I wasn’t intending to make them sound like two different headphones, the initial statement in my request was
Then I was going to equalise them to fine tune the sound to how I like
So we’re in agreement again, and that’s how I am I basing my purchasing decision but it’s not answering my initial question.
I’m happy for this to no longer be discussed. I got some good contributions from the first replies and I’ll go from there.
Sorry I misunderstood your ask a bit. Looking back over the conversation, I think one point others were trying to add was that tonality + comfort + EQ ability (your 3 stated criteria for purchase) may not be the only ones you should consider. Depending on your budget range, you will find options that present better or worse in areas like detail retrieval, soundstage, slam, timbre, etc that aren’t covered by just the tonality.
I’ll leave the original answers to cover your original question 
That said, all the best with your purchase, and I hope you love whatever you end up with!
@mechkbfan - my advice would be to hunt for the headphone that most closely suits your preference for tonality, and avoid eqing it for at least a week (two if able). The reason I say this is that I believe there is a really good EQ system in your brain, and it adjusts as you listen to something over time. Some may refer to this as brain burn in.
If after a week or two there are still aspects of the frequency that you want to change, apply EQ after you are used to listening to it. This way you are much more familiar with what it is you want to change, because you’ve gotten used to the sound signature of the headphone.
I found applying EQ to a headphone after only a few hours of listening only leads to frustration. After a while, initial changes seemed to excessive or insufficient, and it seems like I was eternally EQ’ing and not listening. Anyway…
You mentioned the th900 and ZMF Eikon. I’ve heard/owned both, and imo the TH900 is appropriate for only a few genres of music due to it’s extremely withdrawn mids, and it’s v-shaped sound. (Not to mention that I found the ear pads are quite uncomfortable for long-term listening.)
The Eikon on the other hand, is more of a w-shaped sound. It has mids that are present, and make rock and roll, blues, jazz, pop and other genres including EDM sound very good. I think this would be the safer bet, and my suggestion.
I hope that helps. Good luck.
You speak the truth, Professor. Not only does the brain burn in, but sometimes, so do the headphones. This was the case with the Nectar Hive eStat. They got better and better, and I kept changing the EQ. Finally I said F-it, and turned off EQ. A month after that, and all I did was add a bit of bass shelf - sometimes.
Thanks I understand that everyone is trying to help, and I consider myself a newbie in all this and trying to learn more about particular aspects one at a time.
Fundamentally what brought this on is I bought a $500 pair of headphones, and there’s so many things I like in contrast to my last pair BUT there’s a deal breaker, it’s just lacking some sub-bass that I didn’t realise I loved for so many of my artists that I listen to on a daily basis. So for the past week, I’ve tried once a day to go back to these tracks but I’m just outright not enjoying it.
So before selling these headphones, I’m setting up APO (got a technical issue) to experiment and see what the limitations of eq’ing are. e.g. If I can tweak these headphones in that region to the point that I don’t notice it. I doubt I can but I’m curious. But let’s say it eq’s poorly. Do I write off equalising as a whole, or was it user error, or the headphones weren’t suited to it? I don’t know
And yeah, if I’m about to jump into $1,000+ headphones with a couple of comments that the treble can be sometimes be piercing, but someone said “These eq really well”, then that gives me safety blanket that they won’t be an immediate sell / lost of $100’s.
It’s a long write up, and likely should have just been a separate post to discuss all these other things / my situation
This is the general thread. Just lump it all up here. It’s ok.
Makes total sense, and I think we’ve all got that experience. I’m a huge fan of sub bass like you (and particularly rumbly, slamming subbass). What I’ll say is that really feeling the bass in a song has to do not just with the QUANTITY of bass (which you get in frequency response / EQing). These also play a factor:
I’ll leave others to offer suggestions for good bass rendering headphones at this range. Planars tend to EXTEND lower but dynamics tend to slam harder.
As painful as this sounds, the DAC and amp can transform $500 or $1,000 or $4,000 headphones. If you are running an ESS Sabre DAC with a THX AAA 789…well…ouch…
A mid-focused DAC can eliminate the need for EQ.
A smoother amp can eliminate the need for EQ.
What works for you…no one can truly say…
Yes, I’m in the process of learning about the intricacies of bass extension/detail/slam.
Something that’s upsetting me is that turning up level on my desktop subwoofer to get the amount of slam I want, the detail is completely lost and 1/2 my songs end up with fart-like sounds.
This is also a reason I want to play around with eq, to understand how changing specific frequencies in my headphones affects the songs I listen to.
Lastly, I always convert back to USD for everyone elses benefit
Since this is general purchase advice, and @generic is right as usual, let me say that the way I work is that over time - years - I find something that works in my price range, then I stop spending any more frickin money 
. At present that means my stack of choice is a Schiit Lyr 3 amp and Bifrost 2 DAC. Yes, you can spend a lot more money and a lot less. But that combo will power anything and give you some warmth - not too much - and will give most headphones all the slam they were designed to dish out. I also have the iFi XDSD - an earlier choice which I kept, and that is pretty darn OK at a lower price point. It’s no longer in their linup, but other things comparable are.
I get kind of weird about spending too dang much on headphones. That’s for other stuff. Like maybe speakers. Or, I don’t know - my eBike.
Sometimes. I made a small exception for e-stats, but I still don’t have TOTL models, unless the Nectar Hive (Nectar’s better headphone) is a clandestine near TOTL model. I’m waiting for someone with more experience to do a comparison. Heck, (you know who you are) I’ve even OFFERED to loan mine out for the comparison. I always try to hide my bitching in small letters - I think that works and makes it less offensive.
Think of detail retrieval like the voice of a well trained singer. The really masterful singers (think Freddy Mercury, Whitney Houston) could hit, with perfect accuracy, like 6 or 7 notes in under a second. Now imagine different voices that can do that at different vocal ranges. One person excels at detail in the upper registers but has a kinda husky lower voice. Another has a chocolatey lower range that gets thin and strained up top. Others are superb everywhere.
Then you add dynamics. Some people like Freddy, Whitney, or Ariana Grande could BELT the upper notes without missing a thing. Or they could thin their voice and make it high but gentle. Others can sing super low but their voice goes quiet. Then there’s Barry White who BOOMED the low notes if we wanted.
Then there are dynamics. How well can a singer swap between gentle and powerful full notes?
Headphone transducers behave a lot like these voices. The more expensive units SUPPOSEDLY have performance across several of these areas. But you can always find gems in any price range that excel at at least one or two areas.
Are you certain that the source doesn’t contain fart-like sounds? I mean, I do listen to Parliament, and Mothership Connection does contain some awesome bass fart sounds.
Seriously, “desktop subwoofer”? If you want bass and slam, you have to pay a little bit. Entry level for a modest subwoofer is $600-1200, anything less than that and it’s suitable for TV or YouTube, not music. And no, I’m not being snotty about price. You CAN make your own, but bass is produced by either designing a smaller driver to make large excursions, or using a larger driver to move more air. Neither one is cheap, it’s physics.
For entry subs, I think of things like
JL Audio Dominion d108 or d110
Focal Sub Air
Bowers & Wilkins ASW610
Martin Logan Dynamo 600X or 800X
Sonus faber Gravis 1
There are others, but I’ve heard most of those and they don’t sound muddy or farty. If I find I need a sub when I get speakers set up in my office, I’ll probably pick one of those, assuming that Magnepan doesn’t get its act together and get over some covid-related (they say) parts delays that prevent manufacturing the .7. If I get the Maggies, and I need more bass, it’ll be a panel, not a sub.
I apologize if this sounds harsh. I re-read it, and realize that it could be taken that way. When I wrote it, it was sort of in surprise, I know there are “desktop” speakers with little subs for under the desk. In fact, I had a Klipsch 2.1 system years ago for presentations I did for small groups at work. However I never thought of it for any real music. Part of the culture here is to try to be nice all the time. Again, abject apologies if the tone (pun intended) is off. Note added next day - @pennstac
When I did some side-by-side testing of my TH-X00’s between my phone, decent PC sound card and m9xx, I could barely tell the difference. Maybe that’s a symptom of how easy they are to drive / V shape, or the type of music I listen to and (most likely) my own ability. Which is fine, as I budget and plan around that.
My DX7 Pro arrived today. I picked it because I’ve read it is fairly transparent, drive almost any headphone, no noticeable distortion and was within my budget.
Only issue is that with high impedance output, so it’ll be interesting to find out if I can pick up the damping factor with my TH-X00’s, or anecdotal comments of power affecting planars.
The intention was to go out and buy some tube plugins, which I figured would give 80% of value for 20% of the cost of actually tube rolling. I liked this thread for different software tools that I’m keen to experiment with DSP, EQ and other Plug-Ins
Then after a few months of experimenting and understanding what I like / don’t like, I can then go buy more focused equipment with more confidence
If there’s alternative approaches that are cost effective, happy to hear about them
— Regarding the subwoofer comment, since as a new user I can’t post any more replies —
My setup is the Kanto Tuks + Sub 8. Budget at the time was <$1500
I didn’t have a balanced DAC/amp, so studio monitors were out.
I was also constrained by the height for speakers (they need to fit under my monitor), and I liked how the Kanto’s was an all-in-one package so that I couldn’t stuff it up. i.e. I just need to tweak the hresholds
After owning them for 6 months and my audio journey progressing, I’d obviously be doing a different set up now. Thanks for those entry sub links. I’ll save those for future reference.
Looks like this is @Ricardo’s first post on here but it looks like he posted this on the wrong thread. I’ll quote his post here so that he can get more suggestions.
Hi all, any suggestions for a “cheap” iem with a sound signature like Variations or Helios? I would like to try something similar before buying them.
I see. It seems a bit complicated to have to audition to simply have a trial for a headphone that I want to try/buy. Can I just pay for it, and then if it does’nt work out,return it?
Thanks
Tom Jackson
That’s what I try to do when purchasing - return policies encourage more experimentation.
You can do this Tom but you are always better off asking upfront if its from a shop. Online, places like Amazon have very good return policies
What’s the simplest way to add a “quality” balance control to a speaker system?
I’m thinking of getting a power amp for my speakers, but I need a balance control. I don’t have a perfect speaker triangle and will not reorganize to make one. My vintage stereo receiver has a balance control, but power amps don’t.
I can use a headphone amp as a preamp, but don’t want another dedicated preamp. The cheaper ones are sketchy while the good ones are overkill. I’m thinking of inserting a volume control/attenuator between the preamp and power amp for just one channel. Good method? Any better options?
Something that has come up regarding home auditions of headphones, IEM’s, is covid. Some dealers are leery of loaning out headphones and IEMS during these covid times.