Share your EQ adventures and settings

[jb77]

I wanted to try and make a central thread. For members to share their experience with EQing their headphones and the ‘settings’ they used.

Post your experiences and settings used to EQ your headphones.

[pwjazz]

My rather tawdry (mis)adventures with EQ’ing a now departed LCD2C are documented pretty well here and here.

Lately I’ve been taking a more minimalist approach to EQ, preferring to first find a headphone (possibly modded or pad swapped) that comes close to my desired sound, and then making only minor tweaks. If I’m able to consistently run the same EQ settings without feeling the need to tweak, then that’s a good sign that the headphone is pretty good to begin with and that I’ve managed to dial it in just right.

Although @metal571 has talked about this for a long time, I’ve personally only recently come to appreciate the benefits of simple sine sweeps rather than getting lost in measurements. Measurements can still be a useful starting point, but a sine sweep takes better account of my own hearing and also keeps me from over-correcting and instead I just scan for major peaks or dips. For sine sweeps to be useful, I like a tone generator that allows me to seamlessly adjust the frequency while continuing to play the tone, like this one.

As for specific headphones and EQs, I’ve got an HE4XX that I’ve been running with these EQ settings for a month, so I feel pretty good about it:

n.b. there’s no pre-gain here because I’m applying that earlier in the effects chain.

I’m currently playing around with a Verum One, but I’m still in the pad swapping phase and not ready to commit to anything yet.

On the IEM front, I decided a while ago that all IEMs require at least some EQ because they respond so differently to everyone’s ears, so rather than focusing as much on tonality I focused more on technicality, and specifically treble extension and to a lesser extent sub-bass extension. From what I can tell, if an IEM is down 10dB or more above 10KHz, there’s just no EQ’ing that back in. So, I ended up with a KZ ZS10 Pro + Spinfit CP100 tips, which I find comfortable and which has the benefit of having precise measurements available courtesy of Crinacle. I’ve been running something like the below EQ settings for months, and if it weren’t for the fact that my ears don’t love having IEMs stuck in them, I might just use the ZS 10 Pro and be done with the whole headphone hobby. Literally everything in my music catalog sounds great with these thanks to nicely balanced mids, strong and well extended bass when called for, enough detail, and thanks to their treble extension and some BS2B crossfeed, a surprisingly spacious and deep soundstage. I love listening to these things in bed before I go to sleep.

[Torq]

Please keep this thread for a discussion/sharing of specific EQ settings on a per-headphone (or device) basis.

There’s an existing, dedicated thread for discussing EQ software (etc.) here.

There’s also a thread for posting deals on EQ, DSP and plug-in software, here.

[ctcotti]

Does anyone happen to have an EQ profile for the HD650/xx’s? I have my own which I am quite fond of but am curious how it aligns with other’s preferences.

[AudioTool]

Check the official HD 650 thread here:

Sennheiser HD 650 over-ear open-back Headphones - Official Thread

I’ve had my HD650s for about a little over a year now. Have not used them very much as I listen mostly at night with my closed backed Shure 1540s so I don’t disturb my wife. Plus they need a lot more power then my Macbook/DFCobalt can cleanly supply. I need to hook them up to my Benchmark DAC3 to get the best out of them. Still I find them too warm and dark for me. The deep bass is missing. The mids are smooth and warm and pleasant. This is their strongest area. The upper mids and treble are too…

Also oratory1990 has Harman Target profiles for many headphones here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index

And Chrono has compiled his list of EQ profiles here:

Chrono's EQ Profile Compilation

Hey Everyone! I thought it would be a good idea to compile my EQ profiles into one place so that they’re easily available here on the forums for anyone interested in trying them out. The EQ I apply brings headphones closer to my personal target, which is very similar to the Harman target. However, compared to the Harman target curve, it has a slightly lower bass shelf, a slightly cooler upper midrange (about 2-3dB less, varies per headphone), and a little more energy for frequencies above 10k (…

[frkasper]

@ctcotti

I have my own which I am quite fond of but am curious how it aligns with other’s preferences.

You mentioned preferences but haven’t mentioned the type of EQ tool. So… My preferences are very fluid, and by the time of this reply, I don’t typically EQ my 6XX but when I do I have been doing it towards a neutral-bright signature. I guess it’s all HD800S’ fault. This is probably why I’ve been reaching the 600 much more than the 6XX in the past couple of weeks.

To your question, here’s my dialed-in Sonarworks profile for the 6XX – with the highlighted areas being the “knobs” to be tuned out of the 6XX stock profile:

PS.: -12dB pre-gain is way to much, I know. It’s just a standardization I use for all the other profiles I have. Some may call it OCD.

Cheers.