AKG K702: a valid alternative EQ to Harman Curve for you to try

[Robbo99999]

Hello Robbo99999 and thank you for the response.

Now I only have K701, so if you have any good working eq for these cans without loosing their soundstage would be perfect.

Yes Roly answered perfectly. I am just a bit acknowledged how to use eq. I thought it was an import something so as to test eq and keep the default if you do not like a specific eq setting.

As Qobuz give as output the Wasapi exclusive to my Dac which as I read is the most preferable because does not conflict to any other sounds of pc or external audio.
And I was thinking how will the eq will work as choosing this output through my Qobuz.

Anyway I guess I have not understand something correctly!

Thank you all for your responses. Really appreciate your help!

For the K701, my best advice to you is to use the Oratory EQ, (which roly linked you already).

For your choice of EQ software if using Windows & WASAPI Exclusive, then I don't think you can apply EQ system wide at the OS level, because WASAPI Exclusive is preventing that from happening. Just don't bother using WASAPI Exclusive, then you can use EqualiserAPO to apply systemwide EQ to any audio you play on your PC. If you're using a Mac, then I don't have a direct alternative for you, because I'm not familiar with Macs, but I gave you a link to all different EQ software in my previous post that covers different platforms (PC/Mac/etc).

 

[Deckard01]

For the K701, my best advice to you is to use the Oratory EQ, (which roly linked you already).

For your choice of EQ software if using Windows & WASAPI Exclusive, then I don't think you can apply EQ system wide at the OS level, because WASAPI Exclusive is preventing that from happening. Just don't bother using WASAPI Exclusive, then you can use EqualiserAPO to apply systemwide EQ to any audio you play on your PC. If you're using a Mac, then I don't have a direct alternative for you, because I'm not familiar with Macs, but I gave you a link to all different EQ software in my previous post that covers different platforms (PC/Mac/etc).

Thank you for the response Rob.

No I understand how it works. Just to clear out whenever or not using WASAPI Exclusive if I have eq the headphones through the app then it will work or not with WASAPI?

Just with WASAPI exclusive with qobuz the sound is in my ears more correct.

Thank you for your help I will try out the info and I will keep you infomed.

 

[roladyzator]

Wasapi exclusive to my Dac which as I read is the most preferable

As Robbo wrote, there is little reason to use WASAPI Exclusive mode.

Since the time of Windows XP, many audiophiles have stated that using DirectSound output degrades the audio quality noticeably.
At that time, we knew little about how well the OS manages mixing the audio streams from different applications together.
So, it was often advised to use the more "direct-to-hardware" interfaces like ASIO, Kernel Streaming and WASAPI (since Vista).

Some time has passed and any recent version of Windows 10 should be sonically transparent in most cases.

Ending the Windows Audio Quality Debate

A debate has been long raging in the audio community that Windows isn't fit for use in a high resolution audio system. Sceptics counterargued that bits are bits and Windows audio degradations are a figment of an over-active audiophile imagination. I decided to investigate this as I kept...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[roladyzator]

Just with WASAPI exclusive with qobuz the sound is in my ears more correct.

This could be placebo, but if you're using an onboard audio interface then sometimes there are built-in audio effects that misbehave.
My Lenovo T460s laptop does this with it's Dolby Audio feature (even if you set all options to "off", it seems to truncate to 16 bits).

You can use WASAPI Loopback in Audacity and record playing the RMAA test signal to determine if there is any change.

 

[Robbo99999]

Thank you for the response Rob.

No I understand how it works. Just to clear out whenever or not using WASAPI Exclusive if I have eq the headphones through the app then it will work or not with WASAPI?

Just with WASAPI exclusive with qobuz the sound is in my ears more correct.

Thank you for your help I will try out the info and I will keep you infomed.

For debates about WASAPI Exclusive, etc it's probably best just to go to that thread that roly linked you (Ending Windows Audio Quality Debate). From my point of view, just don't bother using the WASAPI Exclusive. (WASAPI Shared is the default Windows setup).

EDIT: I actually don't want a big windows audio debate here in this thread as it's not the topic of this thread - don't want my thread to become polluted by this. Afterall, this thread is about K702 EQ.

 

[Deckard01]

Yes thank you both for the response. Sorry for the off topic!

So many things to read about in this forum. Really nice work!

 

[Veduque]

I bought my K702 last week and was using peace with Oratory EQ. I can confirm that the Robbo99999 equalizer is much better than the Oratory, which is too bright and lacks body. The Oratory seems strange now. Thank you op!

However, i still need to use the K702 octave-band EQ from Oratory with my Creative GC7 and my PS4. This sound card offers only a fixed 10 band equalizer (as most cards does).

I did not find a way to convert the Robbo99999 EQ to a 10-band eq. Anyone could help? Thanks.

 

[Robbo99999]

I bought my K702 last week and was using peace with Oratory EQ. I can confirm that the Robbo99999 equalizer is much better than the Oratory, which is too bright and lacks body. The Oratory seems strange now. Thank you op!

However, i still need to use the K702 octave-band EQ from Oratory with my Creative GC7 and my PS4. This sound card offers only a fixed 10 band equalizer (as most cards does).

I did not find a way to convert the Robbo99999 EQ to a 10-band eq. Anyone could help? Thanks.

That's good to hear that my EQ has been useful to you. The problem with a 10 band Graphic EQ is that the frequency bands are fixed and they're not in the ideal place to fix the treble of the K702. I'll have a go at trying to replicate the K702 EQ I show here with a 10 band Graphic EQ, but I can't do it right now - can you message me on Wednesday night to remind me - I'll probably have some time on Thursday to do this.

EDIT: I know it will be a coarse EQ as the K702 peaks are in the wrong place to be properly fixed by a 10 band graphic EQ, but I'll do the best compromise for you.....remind me on Wednesday.

 

[Dazerdoreal]

I did not find a way to convert the Robbo99999 EQ to a 10-band eq. Anyone could help? Thanks.

You can try to get as close as possible but you can not really convert it. You will always lose a lot of information if you transfer an EQ for parametric to a fixed-band equalizer.
While parametric is a small brush where you can edit every pixel, a fixed-band is a big brush, so to speak.

If the Oratory EQ lacks body for you, a first simple idea would be to tastefully raise the lower bands up to 500hz.

 

[roladyzator]

I bought my K702 last week and was using peace with Oratory EQ. I can confirm that the Robbo99999 equalizer is much better than the Oratory, which is too bright and lacks body. The Oratory seems strange now. Thank you op!

However, i still need to use the K702 octave-band EQ from Oratory with my Creative GC7 and my PS4. This sound card offers only a fixed 10 band equalizer (as most cards does).

I did not find a way to convert the Robbo99999 EQ to a 10-band eq. Anyone could help? Thanks.

I also have a GC7 & K702. I also find Oratory's EQ bright.
For games, with 10 band EQ I use +9 at 30 Hz and +5 or 6 at 60 hz.

Of course, set the pre-amp to -9.

When I can't use Peace, I find that for music I prefer simply setting the bass on GC7 to +5 or +6.
This affects upper bass frequencies more than the above setting, but I like it.

Can't do much about the treble with 10 band EQ, though, so balancing it with more bass seems an easy way to adjust the general balance.

 

[Veduque]

That's good to hear that my EQ has been useful to you. The problem with a 10 band Graphic EQ is that the frequency bands are fixed and they're not in the ideal place to fix the treble of the K702. I'll have a go at trying to replicate the K702 EQ I show here with a 10 band Graphic EQ, but I can't do it right now - can you message me on Wednesday night to remind me - I'll probably have some time on Thursday to do this.

EDIT: I know it will be a coarse EQ as the K702 peaks are in the wrong place to be properly fixed by a 10 band graphic EQ, but I'll do the best compromise for you.....remind me on Wednesday.

Thanks for your help, but don't worry, I looked it up on a few sites and it's like you said and the others said, 10 bands is too limited, there's no way to do anything close to the EQ you did. I'm going to do as the roladyzator said, raise bass a little and reduce the treble as i see fit, because in my case the treble is the biggest problem. Thanks again.

 

[Robbo99999]

I bought my K702 last week and was using peace with Oratory EQ. I can confirm that the Robbo99999 equalizer is much better than the Oratory, which is too bright and lacks body. The Oratory seems strange now. Thank you op!

However, i still need to use the K702 octave-band EQ from Oratory with my Creative GC7 and my PS4. This sound card offers only a fixed 10 band equalizer (as most cards does).

I did not find a way to convert the Robbo99999 EQ to a 10-band eq. Anyone could help? Thanks.

Thanks for your help, but don't worry, I looked it up on a few sites and it's like you said and the others said, 10 bands is too limited, there's no way to do anything close to the EQ you did. I'm going to do as the roladyzator said, raise bass a little and reduce the treble as i see fit, because in my case the treble is the biggest problem. Thanks again.

I thought I may as well have a go using a Graphic EQ. I've done 2 versions, first one is trying to get a Harman EQ throughout the frequency range and the second one is just tacking on Harman Bass and leaving the mids & treble untouched, use a -9dB Negative Preamp on both. (There's no way at all to address the peak at 5.5kHz using Graphic EQ because the nearest fixed frequency bands are 4kHz and 8kHz so you can't pull down that 5.5kHz peak.)




Tested them briefly on one of my K702's and it's definitely an improvement over stock, but not sure which of the two above EQ's I prefer, but given that the results using parametric EQ are loads better then I'm not gonna agonise over this! So this is really just for people who have no option to use parametric EQ.