[ExTubeGamer]

EQ technology has stepped up so much in the last years. No we have autoeq.app. This website allowed me to EQ all my gear to my fav tuning. All In Ears and headphones that i own are now magnitudes better.

 

[bagwell359]

Don't know why you're dropping wisdom like this on an obscure zombie thread, but that's a damn good answer.

It was awakened so what the heck - thanks BTW

 

[Robgo]

In my experience EQing is hit or miss. On some things, like my Sony WF XM4 earbuds, it makes a massive improvement, but on my Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X, Sennheiser HD650, Hifiman Ananda Nano and AKG 250 MKIIs it made the headphones much less musical sounding and I didn't like it. It's also a pain if you use multiple sources. You'll need a DAC Amp with built in EQ for TV/Console gaming and I don't think most have parametric EQ. At least my G6 only has 10 band and you'll never get that to sound as good as parametric EQ.

 

[Alkamei]

I will simply say this as I've always have.

I am a purist, so as a purist I absolutely refuse to EQ.

 

[KaiFi]

I will simply say this as I've always have.

I am a purist, so as a purist I absolutely refuse to EQ.

Me too. I used to EQ when I was a teenager first getting into audio, but I've realized I can get the sound I want with the right equipment. No need for EQ.

If I want a different sound signature, then I will consider a different headphone, amp, DAC, phono cartridge, or recording. I won't be changing it with EQ. I certainly don't believe in EQ to fix bad sound. If something doesn't sound good out of the box, then it's no good. And I will try something else.

 

[Shane D]

EQ technology has stepped up so much in the last years. No we have autoeq.app. This website allowed me to EQ all my gear to my fav tuning. All In Ears and headphones that i own are now magnitudes better.

So, now all of your headphones sound the same?

 

[Alkamei]

Me too. I used to EQ when I was a teenager first getting into audio, but I've realized I can get the sound I want with the right equipment. No need for EQ.

If I want a different sound signature, then I will consider a different headphone, amp, DAC, phono cartridge, or recording. I won't be changing it with EQ. I certainly don't believe in EQ to fix bad sound. If something doesn't sound good out of the box, then it's no good. And I will try something else.

Yes indeed, headphones already offer whatever sound signatures they were engineered to produce and with their full capabilities they can deliver in many wonderful ways if you feed it with all the right sources.

 

[ExTubeGamer]

So, now all of your headphones sound the same?

They still sound different.

They retain their technical ability after all.

 

[Shane D]

They still sound different.

They retain their technical ability after all.

People EQ to what they like. We all do it. You are persuing the same pattern with every headphone.

I gave it up a long time ago. Although not completely as I believe most headphones can use a little bass boost.

 

[cwoo]

They still sound different.

They retain their technical ability after all.

No doubt, I EQ all my headphones to the same target curve and will adjust for personal taste from there. 0 percent of them sound the same when EQ'ed to the same target curve.

Many headphone manufactures have to make sacrifices when building a headphone and EQ allows you to modify out those sacrifices a lot of time. Most headphones tend to do well with EQ, others seem to have little to no difference, and some just sound worse since they can't mechanically handle it.

EQ is free, why not try it? That's what I always say. I have several EQ profiles with minor tweaks for each headphone.

I dunno why EQ gets so much hate sometimes because a lot of headphones out of the box are kind of a mess across the frequency response graph.

Frequency response is just one of like 900 different properties in audio.

 

[ThEvil0nE]

I eq to see how good or messed up I can get the sound to be and revert to stock or not.. depends
It is when you start accumulating phones, I'll say bare minimum 3, you will start to appreciate their individual sound character. You keep the things that agree with you and let go of phones that do not. As your collection grows a few might get replaced.

 

[phthora]

I eq to see how good or messed up I can get the sound to be and revert to stock or not.. depends
It is when you start accumulating phones, I'll say bare minimum 3, you will start to appreciate their individual sound character. You keep the things that agree with you and let go of phones that do not. As your collection grows a few might get replaced.

I have a pretty large totally reasonable and justified collection of headphones and I still use EQ on many. With one exception, my goal is not to EQ everything to my own preferred FR, but just to improve the sound while preserving the personality of the headphones. Maybe that's filling a single dip or adding some bass, pulling the vocals forward or reducing a treble peak or two, whatever. Point is, you don't need to adjust 27 bands or dial in the Q to the specific 1/100th for it to be an effective tool. A light touch with EQ can still yield some real improvements without homogenizing the sound.

 

[Shane D]

I eq to see how good or messed up I can get the sound to be and revert to stock or not.. depends
It is when you start accumulating phones, I'll say bare minimum 3, you will start to appreciate their individual sound character. You keep the things that agree with you and let go of phones that do not. As your collection grows a few might get replaced.

I gave up the EQ'ing thing but I LOVE variety. And yes I have gone through many sets looking for what I like. Rather than EQ for different sound signatures, I just keep many headphones around. And sometimes the changes do NOT go smoothly, but that's part of the fun.
I have sold three pairs in the last two weeks, so I think I am getting closer to a reasonable number. And more importantly, I Really like what I have left.

 

[bagwell359]

I will simply say this as I've always have.

I am a purist, so as a purist I absolutely refuse to EQ.

I tried an "audiophile" Soundcraftsman stereo 20 band fixed EQ many years ago and decided it added phase problems when adjacent sliders were 6 db or more net away from each other (+3 and -3 for instance).

Never used again until I tried the ToneBoosters parametric about 3 years ago. Great tool, no audible side effects. Confirmed fan.

 

[bagwell359]

So, now all of your headphones sound the same?

No since FR is but a fractional portion of audio perception.