[Joe Bloggs]

I need to credit Etymotics for printing this brochure that made this precision EQ possible...
http://www.etymotic.com/images/PDF/er6info.pdf

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It's been a while since I put this up here, but I still get an occasional pm asking me how to EQ for the EX70 and put it into CD. The information is mostly here on this board already, but scattered among multiple threads, and besides, some fine points about the process had never been mentioned. So here is a complete guide.

First, things you'll need:
1. A PC with a CD-Burner
2. Winamp (I use 2.x)
3. A good audio extraction program (I use EAC)

In case the play-by-play below is too much for you, the whole process consists essentially of 5 steps.

1. Download, install and configure the Shibata EQ
2. Rip your CDs (or you may be using downloaded mp3s or WMAs, etc.)
3. 'Play' your music files into hard disk using the Winamp Disk Writer Plugin
4. (optional) Normalization
5. Burning the files

Complete play-by-play as follows

Here are the steps to go through for setting the EQ:
1. Get Naoki Shibata's Winamp EQ plugin: go to winamp.com -> Plug-ins -> DSP / Effects and search for 'Shibatch'. (no, I don't know why it comes under that name either.

)

2. Install the plugin...

3. Download the EQ file attached to this post. It's got a .txt extension because this board wouldn't accept a file with a .eq extension. Once you've downloaded it, change the extension back to .eq.

4. When Winamp is open, activate the EQ by going to Options -> Preferences -> Plug-ins>DSP/Effect and select 'Shibatch Super Equalizer'.

(alternatively, you can download MuchFX^2 and use that to select the plugin. Allows you to turn on and off plugins at the click of a checkbox, and allows multiple plugins to be active at the same time. Very cool.

)

Click 'configure' to enter the config screen for the EQ.

5. Load the EQ file you downloaded from here by clicking 'Load' and selecting the path, or click on the button next to 'Autoload' to have this eq file be used every time you use the Shibata EQ.

----------------------------------------------------------
Now when you play music on Winamp it will be EQed for the EX70. To make EQCDs...

6. Rip the CD you want to EQ to hard disk. (You can also make EQCDs out of mp3s or other audio files in your hard disk, in which case skip this step of course)

(If you want to normalize the files after EQing, it may be a good idea to rip the whole CD as one file, and split it only after EQing *and* normalizing. This would preserve the dynamics of each track in the CD relative to the other tracks. See (12) for information about normalization.)

7. Turn on Winamp and put the files you want to EQ in the playlist, preferably so that once you click play you can play through all the files in sequence. Pressing stop and selecting another file may result in some of the sound from the last file spilling over to the next file.

If you were playing other music on Winamp before, clear the playlist, close and reopen Winamp--otherwise the last played file might also spill into the next file.

8. Make sure the EQ is turned on and configured according to the EQ file.

9. Go to Options -> Preferences -> Plug-ins>Output and select 'Nullsoft Disk Writer plug-in'. Click Configure to select the path that you want to put the EQed files into. Later versions of Winamp allow you to output to mp3 and WMA and a dozen formats beside, but if for example you want to make an MP3 EQCD it may be better to output to wav first and then use a separate program to encode to mp3...

10. Play your files to record into hard disk.

11. Switch the output plugin back from Disk Writer to WaveOut to avoid accidental recording next time you play songs on Winamp.

12. (Optional) Normalize the wav. After EQing the volume is strictly lower than from the original file. This is because I used reductive EQ exclusively to avoid clipping. However most music should still output at an adequate volume from most sources.

But normalizing also serves another purpose: checking for clipping. Although I only used reductive EQ, the properties of the FFTs in the digital EQ are such that under some circumstances the output waveform can still have higher peaks than the original. (although the volume is lower) (This is an existing problem for mp3 encoders as well--you usually set it to output mp3s at only 95% volume to prevent clipping) If the original was near 0dBFS the EQed file might hit the 0dBFS ceiling. If during normalizing the EQed file was found to have a peak value of 100% or 0dB it is likely to be clipped, and you should EQ the original file again, this time lowering the gain by a few dBs by either pulling down the preamp bars on the furthermost left of the EQ config screen or pressing the 'Down' button at the bottom a few times to bring all bands down.

13. You're finally ready to burn the files to CD!

I've got etys now, and their sound may be superior, but an EQed pair of EX70 still have their uses

To those of you who are looking to EQ your EX70s: don't be scared at the long list

Once you get the process down pat it's only a total of about 15min. of user intervention each time you want to make a new EQCD.

And to the rest of you: well, as the saying goes, 'If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all." Hey?

Joe

--still helping out Team EQ (and no, that doesn't just mean helping himself

)

 

[Joe Bloggs]

1. A secure rip
2. Checking for clipping / normalization
3. In Winamp -> Options -> Preferences -> Plug-ins>Input -> Nullsoft Waveform Decoder -> Configure: ... maybe, deselect all 'Convert x-bit to...' options, convert floating point to 32 bit and check Dither? (not sure if these are the best settings but I'm pretty sure that this configuration screen is worth having a look at. It's bound to change something...)

 

[Magicthyse]

Or better still, is there a portable EQ that u can buy?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

There are a few such products out there, and of course you can buy one of those to EQ on the fly, but I doubt you can get near the quality achieved with offline digital EQ. Also you'd have to carry an extra box around, and maybe an amplifier as well. Using EQCDs you wouldn't need to add boxes to your rig, and EX70s are quite listenable unamped.

FWIW if you want to try this on a different EQ, here are the settings I determined to match the EX70 to the etys:

Freq (Hz) Boost / Cut (dB)
55 -15
77 -15
110 -15
156 -15
220 -14
311 -12
440 -10
622 -8
880 -7
1244 -4
1760 -2
2489 -1
3520 -6
4978 -13
7040 -11
9956 -11
14080 -6
19912 -5

(parametric EQ)
0...20 +5
20...40 +2
4200...4700 +5

 

[redshifter]

joe, i applaud your efforts with the ex70. it is a much maligned phone on these boards, but one i'm not ashamed to say i use a lot (in modified form of course).

i have a question about your eq process. you say you are matching the eq curve of ety er4(?)... how did you compensate for the admittedly uneven frequency response of the unmodified ex70, i.e. shrill treble and thumping bass, etc.? did you average out the differences in frequency bands between the two phones?

 

[punosion]

Bloggs, man, you're crazy!

But, I suppose (mostly trolling for posts and) reading about you doing this for a while now maybe says something about the method. You're an experienced Head-Fi'er and headphone listener, and no fool, so maybe I should give it a try

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

i used to do that before i knew that you were doing it, and I would burn cds, but it took too long for me, so i gave up (i have about 100-something cds), but if you are willing to spend the time, its totally worth it. I just got lazy, and I had a slower method....

if i still had my ex70s i would try your eqcd thing tho, it seems like it would work a lot better and faster, thanks Joe! If i ever get the er6 I will eq it probably to be like the er4!!! sweet!!

 

[attnet]

I also found a way to do this directly from Ahead Nero without the wait time of playing it through Winamp! First you have to create an "Audio CD" then drag the tracks you want over. Next you open up the "filters" panel, and select the "equilizer" option. There you can set your EQ and save it. Repeat for the rest of the tracks, burn the disc, and you're set! The EQ scale is a little different from Shibata's, but it's not too hard to interpolate the values. It sounds great to me, except for some artifacts that may or may not have been there before. Please test and report back!

 

[Driftwood]

aach.

so many things about this post upset my audio purist side that now I am feeling quite unsettled.

Driftwood

 

[TimSchirmer]

EQ....bah! just get better headphones

 

[a1leyez0nm3]

BUT ITS FREE!!!

 

[r3cc0s]

curious mr. bloggs

didcha ever get those ety 4ps?

and i forgot what amp u may have gotten

but how do they compare to the ex70's after the eq mod?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I got the ER4P--I've never tried to listen to it out of an amp, somehow I haven't found it worth the trouble

You can read my initial impressions here

I don't know how true these impressions are now because my EX70s are still with my dad in Australia

But I did get the impression that I had exaggerated the differences a bit

Quote:

i have a question about your eq process. you say you are matching the eq curve of ety er4(?)... how did you compensate for the admittedly uneven frequency response of the unmodified ex70, i.e. shrill treble and thumping bass, etc.? did you average out the differences in frequency bands between the two phones?

That's what EQing is all about--compensating for uneven frequency response and improving the frequency response profile (in this case using the etys as a reference).

The FR of the EX70s are easy to fix because while unbalanced, it's smooth (to my ears anyway), so there isn't much that can't be fixed by an 18-band EQ. (if the frequency response is jagged, there would be anomalies that lie completely within one EQ band and that must require the use of parametric EQ to fix.)

So yeah, the shrill treble and thumping bass were fixed

What EQ can't fix are things that have nothing to do with frequency response--the most glaring fault would be a mild case of one-note-bass syndrome on the EX70s.

attnet: nice to see that you have found a faster way to do things... but watch out, like I said, you may get clipping every now and then if you don't check the levels before burning to CD. But I suppose on the whole it's faster to just make the changes and burn another CD when you ears hear clipping than checking the level meter every time before burning

 

[Lil'Andy]

Well I just tried it. Instead of making a EQCD I just converted the wav to a 192kbps mp3 file, this way I can play these songs on my nitrus. It sounds much much better, when doing a comparasion it sounds like the un eq ex70 is playing music in another room. The only this I don't like is that there seems to be too little bass? Or is it just really right bass?

 

[Lil'Andy]

Oh by the way I havve the ex51 not the ex70... supposable the same?