutely no audible clipping or distortion, and it would be VERY noticeable if there was any, with a huge increase like +12dB at 20Hz.

There shouldn't be when you lowered the pre-amp so much but there should be other issues like phasing. It's just better practice to start lowering frequencies instead of boosting and keeping the pre-amp at zero.
 

 

[Dansk]

Quote:

 

There shouldn't be when you lowered the pre-amp so much but there should be other issues like phasing. It's just better practice to start lowering frequencies instead of boosting and keeping the pre-amp at zero.
 

With analog, yes, it's good practise to subtract rather than add, but I can't see how it makes any difference when the entire signal is being manipulated in the digital realm.

 

[wind016]

 
Quote:

With analog, yes, it's good practise to subtract rather than add, but I can't see how it makes any difference when the entire signal is being manipulated in the digital realm.

I haven't used a minimal phase equalizer in awhile so I don't know if it exactly applies. Lowering a preamp shouldn't do much. However, adding gain on certain frequencies on an equalizer always causes some phasing or resonating issues and lowering a preamp will not get rid of those issues.