Hey guys, I've had a pair of HD 700s for almost 2 years now. So far I've always found the treble to be ear piercing, as many other people have stated before. What I did was work a bit on the equalizer, lowering down a tad bit on the 6k and 11k frequency. It did a sort of "ok" job for the time being. What I learned was that I'm quite sensitive for any kind of high trebles. They do bother me. In a recent trip to Korea, I bought a pair of IEM that I ended up enjoying a lot, and the sound signature was very different from my Senns. Before the HD 700 I had the HD 598, and even with the 598 I used to hear at low volume because of the treble. I'm 28 years old and I can hear up to 17-18khz frequencies if that matters for anything I'm saying here. Anyway, after seeing that I was into warmer headphones, what in my opinion is not the case of the HD 700, I started searching online for people who equalized their HD 700 and could share their preset with me, so I could try some different variations in my cans. I wasn't expecting much though. I came across a thread here in this forum where I found exactly what I was looking for. Btw, I use my cans on my computer having them powered up by my Asus Xonar Essence STX, which is the best of the best sound cards out there. I've never noticed a difference in sound output between this sound card and, let's say, 800 bucks amps. And I tested quite a bit. So it was more than fine to me. Anyway, I got the equalizer preset, still changed two things that still needed some work (in my opinion), and voila, the HD 700 suddenly changed into a MUCH. MORE. PLEASANT. headphones to hear. So I'd like to drop and image here of my exact settings in case people here wanna try it out for themselves. If I got it right, it improves a bit the bass and flattens the frequency curve after the 700hz mark. The pre amp is set at -6 to avoid clipping. On my sound card software I left at "high gain". Low gain didn't give much life to the headphone, and ultra high gain would change nothing in the richness of the sound, just would make it louder. All that brightness that bothered me on the "raw" sound was gone, and at the same time the details and instrument separation and what not were still there. It does not sound as if it was equalized by software, at all.
initial source:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/677183/measurement-based-equalization-of-hd650-hd700
I'm sure some sound wizard could still improve it even further, but for now I'm quite happy with the results.
That is very close to the way I have my FiiO X3II set up. Though the FiiO is only a 10 band, so I had to nudge the nearest treble down (which was actually 8K), and I actually nudged up the sub bass, instead of mid bass. To my ears the mid bass is awesome. It is the sub bass (to my ears) that need a little more quantity.
