[HiFiHawaii808]

Self-explanatory title - so many head-fiers find certain headphones to be lacking/have too much of something, and this can (sometimes) be solved with a bit of analogue or DSP-based EQ tickling.

For me, adding a bass shelf as well as some upper sparkle on the Audeze Sine DX turned them from a 'nice'-sounding, warm pair of cans into some rather special indeed.

If you have any EQ settings that have made a great pair of cans sound amazing, or an average pair of cans sound great, let us know!

Yes. HD800S. Without EQ, they are only good for listening to Classical music and Jazz. With EQ to Harman plus a 100 hz bass shelf, they become all arounders. Not my preferred all arounder, but listenable for all genres I listen to.

 

[JES]

Not headphones, but TWS earbuds. Earfun Free Pro. These things out of the box had so much bass it was a disaster. But they're very comfortable and they stay in. I only use them to work out. I had to EQ the hell out of them, but now they're "completely transformed". Yeah, I could keep buying TWS looking for perfection, but for $60 and some EQ, they're good enough for my non-critical-listening cardio every day.

 

[Dawgfish]

Sundara for me and they're not bad stock. I add a little boost to 60, 120, and 2k Hz and it sounds marvelous!

 

[Mad Max]

Sony MDR-V55, after swapping out stock pads with HM3 pads, changed with some drastic EQ to tame its three resulting 18dB peaks. Super good sound for a low price, but permanently needs drastic EQ after a pad swap for it.

Philips A1 Pro is pretty muffled and mediocre without strong treble boost. Or rather, heavy treble roll-off cripples the headphone, so post EQ, it is a decent portable with big, punchy bass.

Beyerdynamic T90 has treble boost like many bassy-ish headphones have bass boost, but EQ'ing all that down and attenuating its midbass a bit, can sound a lot like K701, but with far less grain and a littoe more fullness. T90 also sounds closer to a pair of speakers next to your ears rather than a headphone, much like K701, with or without EQ. I tend to use it without EQ.

 

[BobG55]

HD650

 

[Merkurio]

Practically any Audeze.

 

[Aurosonic]

The Stax SR-007 MK1 sounds better to me with a convolution filter applied.

 

[Deceneu808]

All my headphones run fine with and without EQ and sometimes I use it and sometimes I don't but the one that stood out the most and I use it exclusively with EQ is the Beyerdynamic DT880. I pad swapped them for the Dekoni Choice Suede and they became very muffled and weird. I applied EQ on my DAC and it's a completely new headphone for the better.

 

[478423]

Sony MDR-V55, after swapping out stock pads with HM3 pads, changed with some drastic EQ to tame its three resulting 18dB peaks. Super good sound for a low price, but permanently needs drastic EQ after a pad swap for it.

Philips A1 Pro is pretty muffled and mediocre without strong treble boost. Or rather, heavy treble roll-off cripples the headphone, so post EQ, it is a decent portable with big, punchy bass.

Beyerdynamic T90 has treble boost like many bassy-ish headphones have bass boost, but EQ'ing all that down and attenuating its midbass a bit, can sound a lot like K701, but with far less grain and a littoe more fullness. T90 also sounds closer to a pair of speakers next to your ears rather than a headphone, much like K701, with or without EQ. I tend to use it without EQ.

I'm curious as to why you bought a headphone that neeeded an 18 decibel correction at 3 different points. Not judgemental, just seriously curious.

 

[Zabens]

When I listen to my Anandas on the ifi Zen can I always turn on the tru bass. Not sure if that counts but I love that pairing, especially for movies.

 

[Mad Max]

Guess I need to try this. Love the look / build of the HD 700 and they're my only Senns at the moment so I keep them around for comparison purposes and cause they're just so pretty... But to imagine these were at one point Sennheiser's flagship? God, they're trash, at least with stock tuning. Multiple $200 headphones and IEMs I'd rather listen to vs. the HD700 with no EQ. What are these things supposed to be good at? Clearly not what I listen to for the most part - alt rock / EDM / female vocals.

I don't know about HD700 being pretty, I think my Ultrasones, HD650, T90, and SR325is are much better looking. =p

Technically they were never Sennheiser's flagship, that belongs to the (now discontinued) HD800. But yeah, to imagine them as only 2nd to the HD800 with that bad of a fall out is pretty hard to believe. Then again, a similarish thing happened with the HD820 having a huge fall out despite being 2nd to the HD800S. Also, the HD700 is certainty not meant for EDM at all.

I was agreeing with you until you said HD700 can't do EDM. That's what I like it for most, actually. I love HD700's bass the most out of all my headphones for its quality, but bear in mind that I use my HD700 very differently from everyone else. EQ is throwing a band-aid over a gaping wound here, HD700 needs other tweaks to shine. No harm in bass boost, though, but I tend to not do that.

I'm curious as to why you bought a headphone that neeeded an 18 decibel correction at 3 different points. Not judgemental, just seriously curious.

It doesn't need it with the stock earpads at all. The drivers are tuned for the stock earpads, but the resulting sound is fairly lo-fi and balanced. It's only after the pad swap and EQ that it is then able to compete with DT770, K553, Listen Pro, etc. I would have kept it if I could have found a way to tame the sound without EQ so I can use it away from my computer. It doesn't interest me at my desktop rig where I use K701, T90, HD650, and HD700. Heck, I like modified V55 better than even MDR-7520.

 

[ADUHF]

To NeverExpectedSoundSoGood's point, I think the closer you can get to "your" sound (mine is pretty neutral) on a headphone to begin with, the better EQ works. I have tried it with both open and closed headphones as well. And in my experience, it tends to work better with the closed HPs. Though may still have some benefits with some open HPs as well, especially planars, I'd think, that can handle some more boosting/extension in the bass than open dynamics.

I use EQ with all my headphones. And have tried various different means of accomplishing this from 31-band analog graphic EQ's like the DBX 231S. Which I don't really recommend btw.

To the 3-band parametric EQ's on various compact mixers, by companies like Mackie and Yamaha. Which can work fairly well, when correctly set up. (Though it probably wouldn't be high enough quality for most audiophiles.) And a couple different types of digital/software EQ's. And also the basic bass and treble tone controls on receivers.

The Configuration Editor that comes with the Equalizer APO is actually quite powerful. So that's what I've been using lately. The interface is not the most user-friendly, but it's great for a more advanced user who's tried many other options before. And wants something with alot of flexibility to configure various controls and filters however you want. (Others seem to prefer the Peace interface though.)

I have not tried the Schiit Loki, or other similar 4-band analog EQs like the Rolls-Bellari EQ570...

But have been tempted. I assume those would work somewhat similarly to the 3-band EQs on some compact mixers. Perhaps with a little more transparency. I like the configuration of the 3-band EQs though. And not sure that the configuration of the controls/bands on these units would be as ideal for my purposes. (?)

The two HPs that I've mostly used EQ with are the AKG K553 Pro, and Beyerdynamic DT-770. Both are closed. And it has a made a substantial improvement both in terms of my enjoyment of the headphones, and also in terms of their accuracy, detail, and immersiveness imho. YMMV though.

 

[478423]

Thanks for your response MadMax and ADUHF!

Ah yeah, modifying the HD700 with putting stuff inside will change the sound. Not a fan of doing that because I'm a klutz.

For the rest of you, what else do you all use to modify the sound of a headphone, if you do modifications?

 

[iFi audio]

When I listen to my Anandas on the ifi Zen can I always turn on the tru bass. Not sure if that counts but I love that pairing, especially for movies.

That's interesting, one of our crew with Anandas also has xBass constantly engaged on his ZEN CAN too. Thanks for sharing

 

[SonicFade]

The Sennheiser HD58x can have a hilarious amount of sub-bass when EQ'd with a schiit loki - especially for an open back. So much so to where I sold my sz2000 bass-canons because they were no longer needed.

The HD58x with a heavy EQ are now my go-to for the rare occasions I am listening to bass heavy music like dubstep or whatever bass heavy electronic music.

I tried this and didn’t have the greatest results. I’m listening to fast metal though. The bass was a bit bloated and rounded off