EQ headphones, why?

[Bow_Wazoo]

Do you think it's right or wrong to use the equalizer with headphones?

Of course it is right to personalize the tonality.
In conjunction with Oratorys and Crins measurements, this was the most valuable discovery of my headphone career.
As a user of the neutron player, personalizing the FR is as natural as personalizing the brightness, contrast and saturation on my TV.

 

[Berwhale]

which music to immediately highlight the changes of the various equalization profiles in the headphones?

Here's an (almost) complete list of Amir's headphone test tracks on Spotify...

ASR Headphone Test Tracks

ASR Headphone Test Tracks · Playlist · 120 songs · 111 likes

open.spotify.com

I believe Amir's original list was was assembled on Tidal; i've matched artist and track name on Spotify, but the source of the recording may be different from that on Tidal (especially if the Tidal version was Hi-Res and/or MQA).

 

[musica]

how do you set the pre-amp?
because at the first impact with the equalizer (on - off) I only hear an increase or decrease in volume

 

[markanini]

I wonder how many people bought a headphone based on so called technicalities and ultimately found those strengths were diminished after adding EQ to their prefered response. Someone should make a poll.

 

[Jimbob54]

how do you set the pre-amp?
because at the first impact with the equalizer (on - off) I only hear an increase or decrease in volume

Screenshot your equalizer apo settings please.

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

how do you set the pre-amp?
because at the first impact with the equalizer (on - off) I only hear an increase or decrease in volume

If you raise a frequency range by 9.5 DB, you have to lower the preamp by 9.5 DB.

 

[staticV3]

how do you set the pre-amp?
because at the first impact with the equalizer (on - off) I only hear an increase or decrease in volume

If you use the stock Equalizer Apo UI instead of Peace, then you can toggle the Preamp and the EQ On/Off separately.
That way, you can compare EQ vs no EQ without a change in volume.

 

[Trell]

I just knock down a little the Beyerdynamics peak around 8.1kHz with a single PEQ and call it a day.

That said, I do use the excellent Dynamic Loudness feature of the RME ADI-2 DAC, and the tone controls on occasions.

 

[AdamG]

Do you think it's right or wrong to use the equalizer with headphones?

There is no Right or Wrong of it. It’s like salt and peppering to taste. You are tailoring the device to suit your taste. Like altering a nice Suit. You paid for it and deserve to consume it in a manner that best suits your needs/tastes. You can choose to eq or not. Purists prefer no eq. Doesn’t make them right or wrong. Do what brings you the most joy.

 

[musica]

doesn't the preamp setting also depend on the source, the dac and the amplifier where the headphones are plugged into?

 

[Zaireeka]

Why not? I bought a Stax SR-404 signature a long time ago and couldn't use it at its full potential because there were no convenient way to EQ it back then. Now thanks to EQ APO I rediscover this excellent piece of gear and can enjoy long listening sessions without enduring irritating high-mid peaks.
My Beyerdynamic DT 770 and my Sundara are also equalized. Doesn't cost anything and just make them better...

 

[Jimbob54]

doesn't the preamp setting also depend on the source

Kind of - Lets say you want to add a +4dB low shelf at 100 Hz (so everything below plays 4db louder ) , if you KNOW your source files never exceed -4dB in that area then you can use less pre amp. But most of us dont know that, so have to set a pre amp at roughly the same level as the highest boost on our EQ to avoid digital clipping. In reality if you either enable the clipping protection in PEACE or keep your eyes on the levels you might get away with less.

the dac and the amplifier where the headphones are plugged into?

Not really, no.

 

[musica]

Depends how bad the FR is away from your taste /target and how easy /hard applying eq is in your rig.

sorry, what is rig.?

 

[Jimbob54]

sorry, what is rig.?

Equipment. Your music playing system.

 

[musica]

is there a guide to understand how the variation of frequencies affect the sound?

 

[Jimbob54]

is there a guide to understand how the variation of frequencies affect the sound?

At this point I'd try and find @solderdude frequency /sound guide. That, and play some music with eq APO open and play with the frequency settings.

Try an experiment using only one peak filter. Set it at a Q 1, 5db

Play music. Set the filter one at a time at :

30hz, 70, 100, 200 (then every 100 up to 1000

Then every 1000 above 1000 Hz

That should give you an idea of what bits of the music spectrum you are affecting each time.

Note, that filter will cover a wider range the higher up you go. Look at the graph to see. After 1000 Hz you might want to increase the q value to 2 or 3 for 1000 to 10000, then maybe higher above 10000

Set a pre amp of - 5 to avoid distortion/clipping

 

[Zaireeka]

Pink noise can also be useful to identify and tame the annoying peaks on your headphone frequency reponse. Any youtube video will work...

 

[solderdude]

At this point I'd try and find @solderdude frequency /sound guide.

 

[kemmler3D]

which music to immediately highlight the changes of the various equalization profiles in the headphones?

Don't listen to music to verify changes of EQ, check with tones:

Online Tone Generator - generate pure tones of any frequency

www.szynalski.com

My rule of thumb is that the headphones should sound subjectively flat as you sweep the tone. (everything is about the same loudness as you go up and down.) Also, it makes before-and-after changes quite obvious, much more so than with music.

Pink noise is also OK but you already need to have some idea of what pink noise should sound like, otherwise you can only find big errors. I personally find pink noise a bit tricky.

Listening to music is the last step. The right music is always the music you are most personally familiar with - the songs you have heard 1000 times on 1000 systems. This is the way you'll know if something sounds off.

 

[GaryH]

OP ignore the above post except the last two paragraphs.