Score before 3khz adjustment (1 is low, 5 is high): 3.5
Notes: Still a bit bright for my tastes, and a bit shouty to me. Things I noticed are that tracks generally feel a bit more filled out in the midrange, and air and space seems to be pulled in. Drums especially feel this effect, with them not having as much of a thinness to the snares, and the shimmer also pulled back. I felt compared to the original Sundara, the timbre has improved quite a bit, mainly in guitars and the mentioned percussion. Vocals still seems just a tad too cold for me. Overall a bit better than stock tuning, but doesn’t solve the generally bright nature I can feel sometimes with the Sundara.
3khz Filter: -2.5dB
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4
Notes: This alleviates a good bit of the shout issues I had, and brings a greater balance in the midrange. This still doesn’t solve it feeling bright to me compared to what I tend to EQ though.
My personal suggestion would be to go with a higher dB/octave tilt. I tend to be very sensitive to upper midrange and higher frequencies, so I prefer something close to a 1.4dB/octave tilt with a Harman 2013-like bass level. For most people who aren’t as sensitive as me, something like a 1.0-1.2dB/octave tilt may work best. Good work on this so far, and I look forward to hearing about how this turns out!
Yeah a 10dB slope is an option for us to test - it also keeps things simple. The thing is, 8dB is Harman, so going a bit warmer departs slightly from that research. My thinking was that we can stick with Harman bass to treble delta and see if the preference elements for ear gain around 3khz shakes out in listener feedback, similarly to how it did for them.
Hey there! I guess this will be my first post on these forums.
Listener age: 32
Headphones: Sennheiser HD 600
Source: Schiit Modi Multibit 2 w/ NITSCH x Schiit Magni Piety
Pad age: New
Score before 3khz adjustment (1 is low, 5 is high): 4
3khz Filter: -3dB
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4.5
Notes: There seems to be a glare with the HD600, at least with my setup, that this EQ alleviates a bit. I didn’t really notice it until I tried the EQ and the 3 kHz adjustment. The glare is pretty much gone after -3 dB on the 3 kHz filter. I consider this EQ to be a subtle improvement on the sound of the HD600, particularly in the additional subbass and in the additional treble clarity that reducing the glare provides. Overall I think this is fantastic and I’ll be using it going forward because it sounds great.
I’d be really interested to see an EQ profile for the Arya V3 Stealth, if that’s not too much trouble.
Have you considered doing this the other way around concurrently? i.e. getting EQ profiles from the community for headphones you have available and measuring the headphone with the EQ applied on the new rig? Sure you still run into unit variation issues, but that’s also the case with the current method, just on the user side.
Score before 3khz adjustment (1 is low, 5 is high): 4
3khz Filter: -2dB
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4.5
Notes: General balance and timbre feel quite natural, but that 3k peak does indeed feel a bit too emphasised to my taste and makes lots of metal tracks way too harsh (example: Death - Symbolic), or it can make some male vocals unnaturally thin (16 Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n Ashes). I also felt like removing the 150 Hz filter gave the music overall a touch more life and natural warmth (Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee). After a while I’ve found that I could use a touch more bass in general, and ended up boosting the 3 lowest bands by 2-3 db in addition to lowering the 3 khz filter by 2 db as well.
Unfortunately target curves can’t be developed by using measured headphones, because those results will vary across users (and rigs). So even if you had the same unit, it’s not guaranteed to be the same response on the rig as it is on the person who did the EQ. But… it would still be interesting to see an average of what people EQ’d common headphones to, just for fun. Maybe something for the future.
I thought the HE6se and HE6seV2 used the same pads as Sundara. They certainly look very similar externally, but i haven’t taken any of these pads apart. Maybe they are the same as the old revision Sundara pads but not the new revision ones, idk.
Score before 3khz adjustment (1 is low, 5 is high): 3.5
First 3khz Filter: -1.5dB Q: 2 (Vocal Test)
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4.0
Note (1): Test track: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, a song with a very forward vocal. Before the adjustment, it’s a bit too shouty and too much focus on the vocals to the point of fatiguing. After the adjustment, the vocals and instrumentals are more balance without losing focus on the vocals.
Second 3khz Filter: 3.5dB Q: 2 (Instrumental + Vocal Test)
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4.0
Note (2): Test track: Fly Robin Fly by Silver Convention, track with mostly instrumentals. After the adjustment, the song is much more energetic and instrumentals are clearer and less blunted.
Final Note (3): As I suspected, I prefer different tunings for different song. The biggest difference of adjusting the 3khz for me would be the energy level of the song (mostly vocals). However, if I had to choose I would pick 1.5dB 3khz Filter prepared by Resolve as the target. Sundara does have have a tuning that bring the instrumentals more forward than the vocals (for most songs) and 1.5dB is about right to balance out a bit.
Pad age: Brand new - just received the headphone this weekend
Score before 3khz adjustment (1 is low, 5 is high): 4
Notes: The tonality overall is quite good, with a bit of a thinness in the lower and middle midrange and slight shout in the upper mids. Guitars are somewhat aggressive, presenting too much sheen, while male vocals could use a touch more weight. A little more body & warmth in the upper bass and lower mids would be preferred and might balance out the upper mids.
3khz Filter: -1.5dB, Q: 1.8
Score after 3khz adjustment: 4.5
Notes: Reducing the upper mids by 1.5dB using the 3Khz, Q 1.8 filter took away the “shout” and gave the allusion of adding weight to the upper bass and lower mids that I mentioned I was craving above. It’s not perfect but it certainly helped; mid treble also sounds a hair snappier as a result. Overall, I like the sound quite a bit with this configuration.
Other observations: In comparing the LCD-X 2021 and the HD 600 using the Headphones dot com provided presets, I am surprised that the Audeze’s timbre seemed to have improved. This could be a psycho acoustic phenomenon, but the difference in timbre when comparing each headphone in stock configuration back-to-back is more noticeable; the gap closes when comparing using the EQ presets.