[jonckr]

Quote:

I have tried most if not all of them (free and paid) and two stand out - far above the rest.
 
The first is equalizer by Audioforge Labs - i believe it is $1.99  it is a full seven band parametric equalizer.  What makes it fantastic is that you create the EQ curves by drawing them with your finger.  it has a great decoding engine and plays FLAC as well.  you can save and share curves you create with others.  The interface is excellent and the sounds is superb.
 
The second and my favorite is Accudio by Goldenears.net.  it is $4.99 and worth every penny.   As you may or may not know goldenears.net is a Korean site (with an engish version) that does sophisticated measurements of headphones and earphones.  Based on these measurements they create correction curves that can make a $35 IEM (the apple dual BA and JVC FXC80 to be exact) sound better than most $300 and $400 IEMs.  I know this because I have experienced the magic of this app with these IEMs. They have over 300 IEM and headphones in their database and move being added each week.  The app, as well as the support button on the Accudio web page lists the corrected quality of each IEM or Can (from 1 to 5) - so you can buy the cans that get a 5 like i did in a few cases - and boy was it worth it) It also allows you to tweak these curves, it also has a 10 band parametric equalizer (but you use numbers and buttons to create the curve - no drawing) and a clone mode where you can make your cans sound like high-end Byers, Sens, etc.  The interface is really good, however the app developers are still on their first release of the app and there are a few nits they are addressing in the second version - right now it burns battery if you leave it "playing" after the music stops.  a small price to pay for truly amazing sound quality.
 
I believe this kind of app is the future of portable, high quality sound where measurement based high quality digitial signal processing is coupled with high bandwidth transducers.  The transducers may not have a perfect response curve out of the box, but the DSP system can correct it and you end up with a whole audio chain  that is vastly superior to the sum of its parts.
 
So for an investment of $7.00 (which would not even get you a listenable set of IEM with one exception) you can turn all of your modest or even high-end IEM or headphones (the corrected CAL! is the best on-ears headphone sound I have ever heard when couple with this app and I have over a dozen high-end cans to judge by)  you can go from good or great sound to in some cases simply sublime. 
 
Feel free to ask any questions about these or other EQ apps - again I have tried most if not all...

 
Thanks for sharing mate, checking out the apps as we speak

 

[bixby]

thanks, for the info.  If it pulls from itunes to load its player you might think it would support a native apple format, but then again, maybe not.  I'll wait until someone else chimes in.
 
cheers

 

[Nocturnx]

Does the Denon app allow for adjusting the balance between the left and right channels? Do any of the other apps have this functionality?

 

[bixby]

Does the Denon app allow for adjusting the balance between the left and right channels? Do any of the other apps have this functionality?

 
Not sure about the Denon app as it was a bit buggy on my ipod but Equalizer will do separate EQ for left and right.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Does the Denon app allow for adjusting the balance between the left and right channels? Do any of the other apps have this functionality?

Denon doesnt have that function...
...but....you can....

.......balance the channels ahilst using the Denon app. Then go to settings on your iphone/touch: settings/general/accessibilty and you can adjust the left and right channels there whilst the Denon app is playing in the background.

Equalizer app you can adjust each channel separately.

 

[smcginni]

I have a slight imbalance between ears and I tried to use accessibility to do that. Unfortunately, the step size is too big and I can't get the levels where I want them. I wish iOS could be fine tuned better.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I have a slight imbalance between ears and I tried to use accessibility to do that. Unfortunately, the step size is too big and I can't get the levels where I want them. I wish iOS could be fine tuned better.

 
equalizer app (audioforge labs) is one where you can adjust each channel. $2.99.
It has more sensitivity/steps than the OS channel balancing.
 
Yes, the steps on the OS accessibilty are too big at times.

 

[Tom22]

  After some consideration, I think I'm going to just have to sacrifice a little of the quality from the Denon Audio app for the stock music app from iOS. It simply isn't feasible to have Denon Audio drain my battery dry from just listening to music; from 99% this morning at 8:30 to a little after 10am, I'm down to less than a 60% charge just from using the DA app. No good to me if my batts are dead and I can't listen to music at all.

 
i just downloaded the denon app, its great i agree with you, it just kills my battery, my crappy itouch has a very little juice to begin with and after listening for just 30 minutes i see a noticeable drop in battery. i dun have % but it was fully charged and then dropped to about 70-80%. thought something was wrong, since i use a fiio e6( using its dac instead of my ipod with the l3 cable) and then listened to it for another 30-40 minutes and it dropped to like 60-70%.
 
it eats so much battery!!! its great app i fiddled with it all day adjusting it to my different gear. now its all a waste... =( thought i fixed some peaks and valleys oh wellz.. it was only 1.99 for the eq... i'll stick with the stock music app on the ios just like you....
 
it would be great if it didn't eat so much battery. just listening to music should not drain your battery this much!!! imagine if i didn't use an amp, it would probably drain faster if anything 

 

[Padgoi]

I've tried pretty much every EQ app listed in this thread and in my findings, the best one is far and away Audio Xciter. Here is my analysis using the Etymotics Research ER-4S:

Denon - a good equalizer but the sounds get very muffled, especially when raising the equalizer bar. Also, the presets don't really raise the bass, which is a bit necessary for this earbud.

Equalizer by AudioForge - another solid equalizer, but in my side-by-side comparison, this had the worst quality sound of any of the 4 equalizers I've tried, especially at higher volumes.

Accudio - this was the second best one. It has solid sound, but it actually drowns out some of the quality of higher-end buds, especially when using the presets. When trying the Flat preset and setting your own eq, it's better, but as in the first 2 equalizers above, it simply doesn't have the volume needed to bring out the great quality sound of these earbuds.

Audio Xciter - far and away the best one I've tried. You can really hear the difference and the sounds don't get muffled, even when raising the volume. Further, the default preset is actually quite good, didn't need much tweaking at all to get a great sound. This is the one I'd suggest at the moment.

 

[blueangel2323]

I just downloaded the Audio Xciter - it doesn't seem to be a real equalizer where you can change the frequency response manually (unless I can't find it). All the adjustments have obscure names like AE Tune, Drive, and BB Tune. How am I supposed to know what those are?

 

[bixby]

duh, look at the history of the reviewer!

 

[Padgoi]

bixby, How does my history have anything to do with my experience using different equalizer apps?  Open your mind a little, dude.  I understand it's easy to adopt the closed-mindedness that comes with posting on educational forums, but don't be so naive.
 
With that said, my review clearly stated that the Audio XCiter app had the best SOUND quality.  In terms of actual equalizer control, Accudio still maintains the top spot, even though the UI is less than stellar.  
 
Update: After further review, the Accudio app is far superior in sound quality.  The Audio XCiter app also muffles the sounds when you turn the XCiter on.  With the Accudio app, you can really hear the sound come alive!

 

[bixby]

Sorry Dude, no mal-intent intended, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.  BlueAngel had asked where he could find the eq adjustments and he commented that it did not seem like a real equalizer.  He is right and I was merely pointing out that the history of the reviewer on these boards is limited since you have only a few posts.  As such, perhaps you are not familiar with the term equalizer as many here know it.  Lots of folks come on headfi and post reviews and impressions but really do not have sufficient background to discuss these topics with credibility.  Your posts asking for help on audiophile earbuds did not get any responses since many here feel you might do some searching on your own to discover what you may find pleasing to your ear.  Regardless, I am sorry if I have offended, just giveing you some feedback as to why history here is important to many before your impressions might be taken seriously.  It would have enhanced your credibility if you would have answered the question BlueAngel posed, no?
 
Aphex to me is merely a sound, ahem "enhancer"  not too dissimilar to what they sold to studios back in the '70s to "enhance"" recordings of the time.  It was a strange phasey sounding thing that I did not care for but many did.  Look at how many copies of Fleetwood Mac -Rumours was sold.
 
Getting back to Equalizers, I have tried Acudio and a few others.  Many crash, many alter the gain even when flat and many clip easily when applying boost with no way to control gain.  Many folks here know they want to correct slight nits that they have with there headphones and use parametric or in some cases graphic eq software to do so.  If you are familiar with the Aphex software perhaps a short note or two on how that can be accomplished with your favorite eq software might be helpful to the group, since Aphex shows nothing on their site or on itunes as to how to do that.

 

[blueangel2323]

I gave up on Radsone as well - the soundstage enhancer is very phasey sounding. Which makes me all the more curious to try the legendary Smyth Realiser because I've never heard a convincing soundstage enhancer that didn't distort the sound. The EQ functionality wasn't flexible enough for me either. It was only 10 bands and I couldn't get rid of frequency spikes in my cheap earbuds. Decent interface though.

 

[Padgoi]

Sorry Dude, no mal-intent intended, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.  BlueAngel had asked where he could find the eq adjustments and he commented that it did not seem like a real equalizer.  He is right and I was merely pointing out that the history of the reviewer on these boards is limited since you have only a few posts.  As such, perhaps you are not familiar with the term equalizer as many here know it.  Lots of folks come on headfi and post reviews and impressions but really do not have sufficient background to discuss these topics with credibility.  Your posts asking for help on audiophile earbuds did not get any responses since many here feel you might do some searching on your own to discover what you may find pleasing to your ear.  Regardless, I am sorry if I have offended, just giveing you some feedback as to why history here is important to many before your impressions might be taken seriously.  It would have enhanced your credibility if you would have answered the question BlueAngel posed, no?


Aphex to me is merely a sound, ahem "enhancer"  not too dissimilar to what they sold to studios back in the '70s to "enhance"" recordings of the time.  It was a strange phasey sounding thing that I did not care for but many did.  Look at how many copies of Fleetwood Mac -Rumours was sold.

Yes, and I did that research and purchased the Etymotic Research ER-4S, which really are amazing earbuds. With that said, no offense taken.
And you're right about the XCiter app, it merely was a sound "enhancer." As it is, even the Accudio app only has 6 bands, but the sound really seems remarkable.