[Lunatique]

Oh ok, that makes more sense. Do you happen to have a logarithmic sweep sample? The link you posted in the first post is dead.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sine+wave+sweep

 

[deama]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sine+wave+sweep

Oh those work fine too? I thought you needed a super high sample quality of it, ok thanks.

 

[Lunatique]

Oh those work fine too? I thought you needed a super high sample quality of it, ok thanks.

Nope, you don't need super high quality. If you can hear it clearly, it's fine. In fact, the audiophile world too often becomes the audiofool world, wasting money on super high sampling rate and bits and lossless audio, when vast majority of the people in the community can't even reliably tell the difference between the high resolution version and decently encoded mp3 in double-blind tests. When the differences require you to focus so intensely as if you're taking some kind of exam you need to pass, and often you're not even sure you really heard a difference, it's just complete overkill and a waste of money. This is when people need to step back from being audiofools.

BTW, don't use a sweep that takes too long. Use one that's short enough to get through in about 30 seconds or so.

 

[bigshot]

Remember to account for the range where human hearing is more sensitive in the upper mids, low highs.

 

[deama]

I can't seem to do it, I ended up with something like this for my £20 earphones after several hours of playing with it:
https://imgur.com/wWBpIQE

I listened to music but it sounds very muffled, so do voices.

I basically used this:
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
and basically either boosted or lowered the Hzs that sounded too high/low.

Is there just some device I could buy or something? I don't think I'm good at this at all; it would help a lot if I had some sort of point of reference, but I've never heard music with a neutral EQ, never been to a concert either.

Oh perhaps you have an EQ profile for cheap earphones that I could try and see if they work for my ones?

 

[Lunatique]

I have updated the original post with a new link to the test tones I uploaded, and updated the YouTube links as well.

The forum only allows 30 media links per post, so I'm moving the ones past #30 here, and I'll provide a link to this post from the original post.

For fun/enjoyment (these can be used for a variety of reasons, but they're just fun to listen too):

02 Risingson / 04 Inertia Creeps / Angel - These three tracks from Massive Attack's Mezzanine album are just so fun to listen to on a well-tuned system. Very atmospheric and dramatic.




09 - hot fuji - Another fun track to listen to with a hard hitting sound.


06 - 夏雲 (Summer Clouds) - A lively string arrangement that's also a joy to listen to. Great for listening to the mids.


01 - Shoudo Satsuriku - Percussion driven track that mixes traditional Japanese instruments with modern instruments.


04. 融了鐘時間 (Melted Clock) - Fun to listen to for stereo imaging.


03 Dreaming In Colour - A very nice electronic track with complex arrangement that starts off with repeated sub-bass sweep tones.


02 - MISTY LOVE - The snare drum sound in this track is good for detecting too much brightness. It is sharp, but it shouldn't sound piercing and grating. Also, that sixteenth note hi-hat on the left channel--once the full arrangement kicks in, it tends to get totally buried if the frequency response is not well-balanced. Even on neutral sounding systems, it will sometimes get buried by the rest of the arrangement, but it will come back here and there. If you just can't hear it at all, then the treble is too recessed.


05 - Medicine Mix - A good track for solid thudding bass kick.


Jesper Kyd - Hitman Contracts CD 1 [2004] - 05 - Slaughter Club - Really enjoyable full-on electronic track that's got a driving momentum.

 

[Lunatique]

I can't seem to do it, I ended up with something like this for my £20 earphones after several hours of playing with it:
https://imgur.com/wWBpIQE

I listened to music but it sounds very muffled, so do voices.

I basically used this:
https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
and basically either boosted or lowered the Hzs that sounded too high/low.

Is there just some device I could buy or something? I don't think I'm good at this at all; it would help a lot if I had some sort of point of reference, but I've never heard music with a neutral EQ, never been to a concert either.

Oh perhaps you have an EQ profile for cheap earphones that I could try and see if they work for my ones?

There's no way to just use any EQ curve and apply to your headphones and expect it to work. The EQ has to be surgically tweaked for your exact headphone model, because every model has different frequency response.

There are apps out there that has EQ curves for the most popular headphones, but I don't think they contain EQ curves for any cheap headphones that aren't prominently known. You can check to see if yours is included:
https://www.sonarworks.com/reference/headphones
https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_morphit_v1.html

I updated the original post with links to the test tones and YouTube videos. Maybe repeat the process again with those updated links and see if it helps. Make sure you understand everything I had wrote before moving on to the next section. For example, you must remember that the high-mids has much more perceived energy at the same amplitude compared to other frequencies, and you can't overcompensate by over-correcting it, or else you end up with a sound that's not bright enough.

 

[deama]

For example, you must remember that the high-mids has much more perceived energy at the same amplitude compared to other frequencies, and you can't overcompensate by over-correcting it, or else you end up with a sound that's not bright enough.

That's probably the biggest issue. The curve I posted above somewhat works, it fixes the annoying "sting" some songs have that I hate, but end up making the whole thing muddy, probably overdid it as the bass sounds too high, I think. So how would I fix that part? Do I just need to keep in mind that the high-mids must be lowder than what I'm hearing?

EDIT: I have an audio technica ATH-M20x pair that I found and EQ profile thing for in one of the links you gave me. Ok now I at least have a reference point. Yeah, the sound does sound pretty "neutral", pretty nice actually.j

The software has a free trial, but I was hoping to be able to rip the EQ profile from them and use it on my EQ APO, any idea if you can do that?

 

[Lunatique]

That's probably the biggest issue. The curve I posted above somewhat works, it fixes the annoying "sting" some songs have that I hate, but end up making the whole thing muddy, probably overdid it as the bass sounds too high, I think. So how would I fix that part? Do I just need to keep in mind that the high-mids must be lowder than what I'm hearing?

EDIT: I have an audio technica ATH-M20x pair that I found and EQ profile thing for in one of the links you gave me. Ok now I at least have a reference point. Yeah, the sound does sound pretty "neutral", pretty nice actually.j

The software has a free trial, but I was hoping to be able to rip the EQ profile from them and use it on my EQ APO, any idea if you can do that?

It helps if there's a measurement graph for the headphone that you can look at, but if it's not a popular enough headphone, no one would have done a measurement and posted it online, and you can't do a good enough measurement yourself without professional equipment.

I don't know of any way to rip the EQ curve, and it's not something head-fi would support anyway, because it's similar to pirating.

Since you have the M20X and it's in their profiles, you can use it as reference to do the EQ curve for your other headphones.

 

[headdict]

That's probably the biggest issue. The curve I posted above somewhat works, it fixes the annoying "sting" some songs have that I hate, but end up making the whole thing muddy, probably overdid it as the bass sounds too high, I think. So how would I fix that part? Do I just need to keep in mind that the high-mids must be lowder than what I'm hearing?

EDIT: I have an audio technica ATH-M20x pair that I found and EQ profile thing for in one of the links you gave me. Ok now I at least have a reference point. Yeah, the sound does sound pretty "neutral", pretty nice actually.j

The software has a free trial, but I was hoping to be able to rip the EQ profile from them and use it on my EQ APO, any idea if you can do that?

If you're lucky, your earphones might be included here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eq-settings-for-700-headphones.885196/

I once had an EQ profile that worked for me, but was not usable on my preferred player and there was no way of extracting the parameters. So I played a sine sweep using the EQ, recorded the output and analyzed the resulting frequency response in Audacity. Then I was able to reconstruct the EQ from scratch. It was not perfect, but good enough for me. I'm no lawyer, so can't tell you if this procedure would be legal in your case.

 

[deama]

If you're lucky, your earphones might be included here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eq-settings-for-700-headphones.885196/

I once had an EQ profile that worked for me, but was not usable on my preferred player and there was no way of extracting the parameters. So I played a sine sweep using the EQ, recorded the output and analyzed the resulting frequency response in Audacity. Then I was able to reconstruct the EQ from scratch. It was not perfect, but good enough for me. I'm no lawyer, so can't tell you if this procedure would be legal in your case.

I looked at the list there and found mine:
https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/rtings/avg/Audio-Technica ATH-M20x
But what does that Q mean? It looks quite different from the one I got from the free trial.

 

[bigshot]

EQ is a process, not a destination. You can dial in the perfect curve from a theoretical standpoint, but it might not suit the way you actually hear or your tastes. I'd suggest looking at published curves for particular models as a starting place. Once you find the proper correction for your model, if something doesn't sound right, make a small change and listen to music with it and see if it's better. If not, go back to the published curve and try to figure out what would improve it. If it does help, try a little more in that direction and see if it is moving towards better sound. Use the published curve as a baseline to make your improvements upon. Take baby steps and evaluate. Don't make changes in more than one part of the range at one time, and don't make huge changes. Slow and steady wins the race. Also make sure you correct subtractively... instead of boosting something that is low, subtract from everything around it. You don't want to boost above zero or you will get clipping distorting your sound. If at the end, the overall curve is too low, you can boost it all equally across the range so the highest peak isn't over zero.

 

[bigshot]

But what does that Q mean? It looks quite different from the one I got from the free trial.

Q is the width of the correction. It only applies to parametric equalizers.

 

[gargani]

Q is the width of the correction. It only applies to parametric equalizers.

When looking at the numbers for Q. Does a higher number mean a wider range of correction and a lower number mean a narrower range of correction?

 

[sander99]

When looking at the numbers for Q. Does a higher number mean a wider range of correction and a lower number mean a narrower range of correction?

Other way round. With a high Q you can create a narrow peak or dip.