Those who can conveniently afford some of the very best gear, do not need it. They are too busy making money.
The rest of us can only dream. Such is life. Our fun is trying to find the diamond in the rough, that elusive product that costs very little yet sounds pretty good for the small investment.
I’ve been trying out something that bridges the gap. But it will not turn a VW Golf into a Rolls Royce. It has its limits, which are the quality of whatever drivers one’s listening device came with, That does not change. At this time, it is free to use. It is rather dependent on a bit of a learning curve, and has many options. So effectiveness depends on the user gaining experience with it, over a few attempts, to discover their own protocol for conducting the tests and defining FR correction filters (EQ bands).
I’ve started a thread under the “mods” section, cos that’s where I think it belongs - a Digital Mod. I was really impressed with the results on my 2nd attempt, but I must admit, one cannot improve a substandard driver using this tool. And the likelihood is the devices with better drivers, are also likely to have better FR tuning and require less correction. Nevertheless, always worth a try.
Please note I am not affiliated to the developers, in any way. Discovered this via suggestion from Luke, another member of this forum.