Sonarworks Headphone Calibration software

[lenroot77]

Any impressions on the hd700's with sonar works? Curious how it compares with the hd800's with sonar works.

 

[MattTCG]

Any impressions on the hd700's with sonar works? Curious how it compares with the hd800's with sonar works.

 
I'm not sure that even the might Sonarworks could tame that ice pick...

 

[lenroot77]

I'm not sure that even the might Sonarworks could tame that ice pick...

That's exactly what I wanna know!

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I can say from personal experience that Sonarworks is a beautiful match for my HD 800's with the full range file. I don't know if there exists a file for the HD 700's, however.  That means you would have to send them to Riga, Latvia to get a custom correction file.
 
If that were done, I know of absolutely no reason why SW can't tame the 'Ice Pick".

 

[RudeWolf]

  I can say from personal experience that Sonarworks is a beautiful match for my HD 800's with the full range file. I don't know if there exists a file for the HD 700's, however.  That means you would have to send them to Riga, Latvia to get a custom correction file.
 
If that were done, I know of absolutely no reason why SW can't tame the 'Ice Pick".

 
There is a HD700 file now! Just re-activate your plug-in. My experience is that it doesn't really get to HD800 level, soundstage wise mostly. But it does become immensely more listenable.

 

[ok computer]

Sounds really good!  Been listening to them almost exclusively with sonarworks on.  When I A/B I vastlly prefer sonar being activated.  I've also been messing around with TB Isone, Redline Monitor, and Waves NX.  And I think pairing Sonarworks with Waves NX with room ambience turned off is my favorite. 
 
It's also really wild how similar Sonarworks makes the HD-700s sound to the yamha HPH-MT-220s.  Since you take away most of the differences as far as tonal balance goes you can focus in more on how the headphones create space and deal with transients etc...  Interesting stuff for sure.

 

[lenroot77]

Is there much of a difference between the hd600 and hd650 when using Sonarworks? Or are they more or less the same with the software?

 

[fjrabon]

Is there much of a difference between the hd600 and hd650 when using Sonarworks? Or are they more or less the same with the software?

HD650 is just a bit more dynamic and a bit more resolution. But they're 99.9999999% the same

 

[MattTCG]

Just opened up the ATH r70x. Listened for a few minutes...thought it was quite nice. Then cued up the same music with Sonarworks enabled...yuck!! What the crap. How can this be? 

  
 
Then after a double check I realized that I accidentally picked the wrong profile. 

  Now, it's sounding much better. 

 

[pervysage]

Is Sonarworks a good option for manual equalizer use as well? I noticed options for bass boost, tilt, etc.

Baically wondering about the uses of the Sonarworks plug in for unsupported headphones (i.e. Focal Utopia)

 

[MattTCG]

Is Sonarworks a good option for manual equalizer use as well? I noticed options for bass boost, tilt, etc.

Baically wondering about the uses of the Sonarworks plug in for unsupported headphones (i.e. Focal Utopia)

 
No go for unsupported phones. No magic to be found there. It's brilliant with supported hp's though. 

 

[fjrabon]

Is Sonarworks a good option for manual equalizer use as well? I noticed options for bass boost, tilt, etc.

Baically wondering about the uses of the Sonarworks plug in for unsupported headphones (i.e. Focal Utopia)

you can sort of halfway do it by picking the most similar headphone amongst the supported profiles and then really just trial and erroring with tilt, bass boost, different target curves and dry/wet mix.  However, it's kind of a pain and produces mediocre at best results.  At that point you're better served either: 1) sending in your headphone to be measured (they will measure any non-electrostatic headphone and provide you with a 100% custom profile that exactly fits YOUR headphone) or 2) just using a regular EQ program.

 

[DivineCurrent]

So, I've had the HD650 individual calibration for a while, and I have been enjoying it immensely. I get that nice flat bass down to 30 Hz, really makes a difference in bass heavy modern music.  usually use the flat curve, and that is where my question comes in. Listening to frequency sweeps, I notice even with the flat setting, I'm still hearing peaks and dips. Granted they are very small, but I notice in particular a large dip in frequency around 6500-7000 Hz. This happens to me both calibrated and calibrated, and also with my Beyer DT880 in the same frequencies. So, do different ears hear different peaks and dips in the frequencies, even with something like Sonarworks? Because I assume Sonarworks uses measurements from dummy head microphones that may have different ear frequency resonances. 

 

[fjrabon]

So, I've had the HD650 individual calibration for a while, and I have been enjoying it immensely. I get that nice flat bass down to 30 Hz, really makes a difference in bass heavy modern music.  usually use the flat curve, and that is where my question comes in. Listening to frequency sweeps, I notice even with the flat setting, I'm still hearing peaks and dips. Granted they are very small, but I notice in particular a large dip in frequency around 6500-7000 Hz. This happens to me both calibrated and calibrated, and also with my Beyer DT880 in the same frequencies. So, do different ears hear different peaks and dips in the frequencies, even with something like Sonarworks? Because I assume Sonarworks uses measurements from dummy head microphones that may have different ear frequency resonances. 

The most likely explanation is you have a small amount of hearing loss there. But yes, everybody hears just a little differently. My hearing has a larger than normal peak at 3kHz, for example. And I have some hearing loss at 13kHz.

 

[RudeWolf]

Is Sonarworks a good option for manual equalizer use as well? I noticed options for bass boost, tilt, etc.

Baically wondering about the uses of the Sonarworks plug in for unsupported headphones (i.e. Focal Utopia)

 
Just get a good regular EQ for that (Fabfilter comes to mind). Our software is less of an equaliser in the traditional sense, because the DSP engine is configured by a measurement based calibration curve. You can tweak it afterwards, but it's just a nice extra to have.