[tbritton]

Speaking of EQ on iPods and other portable devices, there is a thread I just bumped that discusses using MP3Gain or AACGain to lower the signal at the source so as not to over-drive the EQ (the primary cause of iPad EQ's sucking so bad...)
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/200539/why-your-awesome-iems-sound-bad-from-your-ipod-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/45#post_2561354
 
The post there is where I pick up the discussion to talk about gain-staging.
 
Perhaps this deserves its own thread? Or over at a different section?
 
Anyway, I find this fascinating that I could make my iPod 4th Gen Nano's EQ actually sound good.
 
Terry

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I have to say that is a lot of changes that you made. I tried Electri-Q before and it wasn't very clean as some better EQs so there are large latency issues especially from the 9db boost in low range region and 5db recess of treble. If you use linear phase equalizing, you probably don't want to boost frequencies too often and most of your graph are frequency boosts.
 

 
Free and paid versions are very different. Free doesn't have linear phase while paid does, for instance. Also, paid version has twice the adjustment granularity.
 
But I agree that EQ settings were kind of boosted beyond what I'd consider as acceptable.

 

[Satellite_6]

Quote:

Either you must be deaf or then you've only used bad quality EQs (comparing only software EQs to each other, iTunes, foobar, winamp etc). Honestly the difference I get between using my 10-band hardware EQ and iTunes 10-band EQ is a night and day difference and thanks to the hardware EQ you really hear how iTunes distorts and colors the frequencies (they don't sound like they are supposed to when there's similarly tweaked eq-curve or I should say loudness curve rather as the exact same settings won't sound the same on the different EQs). 
 
On iTunes I need roughly 3x bigger values/change to get somewhat similar sense of loudness curve: a ~1.5dB change on my hardware EQ represents ~4.5dB change on iTunes. The below settings sounds about as similar as possible:
 

 

 

Well I don't use iTunes but I guess I'm just deaf. Very very deaf compared to the magic ears of head-fiers. 1 dB should be 1 dB anyway it's done, no? 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

For portable use, the EQ on the Cowon players is quite good in quality, but also fairly limited.
 
Some media players have decent EQs and others don't.  I always use ffdshow's EQ when watching movies and stuff since pretty much all 'phones need a massiv boost to the sub bass to approximate a real HT sub.  It sounds great with "high quality" mode checked and atrocious without it.
 
For music players, you're best off picking one that has a decent plugin architecture like foobar or Jriver so you can use pro quality VST plugins.  I've mostly been using EasyQ since its free, good, and I'm cheap.  I've head good things about Electri-Q and PSP Neon HR.  I haven't bothered messing around to see if I can hear any differences between them since I'm spending most of my tweaking time on physical mods, but once that settles down I'll concentrate on dialing in some EQ curves for that last bit of perfection.

yes i have that but i don't know how to use it properly. do you?
 
 
 
does anyone know how to get multiple dots to move around on this equalizer? i kind of gave up on it because i can't figure it out but i will try again if i can get help.
thanks

 

[wind016]

Quote:

yes i have that but i don't know how to use it properly. do you?
 
 
 
does anyone know how to get multiple dots to move around on this equalizer? i kind of gave up on it because i can't figure it out but i will try again if i can get help.
thanks

... OMGOSHHHH I remember sending you messages to see if you understood it and you gave me the impression that you understood. I'm assuming all the bands are turned off for you. Turn them on to get the "dots" moving by clicking and dragging the dots. Select different styles of EQ by selecting it under "Type." Adjust "Q" to adjust the range of change under the band.
 
FAT mode is oversampling.
 
LIN mode is linear phase.
 
There is a manual that came with it. Generally, you want LR channel of EQ and maximum resolution.
 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

... OMGOSHHHH I remember sending you messages to see if you understood it and you gave me the impression that you understood. I'm assuming all the bands are turned off for you. Turn them on to get the "dots" moving by clicking and dragging the dots. Select different styles of EQ by selecting it under "Type." Adjust "Q" to adjust the range of change under the band.
 
FAT mode is oversampling.
 
LIN mode is linear phase.
 
There is a manual that came with it.
 

how do i turn them on?

 

[wind016]

Quote:

how do i turn them on?

There's an "on" button for each band next to the "Type" selection.
 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

There's an "on" button for each band next to the "Type" selection.
 

ok thanks that helped greatly.
 

 

[peskypesky]

i use EQ almost 100% of the time. I tailor it to the headphones and the music I'm listening to at the moment.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

hello all i managed to flatten the frequency response of my shure srh840. they sound much better.
 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

if you use eq excessively can you break your headphones?

 

[wind016]

Quote:

hello all i managed to flatten the frequency response of my shure srh840. they sound much better.
 

I think you should play with the EQ more. You probably should also set it to maximum resolution. Standard is generally for mixing purposes. The adjustments you made are fairly dramatic but looking at Shure's FR, that headphone is fairly colored as well, but your adjustments are still just a bit too much. A 24db boost in the upper treble probably won't do you any good and most of your changes are around the +/- 12db range. If you need to make such strong changes, you're better with a different headphone. Play around some more and see if it's necessary. You also don't want the indicators under the graph (in your picture it shows +5.6, +4.1 but usually keeps changing) to show up in the color red. Try not to boost frequencies.
 

 

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

I think you should play with the EQ more. You probably should also set it to maximum resolution. Standard is generally for mixing purposes. The adjustments you made are fairly dramatic but looking at Shure's FR, that headphone is fairly colored as well, but your adjustments are still just a bit too much. A 24db boost in the upper treble probably won't do you any good and most of your changes are around the +/- 12db range. If you need to make such strong changes, you're better with a different headphone. Play around some more and see if it's necessary. You also don't want the indicators under the graph (says +5.6, +4.1) to show up in the color red. Try not to boost frequencies.
 

 

but it sounds amazing like this.

 

[wind016]

FYI, if anyone is interested in the PSP Neon HR 2.0, it's only $99 until 6/30.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

FYI, if anyone is interested in the PSP Neon HR 2.0, it's only $99 until 6/30.

definitely worth it.