headphone equalize debate -

Hi

It was me who posted on the other forum about eq headphones - my cousin brought it to my attention about 2 weeks ago - until then I was loving the sound of my pc to heapdones HD558 via the Novo.  I was very reluctant at this stage to change anything - stubborness and ignorance on my part

I read this article http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial
Listened to my cousin talk about his positive personal results and explanations as to what and why.
I then went and had a listen to his - came home listened to mine and immediately I could hear where it was wrong

Next was to give it a try - I found it easy to find the main resonant frequency 7501 - but it took more tim to realise I have 3 resonant frequencies 5000, 7501 and 11500

An hour or so later I was semi happy- a few days later of tweaking and I am quite happy now.
The tweaking has had me reducing the resonant frequencies more and more

The reason it took so long for me to be happy is that all the time my mind was telling me by reducing the frequency more and more I am losing more and more detail.

Once I realised that was not the case - I actually realised  by doing it I was actually bringing out more detail in the mid range, opening the soundstage up and the highs sounded more realistic.

Looking over other forums and posts everyone who tries it properly seem convinced and the tutorial really helps with the process.

I added into another forum post to try and help people find this out - to me get your 595's sounding their best before you spend £260 on a new set of cans HD650s.
You might find they will have the sound you are looking for without spending a penny - you will also see that I have strongly recommended a Slee amp as an upgrade as I also believe as an owner that it will make a big improvement as well

However there seem to be people not willing to try - obviously the guy who brought the debate to this forum who thinks its "rubbish".

How can a headphone manufacturer make something to perfectly suit everyones ears - they cant - therefore tweaking is surely required based on that thought alone!
The guy in the tutorial makes references to Siegfried Linkwitz and his process of discovery then elimination makes a lot of sense.  You adjust the sound of your headphones on your ears to get as flat a freq curve as possible .

Hi Mrarraoyo

To test that theory I have tried listening to the same song through media player and then foobar ( with eq installed but flat) and they sounded similar - better fro foobar

Therefore the eq used Electri-Q is not adding any distortion thats audible to me.


 


Edited by ellisdj - 20 Oct 2011 at 11:59am

Hi TG

Thanks for the reponse 

This is about making your current kit sound better - not changing any sonic characters that you have grown to love. people will spend £0000s trying to improve sound - sometimes it the free things we can do that make all the difference.

Simple test and stage 1 - run a signal sweep a few times at a decent volume and see if you hear clear peaks in volume as the sound goes up the frequency range - I am betting you will.
If that is the case consider you are hearing these frequencies potenitally 9db above the others around it - that is not how the headphone manufacturer intended yo to hear it.

You can use the software Sinegen to do this manually - its the best way as you can move up the range slowly to hear and record the start middle and finish of the peak.
Youy can also set macros of any frequncy at any db level.
Therefore when you find the middle of the peaking frequency you can set macros at -1 db - 2 db ... - 9db etc at that frequency you can then quickly go from a reference frequency (one you know is not peaking and at 0db) back and forth to the different db levels to hear which sounds the closest in terms of volume.
You then now roughly how much that freq is peaking and how much it will need reducing in the eq  - make sense, not explained greatly?

There are a lot of forums with info on this - I am certainly not the only one suggesting it improves sound.  Its made a big impact on me to the point where I am bothering to write all this - I expected everyone to already be doing it and thought they would be telling me new stuff related to it

Trying to get onto the Linklwitz page to read his comments but I think we all must be crashing it atm

This is where the reference is made
I am a strong proponent of properly applied equalization. When used correctly, equalization can make a good headphone great, and a great headphone superb. And most headphones need at least some equalization. In my 3 years since joining Head-Fi, having heard and used many different types of headphones, I have noticed a phenomenon that has occurred with every headphone, ear bud, and IEM I have ever used. I first read about it at Siegfried Linkwitz's page some years ago, where he discusses his method for equalizing the Etymotic ER4S. He states that "an acoustic impedance mismatch between transducer, ear canal, and eardrum" is causing a resonance that results in a large peak at 7.5kHz, coloring the sound. He and a friend of his also experienced the same effect when using a pair of old Sennheiser HD414s. (For the record, I'd wager good money this is the primary reason why so many people cannot tolerate the ER4S.)

I too have noticed this, with my HD650s, ER4Ss, and even my STAX headphones. Anyone is susceptible to this effect, and unless your headphone's inherent frequency response happens to match your personal resonance frequency, you are likely already experiencing the effect. Even very high-end headphones will exhibit this problem.

On this comment

"BTW the conclusion that eq is not adding distortion, if judged by listening when set flat, does not appear to be a valid conclusion.
Perhaps you have not elucidated your testing fully or I have misunderstood"

I have just twigged - using the included eq adds distortion is what was meant by the comment - maybe that is the case - bear in mnd here we are reducing freq not adding anything.
The tutorial is stating the need to add in a good equlaizer - one that allows you to set the exact freq, exact db change and the steepness that it happens by Electric Q is suggested.


Edited by ellisdj - 20 Oct 2011 at 3:28pm