[sjcal]

.

 

[Audeze]

@Audeze Has there been any additional updates or improvements in 2023? I have heard people say LCD-x is bass light but I find it to be fairly linear and can be palpable and full depending on the materials.

This is my 2023 FR:

Outside of minor parts/supply changes, the X/XC have remained consistent since the driver revision/and universal pad changes in late 2020/early 2021.

 

[bust3r]

You bet @frankiewilde!

My latest EQ settings are attached. Be advised that I usually wait until I'm settled on an EQ for at least a couple of weeks before I post it as I EQ the LCD-X 2021 like 3-4 times a week making minor tweaks here and there and rarely settle on a EQ for more than a week...I'm making an exception here so just know that this is a work in progress.

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Important notes about P.E.A.C.E. (if you're using it)
My EQs go to the the hundredth decimal place of some Frequencies values as well as the hundredth decimal place of some Gain values. Unfortunately the Import function of the current PEACE v. 1.6.4.1 does not import these decimal place values as they are in the txt file I've shared.

I wrote to PEACE creator Peter Verbeek and he has fixed this issue in beta version 1.6.5.0 just for this fix! And he did it within 24 hours of my writing him!
This beta version is available at this link: PEACE Beta V. 1.6.5.0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1033vw14xu2e0c/Peace1650.exe?dl=0


Instructions:
1. Rename the downloaded exe file from Peace1650.exe to Peace.exe.
2. Copy the downloaded and renamed file to c:\program files\equalizerapo\config, replacing the existing Peace.exe file (perhaps after renaming the existing Peace.exe file to Peace.bak just in case for safety.
3. In case you haven't already done this, change the Settings/Sizes And Amounts Settings - "Snap to dB gain" setting to 0.01 as in the following pic:



Then you'll find that importing the .txt file provided will report in PEACE exactly as it is in the .txt file.

4. If you don't want to go through the trouble of downloading the BETA Peace version, you can always import the txt and just manually input the values of the gains and frequencies that do extend to the hundredth of a decibel place.

...and yeah, people give me s*** about the specificity of my values... "unit variation, measurement bias, placebo effect"... but the LCD-X is an extremely responsive headphone to the tiniest of changes in my experience and to my ear. I can't prove I'm right, they can't prove I'm wrong. I'll leave it at that.

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So as I said in the previous post, my EQ is pretty easily customizable. I am not arrogant enough to believe that my ear is the "perfect" ear, and I also understand that EQ preferences are extremely subjective which is why I used extra filters to make this EQ as "subjectively" adjustable as possible.

Here are the key filters:

To tailor Sub-Bass adjust gain of Filter 3 to taste.
To tailor Overall Bass adjust gain of Filter 5 to taste.
To tailor Mids adjust gain of Filter 17 to taste.
To tailor High-Mids adjust gain of Filter 27 to taste.
To tailor Highs adjust gain of Filter 28 to taste.

Be sure to adjust the Pre-Amplifying gain to reflect any changes you make so that no part of the EQ goes above -0.1dB to avoid clipping/compression.

If you want to get into the lower mids "Ssss" and "Shhhh" shaping, tool around with the Qs and Gains of Filters 7 & 8.
These two filters are currently calibrated to a Topping A30Pro headphone amp and a Focusrite Clarett DAC set at 48Hz, using VLC 4 64bit Nighly build from date 9-2-23 using the SoxR resampler set at "Very high quality" with output modules set at 32bit floating, if resampling from a 44.1Hz source and bypassing resampler if source is 48Hz.

If you find the whole VLC bit confusing just ask and I can provide links and instructions with pics. ... if you don't use VLC or don't care about resampling, just ignore all that crap..LOL.

I just mention all that because just changing any aspect of that chain such as just the resampler type (SoxR, Speex, SRC, etc.) can completely alter the shape of the overall sound, in particular the settings of Filters 7 & 8....yeah as you can tell, I get pretty obsessive about sound engineering...sorry

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Phew!

Ok, maybe I said too much or maybe I left key things out, but I'll leave it as it is for now. If you have questions, feel free to ask and PLEASE do customize my EQ to your taste...I'm almost certain you'll want to lower the bass, but I think you'll find that this EQ shows off what the LCD-X 2021 can do in terms of sub-bass like all the way down to 20Hz...that's one of the reasons why you are putting up with these heavy, huge diaphragmed planar magnetic headphones in the first place IMO!

Blessings friend and Happy Engineering!
-J

Oh man, I really like this EQ, this is really good

 

[Dixter]

Hey @frankiewilde.

In case you're into my EQ I've attached the latest version, it's less boomy, but still has strong sub-bass.

Blessings and Happy Exploring!
-J

@Jonne Haven good job on the EQ again.. thanks for the share...

 

[borkenarrou]

Does HD800S cable fit LCD-X looks like the same connector (from photos)

 

[chesebert]

Does HD800S cable fit LCD-X looks like the same connector.

No RTFM

 

[borkenarrou]

Thanks

 

[Ldoust93]

Hey all,

Thought I would share an EQ i've been working on for quite some time with the LCD-x, as someone who wasn't quite happy with how the Harman EQ sounded on these cans.

This is heavily based off Oratorys EQ, but with a tamer upper mid range, and I've incorporated some qualities from other headphones I really enjoy.
I've then done sine sweeps to fine tune things and ensure nothing jumped out at me.

(one of the biggest changes from Oratory was moving the high shelf from 9k to 7k, which helped tame two peaks in the upper midrange/Treble which were causing me issues)

Low Shelf - 26hz, 3.5db, 0.71 Q
Low Shelf - 105hz, 6db, 0.71 Q
Peaking Filter - 210hz, 1.5db, 0.6 Q
Peaking Filter - 240hz, -0.6db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 540hz, 0.8db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 760hz, -1.1db, 2.5Q
Peaking Filter - 1,120hz, 1db, 4Q
High Shelf - 1,800hz, 5db, 0.71Q
Peaking Filter - 2,670hz, -2.9db, 2.7Q
Peaking Filter - 3850hz, 3.5db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 5,650hz, -5.2db, 3.5Q
High Shelf - 7000hz, -7db, 0.71Q

To give two visual aids, this is how this looks mapped out on Crinacles headphone graph, against Harman.

And here is my Headphone Graph from Audeze themselves (I know this is relatively useless, but I wanted to map it out on here for comparison with some tasteful blue dots)

Hope this helps someone!

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Hey all,

Thought I would share an EQ i've been working on for quite some time with the LCD-x, as someone who wasn't quite happy with how the Harman EQ sounded on these cans.

This is heavily based off Oratorys EQ, but with a tamer upper mid range, and I've incorporated some qualities from other headphones I really enjoy.
I've then done sine sweeps to fine tune things and ensure nothing jumped out at me.

(one of the biggest changes from Oratory was moving the high shelf from 9k to 7k, which helped tame two peaks in the upper midrange/Treble which were causing me issues)

Low Shelf - 26hz, 3.5db, 0.71 Q
Low Shelf - 105hz, 6db, 0.71 Q
Peaking Filter - 210hz, 1.5db, 0.6 Q
Peaking Filter - 240hz, -0.6db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 540hz, 0.8db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 760hz, -1.1db, 2.5Q
Peaking Filter - 1,120hz, 1db, 4Q
High Shelf - 1,800hz, 5db, 0.71Q
Peaking Filter - 2,670hz, -2.9db, 2.7Q
Peaking Filter - 3850hz, 3.5db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 5,650hz, -5.2db, 3.5Q
High Shelf - 7000hz, -7db, 0.71Q

To give two visual aids, this is how this looks mapped out on Crinacles headphone graph, against Harman.


And here is my Headphone Graph from Audeze themselves (I know this is relatively useless, but I wanted to map it out on here for comparison with some tasteful blue dots)
Hope this helps someone!

why didn't you work directly on the frequency response of your headphones?

 

[Kentajalli]

why didn't you work directly on the frequency response of your headphones?

didn't he?

 

[Guy Fawkes]

didn't he?

No, because it was based on the measurement of the Crinacle sample, when it is possible to digitize the frequency response provided by Audeze

 

[Ldoust93]

why didn't you work directly on the frequency response of your headphones?

I did,

As I don't have my own headphone measuring rig at home, I have to rely on other peoples graphs, and then see how that looks on my own graph from Audeze.

This EQ in Particular, is based off Oratorys harman EQ, I wasn't quite happy with that, so I mapped it out on Crinacles graph (as its a great tool to see how a EQ will affect each part of the FR in real time.)

Then I began tweaking, all while using my Audeze graph, Crinacles and what I heard by ear,

The final result is the EQ you see posted

 

[Ldoust93]

No, because it was based on the measurement of the Crinacle sample, when it is possible to digitize the frequency response provided by Audeze

The reason for this, is unless I'm mistaken the Audeze graph is compensated against their own in house "curve" and doesn't have ear gain.

So using that graph by itself makes it very difficult to actually get an idea of how it will really sound.

It's good to use after though, as a general idea of how it'll affect things.

 

[albertmuc]

Hey all,

Thought I would share an EQ i've been working on for quite some time with the LCD-x, as someone who wasn't quite happy with how the Harman EQ sounded on these cans.

This is heavily based off Oratorys EQ, but with a tamer upper mid range, and I've incorporated some qualities from other headphones I really enjoy.
I've then done sine sweeps to fine tune things and ensure nothing jumped out at me.

(one of the biggest changes from Oratory was moving the high shelf from 9k to 7k, which helped tame two peaks in the upper midrange/Treble which were causing me issues)

Low Shelf - 26hz, 3.5db, 0.71 Q
Low Shelf - 105hz, 6db, 0.71 Q
Peaking Filter - 210hz, 1.5db, 0.6 Q
Peaking Filter - 240hz, -0.6db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 540hz, 0.8db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 760hz, -1.1db, 2.5Q
Peaking Filter - 1,120hz, 1db, 4Q
High Shelf - 1,800hz, 5db, 0.71Q
Peaking Filter - 2,670hz, -2.9db, 2.7Q
Peaking Filter - 3850hz, 3.5db, 1.4Q
Peaking Filter - 5,650hz, -5.2db, 3.5Q
High Shelf - 7000hz, -7db, 0.71Q

To give two visual aids, this is how this looks mapped out on Crinacles headphone graph, against Harman.


And here is my Headphone Graph from Audeze themselves (I know this is relatively useless, but I wanted to map it out on here for comparison with some tasteful blue dots)
Hope this helps someone!

An alternative with only five filters, perfect for RME users:

Filter 1: LS Fc 40 Hz Gain 6.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 2: LS Fc 130 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 1.3
Filter 3: PK Fc 300 Hz Gain -1.0 dB Q 0.5
Filter 4: PK Fc 800 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 2.5
Filter 5: PK Fc 3500 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 0.5

The upper treble remains untouched, especially on the Violectric V222 no pain.

Have fun comparing!

The red line shows the result of the five filters.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

The reason for this, is unless I'm mistaken the Audeze graph is compensated against their own in house "curve" and doesn't have ear gain.

So using that graph by itself makes it very difficult to actually get an idea of how it will really sound.

It's good to use after though, as a general idea of how it'll affect things.

This is not exactly the case, the measurements carried out by Audeze have te ear gain but are carried out with a different instrument, the Neumann KU100, which returns a different frequency response than the GRAS 43AG-7 used by Crinacle and the others.

Therefore it is true, it is not possible to match the graphs provided by Audeze with the Harman 2018 target.

To overcome this you must use a different target which corresponds to a straight line with a slope of 1.5db slope tilt like the following image:

What you see is the frequency response of my LCD-X that I digitized using the frequency response that Audeze provided me

Below is the same frequency response with the EQ I applied using the graphic tool:

I recreated the target in question and loaded it onto the instrument as it is not among those made available.

As you can see for example, the gain that is given to compensate for the lack at 4000hz is still necessary as you would with the frequency response generated by the GRAS at more or less the same amount, therefore this shows that the gain for the ear is also present in measurements with the KU100.

This is the method that Audeze uses to correct its headphones with the Audeze Reveal tool, however in the correction it made for the 2021 LCD-X it was limited only to correcting the lack at 4000hz by around 5db and increasing the low end by 2db, without lowering the mid band so as not to distort the typical house sound (with a more neutral and less U-shaped sound) and without decreasing the peak at 10800hz so as not to remove air, as follows: