[Chrysoberyl]

Hi all.I'm new to this crazy hobby of headphones,and I've noticed that equalization is kind of taboo here...that's my impression at least.I don't have the greatest hi-fi equipment on earth,but my HD 595s,good as they are,sound an awful lot better when i put my x-fi equalizer to play.I don't get the slightest hint of distortion whatsoever.
Is there something I should know or my ears are a bit worn after years of LOUD symphonic playing?

Thanks in advance for your responses,and thanks for the great information and fun that I get every day from these pages.

 

[warMen]

I don't are... I love my EQ

 

[Jahn]

rule of thumb here is - "if you enjoy it, use it!"

and some cans certainly have needed EQ in the past in my old rigs. i've just found that over time as i've tweaked my system, the need for EQ to compensate for deficiencies in the chain has lessened as the deficiencies in the chain have lessened.

so there is no shame in eq inherently. there is shame in the deficient rig needing compensation MUAHAHAAHAH

(i keed!)

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrysoberyl /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi all.I'm new to this crazy hobby of headphones,and I've noticed that equalization is kind of taboo here...that's my impression at least.I don't have the greatest hi-fi equipment on earth,but my HD 595s,good as they are,sound an awful lot better when i put my x-fi equalizer to play.I don't get the slightest hint of distortion whatsoever. Is there something I should know or my ears are a bit worn after years of LOUD symphonic playing? Thanks in advance for your responses,and thanks for the great information and fun that I get every day from these pages.

EQ isnt shunned here. But software EQ and using it to boost something ends up in distortion. Easiest it is to notice when boosting bass and trying to play Sine Wave. Sounds horrible. However, X-Fi equalizer is hardware related, adjusted by drivers so it doesnt produce such distortion.

However, whenever i try to boost a bass in my DT880 for example, it muddies clearly and loses tightness. But reducing something, like the spike in 10Khz, sounds very good. Nowadays I use EQ to adjust stuff slightly, not to boost anything.

 

[MaZa]

Oh, and about software EQing, to avoid distortion you can REDUCE the frequencies you want less and leaving the stuff you want most on or close to zero db. No distortion nor clipping produced.

 

[Gurra1980]

I'm all with you I have never heard a hi fi system that didn't become better with a little adjusted EQ I think the things that is not so good with EQ should be distortion if you play really loud and the noise gets worse. IMO it's a must to equlize a little when you shift between music. And I think it's stupid to say not EQ is how the musician wanted the music to sound, because It's im that listening to the music and not the musician then I should decide how the music shall sound!!

Of course a really nice Hi-Fi system may not need Equlizing so much, but there is so many bad recorded cd's that becomes better with a little equalizing.

 

[3x331m]

Use it (Digital EQ) if it helps to improve your system.

Why would you want to pay hundreds of dollars on amps and cables to color your sound ? .... And not EQ ? Just because you can get it free most of the time ?

 

[MaZa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3x331m /img/forum/go_quote.gif Use it (Digital EQ) if it helps to improve your system. Why would you want to pay hundreds of dollars on amps and cables to color your sound ? .... And not EQ ? Just because you can get it free most of the time ?

Speculation:
Because EQ has more noticeable side effects in sound than hardware tweaking? Like the bass thing and such, frequencies interfering others etc...

 

[mirumu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif EQ isnt shunned here. But software EQ and using it to boost something ends up in distortion. Easiest it is to notice when boosting bass and trying to play Sine Wave. Sounds horrible. However, X-Fi equalizer is hardware related, adjusted by drivers so it doesnt produce such distortion.

That's interesting because I can't imagine many technical reasons for software EQ to be inherently worse that digital hardware EQ. Maybe bringing DSPs into the mix but modern computer processors are fast enough to act as a DSP anyway. That's not to say there isn't a lot of bad software EQ out there, I just suspect it's a case of good idea but bad implementations.

The main problems I'm aware of with EQ are clipping in the digital domain and phase shift in the analog domain. I can't say I have anything against EQ though.

 

[denl82]

I had to eq when I had the grado sr80. But when I got my dt770/80's, it was a whole different story. It sounded so good stock, that I didn't have to eq! I did a little, however, and discovered that using the equalizer detracted some qualities, like soundstaging, while increasing others, like the mids. I decided to just leave things alone and let a $225 headphone sound like a $225 headphone=]

 

[OGTL]

I prefer to use EQ with my speaker setup to add depth, but with the headphones its usually flat.

 

[Chrysoberyl]

And still something more: would it be possible to replicate different headphone signatures just with your usually cheaper pair and some EQ?
In other words,does anybody think that you can get,let's say, a grado sound out of a Senn via EQ?

 

[3x331m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Speculation: Because EQ has more noticeable side effects in sound than hardware tweaking? Like the bass thing and such, frequencies interfering others etc...

I think most of us took EQ for granted due to lack of understanding of the sonic spectrum (I'm one of them). I've learned to use EQ in the very early years of my childhood, and once you've got the hang of it, you might feel like a recording artist. If you look at the recording studios, you'd see how much they invest in "EQ". Some tools are built better than others, and hence, your mileage may vary....

 

[mtd]

I use hardware equalization .. I love it.

Get this .. I bump bass, and treble on my dt770s.

I call it .. THE POWERFUL V.

 

[GreatDane]

I like to color the sound of my headphones most times. Sometimes I like to hear a pure sound, no Aural Exciter, no crossfeed no tubey goodness...solid state crispness.