I’ve been on a quest to find me some headphones that does it all for me, that also does not break the bank, and this place seem to be the best place to look for answers!
So I’ve been through different “gaming” headsets, the Beyerdynamic TYGR 300R and now I’m using the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition.
Overall, because I know how to EQ my headphones, the Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition is the best audio I have ever had but it does have a sort of cold, harshe mid -to- highs sound that just irritates me now… If I could, I would love a mix of the TYGR 300R and the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition. The TYGR 300R overall sound profile but then the bass performance of the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition.
I listen to a lot of EDM and because of that, the TYGR 300R just did not do it for me. Then suddenly the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition released and obviously I chose to buy one. I was hooked in by what Beyerdynamics wrote about the bass performance and they did not lie, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to EQ the overall sound profile to my liking and now I’m seeking to replace my DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition.
So, I hope you guys know what sort of sound I’m going for and that you can recommend me some good headphones. I’m willing to spend up around 500USD. I do have a DAC/AMP, the FiiO K7.
Since you’re open to EQ, do you mind running a 3000-15000hz, 25 seconds sweep using http://owliophile.com/ ?
Then write down the frequencies you hear sharp loud peaks or quiet valleys. You could use the single tone tool and drag across the graph to home in on those frequencies after using the sweep tool.
Very curious what spikes you’re hearing in that region with your two headphones which might contribute to the cold harsh mids and highs.
That site is so cool. How easy it was to pinpoint the harshe Hz. These are my findings:
~6.200 Hz sound harshe
~7.400 Hz sound harshe
10.700-11.100 Hz sounds harshe
15.700-17.000 Hz sound harshe
I ofcourse ran these tests without my EQ applied. But when using my EQ, the peak at 6.200, 7.400, and the range from 15.700 to 17.000 wasn’t so bad anymore, almost kinda fixed. But the 10.800-11.100 range I did not have any -dB on.
When setting a -4dB on 10.950 Hz I feel like the overall sound is better, so thank you so much for showing me this website.
What’s funny, when locking the Hz at 7.400, almost no sounds at all comes from the right. Not sure if it’s my ears or my headphones haha.
Pretty common, in fact, almost every single headphone/IEM will have some kind of dead spot near that frequency range. Sometimes you could EQ a few dB to help, but it’s probably best to EQ the other side DOWN to match instead of up, or just leave it. The reason being those constructive/destructive wave interference patterns can be very sensitive to headphone placement. Try nudging the cup in any direction a little bit and you might hear that “dip” move in the frequency range. If it doesn’t really move, then you could consider EQing it, otherwise it’s best to leave it alone.
You could consider using the EQ filters built into the site and level out those peaks, then copy those settings to whatever EQ app you’re using. I find that usually makes treble quality of headphones much more natural and pleasing. It’s up to you of course, some people like to leave the “character” of their headphones alone, some thinks EQ destroys sound quality (pretty debatable), and some people EQ the crap out of it and enjoy the results. But since it’s free to try, maybe you could give it a go and see how you like the results.
You could use the colored markers to help you mark the peaks and adjust Q to fit exactly the width of the peaks.
You’re welcome, thanks for giving it a try. I’m trying to gather more data to see if there are common patterns and/or EQ fixes.
Thanks for the link, Luke. While I am not an EQer, I did use its tone generator to test the upper and lower limits of my hearing. I can still hear from 22 Hz (I couldn’t manage to “request” anything lower than that… perhaps I could have, if had I read the instructions) to just shy of 12 KHz. Not too shabby, at age 74.
Thank you for explaining everything. About the 7.400Hz dip, I think I’ll just leave it. Never, ever have I heard the dip during actual music, gaming, or whatever, so doesn’t really matter to me. But it was fun discovering haha.
I guess I should have tried using the EQ filters on the website but I honestly just worked directly in Equalizer APO as I found the harshe Hz, and that also worked quite well!
