[mrconfuse]

I posted something similar in another section but no one has responded. Maybe I was in the wrong section. Anyway the question that i have is this. I have a dap that I feel is putting to much emphasis onto the drums. I like to use the eq to tone down some of the emphasis but I'm not sure what frequency I should focus on.

The dap has the following freq available: 32, 63, 125, 250, 500, 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K and 16K

I still want drums but i just don't want it to be so in my face on every song. I also know it's not the songs as I tried them on my friends equipment and the drums are not as in your face

 

[HBen]

Well I guess the reason why nobody gave you an answer is because
"how are we supposed to tell you which frequency you should lower respectively at which frequency the drums play - without hearing them" ...

Kick drums: around 50 to 100 hz
Snare drums: 1000-2500 hz
Hi-Hats: 7000-15'000 hz

If you think you hear too much bass, try to (slightly) lower all the frequency bands below 250hz and continue testing from there ...

Edit: if you listen with Beats headphones the answer to your problem might be getting better headphones

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I posted something similar in another section but no one has responded. Maybe I was in the wrong section. Anyway the question that i have is this. I have a dap that I feel is putting to much emphasis onto the drums. I like to use the eq to tone down some of the emphasis but I'm not sure what frequency I should focus on.

The dap has the following freq available: 32, 63, 125, 250, 500, 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K and 16K

I still want drums but i just don't want it to be so in my face on every song. I also know it's not the songs as I tried them on my friends equipment and the drums are not as in your face

How do you know the DAP is the problem and not your headphones (or IEMs)? If you're listening to Grado there's usually a spike centered at around 100hz, but that isn't the only problem. The other being that they sit smack on top of your ear canals and that adds to that spike. Use a combination of EQ to trim around that area and wear Grados slightly forward of your ears.

 

[mrconfuse]

thanks, I needed to sorta of have a starting point. The problem is that whenever the drums come into play, it overpowers vocals, guitars and etc. It's very odd, it's like the singer and the drummer have switched places. And the drummer is in the center. I tried different songs (not rap. edm or any heavy bass songs) and I know they shouldn't sound like that.

The only time songs sound the way they do is when the song is vocal heavy like Sam Smith "good at saying goodbye", "elton john's candle in the wind" and etc.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

thanks, I needed to sorta of have a starting point. The problem is that whenever the drums come into play, it overpowers vocals, guitars and etc. It's very odd, it's like the singer and the drummer have switched places. And the drummer is in the center. I tried different songs (not rap. edm or any heavy bass songs) and I know they shouldn't sound like that.

The only time songs sound the way they do is when the song is vocal heavy like Sam Smith "good at saying goodbye", "elton john's candle in the wind" and etc.

Yes but again how do you know it's the DAP? Did you try the same headphones on another DAP or another DAC-HPamp? Because what you're describing is something that is inherent to the physics of headphone listening, and if you're not using the sort of headphones that mitigates that, like the HD800, K702 (make sure you use the stock pads, even when you replace worn out pads), or K1000.

And while the problem isn't present on vocal heavy tracks, it's partly the recording as well, ie how the drums were mic-d or if the recording engineer gave a damn about imaging.

Your problem basically isn't just caused by one factor let alone the DAP, but is a confluence of these realities.

 

[mrconfuse]

Yes but again how do you know it's the DAP? Did you try the same headphones on another DAP or another DAC-HPamp? Because what you're describing is something that is inherent to the physics of headphone listening, and if you're not using the sort of headphones that mitigates that, like the HD800, K702 (make sure you use the stock pads, even when you replace worn out pads), or K1000.

And while the problem isn't present on vocal heavy tracks, it's partly the recording as well, ie how the drums were mic-d or if the recording engineer gave a damn about imaging.

Your problem basically isn't just caused by one factor let alone the DAP, but is a confluence of these realities.

The dap that I am using is a new (Onkyo DP-S1) and I have tested it using the same IEM (westone UMPRO 3) playing the same songs on my iphone, note 4, on my computer, on my friends FIIO Q5, Galaxy S8. I even went to the local audio store around where I am and have loaded the songs into the A&K 70 Mark II and FIIO Mark 7. And i can say that the emphasis on drums is the heaviest on the ONKYO DP-S1. None of the other sources that i play my songs on have the problem. It's very noticeable to me unless I'm just imagining it when I'm using the Onkyo

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The dap that I am using is a new (Onkyo DP-S1) and I have tested it using the same IEM (westone UMPRO 3) playing the same songs on my iphone, note 4, on my computer, on my friends FIIO Q5, Galaxy S8. I even went to the local audio store around where I am and have loaded the songs into the A&K 70 Mark II and FIIO Mark 7. And i can say that the emphasis on drums is the heaviest on the ONKYO DP-S1. None of the other sources that i play my songs on have the problem. It's very noticeable to me unless I'm just imagining it when I'm using the Onkyo

It's also possible that you're listening slightly louder on the Onkyo, which has a tendency to push everything forward. This is a thing even on speakers. Reduce toe-in angle and crank it up, and the cymbals if not all the percussion will be imaged too far forward and set too wide across the soundstage. You probably just don't notice that it's louder since the output is cleaner on all those at that output level (if you're not outright clipping the signal on the smartphones if you listened at the same level as on the DP-S1), save perhaps the Q5.

If you want to go with EQ instead of the volume dial just reduce everything between 75hz and 500hz for most of drums (lower if even the bass drum and bass guitar are too far forward), and around 3000hz to 6000hz for the cymbals. We can't tell you exactly by how much you need to reduce each band even if we knew what bands are on your player's graphic EQ since we can't hear it, so we don't know the baseline nor the actual results, much less your preference for how much is enough.

 

[mrconfuse]

Thanks, for the info. my ears are sort of volume sensitive (never had ear damage). let me explain, Onkyo DP-S1 has a max limit of 60 and when I am listening to music in bed at nights (i am using the Westone Umpro 30, which has an impedance of 56 ohm). My volume is at 7-8 based on the loudest part of the song At around 9-10 I find loudest part of the song a bit too loud and it bothers me. Now during the day when i'm in the office (due to ambient noise and stuff) I''ll have the volume up to 11-14. Anything higher and I i start finding it to loud again.

On the Onkyo DP-S1 the loudest part of every single track is the Drums (weird). So when the drums are at a comfortable level the vocals are so recessed/quiet. Quality of the song suffers. Turning up the volume where the vocals are acceptable level, the drums become way to much for me.

Today I added the IFI IEMATCH dongle to the player and it seems to be better. in a nutshell, IFI IEMATCH lowers the overall volume down by some amount which allows me to up the volume on the player. But when I up the volume of the player now the drum volume is not as overpowering as before. Drums are still there but the loudness distance between the drums and the vocals are not as far as they once were. it's not an ideal work around as I find using IFI IEMATCH adds this thin layer of something over the music. It's not exactly muffled but it's not as clear and crisp without the dongle