autoeq.app Is a Web Application for Equalizing Headphones the Easy Way

[jaakkopasanen]

AutoEq is a project for automatically equalizing headphones. While this project is now familiar to many people engaged in headphone hobby, it has always been a bit of a pain to use if you want anything else than the pre-computed presets.

autoeq.app is a web app using AutoEq but now with a graphical user interface in the browser without needing to install anything yourself. All the same features and power that has made AutoEq great is now available on any device in your browser. The main driver behind developing a web app was to give an easy way for users to tweak their experience and not needing to settle for the single preset.

It's well know at this point that the preferred bass and treble levels are very individual and therefore should always be optimized. There are a lot more than those two though and I encourage you to explore the advanced parameters in the app. The player in the app simulates whatever equalizer app you choose so that you can quickly tweak and compare different profiles without needing to alwyas import them to the eq app.

You can even create completely custom changes to the frequency response target with sound signature or copy a sound signature from another headphone to simulate (roughly) other headphones on your single pair.

A fair bit of design, development and testing has gone into this app but no doubt there are still problems and room for improvement. Please share your opinions and discoveries and I'll take them to consideration for future updates.

I've also updated all measurements in the same release so all the data you have in the app (and the Github repo) are now the latest and greatest from all supported sources.

 

[Matias]

Would it be possible to have the API used by 3rd party apps like foobar2000 plugin or a VST running on JRiver etc? Or it already has and I did not know?

 

[jaakkopasanen]

Would it be possible to have the API used by 3rd party apps like foobar2000 plugin or a VST running on JRiver etc? Or it already has and I did not know?

It would be possible, yes. They are not doing so yet because I just published the app and the API.

 

[Music1969]

Wow indeed A LOT of work has gone into this

Very impressive

 

[Zensō]

Great work! Thanks so much for this.

I’d love to see FabFilter Pro-Q3 added to the list of equalizers.

 

[jaakkopasanen]

Great work! Thanks so much for this.

I’d love to see FabFilter Pro-Q3 added to the list of equalizers.

Would you be willing to contribute a bit by telling me:

1. what are the different filter types (low-shelf, high-shelf, peaking) exactly called in the UI
2. what are the different parameters (Fc, Q, gain) exactly called in the UI
3. short instructions for how to import the settings to the app, similar to what other parametric app right now have in the blue boxes
4. if FabFilter Pro-Q3 has the same filter implementation as EqualizerAPO and AutoEq uses (RBJ cookbook). You can test this by setting a wide peaking filter close to Nyquist frequency (half of sample rate) and seeing if it matches EqualizerAPO / AutoEq.

 

[Zensō]

Would you be willing to contribute a bit by telling me:

1. what are the different filter types (low-shelf, high-shelf, peaking) exactly called in the UI
2. what are the different parameters (Fc, Q, gain) exactly called in the UI
3. short instructions for how to import the settings to the app, similar to what other parametric app right now have in the blue boxes
4. if FabFilter Pro-Q3 has the same filter implementation as EqualizerAPO and AutoEq uses (RBJ cookbook). You can test this by setting a wide peaking filter close to Nyquist frequency (half of sample rate) and seeing if it matches EqualizerAPO / AutoEq.

1. Bell, Low Shelf, Low Cut, High Shelf, High Cut, Notch, Band Pass, Tilt Shelf, Flat Tilt
2. Frequency, Gain, Q
3. "To open a preset outside the presets folder, click Options > Open Other Preset. This might be useful if someone sends you a preset by email, for example."
4. I don't believe Pro-Q3 uses the same filter implementation. I'm unable to test this with EAPO (on a Mac), but when inputting by hand I had to multiply Q values by 1.41 to match other equalizers.

 

[jaakkopasanen]

1. Bell, Low Shelf, Low Cut, High Shelf, High Cut, Notch, Band Pass, Tilt Shelf, Flat Tilt
2. Frequency, Gain, Q
3. "To open a preset outside the presets folder, click Options > Open Other Preset. This might be useful if someone sends you a preset by email, for example."
4. I don't believe Pro-Q3 uses the same filter implementation. I'm unable to test this with EAPO (on a Mac), but when inputting by hand I had to multiply Q values by 1.41 to match other equalizers.

This is what a 3 dB peaking filter at 18 kHz with Q of 1.41 looks like in EqualizerAPO. Some sampled numerical values are:

• 1.6 dB @ 16000 Hz
• 2 dB @ 16542 Hz
• 3 dB @ 18000 Hz
• 2 dB @ 19221 Hz
• 1.1 dB @ 20000 Hz

Would you mind doing the same in Pro-Q3?

 

[staticV3]

This is what a 3 dB peaking filter at 18 kHz with Q of 1.41 looks like in EqualizerAPO.

Is it enough to go by the built-in graphs here?

EQApo and Fabfilter may not accurately show the filter's true frequency response, which will change with sample rate.

 

[jaakkopasanen]

Is it enough to go by the built-in graphs here?

EQApo and Fabfilter may not accurately show the filter's true frequency response, which will change with sample rate.

I do believe EqualizerAPO is accurate with it's fr graph. Don't know about Fabfilter though. It's also not so very important as I can't change the implementation in AutoEq, the only thing I can do is fix the sample rate to 192 kHz for example if the Fabfilter doesn't squeeze the filters near Nyquish frequency.

 

[Zensō]

View attachment 285478
This is what a 3 dB peaking filter at 18 kHz with Q of 1.41 looks like in EqualizerAPO. Some sampled numerical values are:

• 1.6 dB @ 16000 Hz
• 2 dB @ 16542 Hz
• 3 dB @ 18000 Hz
• 2 dB @ 19221 Hz
• 1.1 dB @ 20000 Hz

Would you mind doing the same in Pro-Q3?

Here's what I believe you're asking for? I don't know how to sample points on the curve in Pro-Q3. Maybe I'm missing something...

 

[Spyart]

Thank you very much Jaakko! It's really long waited app for me. Here are some suggestions -
1. Ability to save advanced settings into target curve. So the next time I've got new headphones I can upload it via CSV uploader and got starting point without tweaking knobs.
2. Player now is not working. Also adding to player some test signals like continous pink noise might be good idea (or not, depends on users)
3. Could you make advanced settings not below the graph but on the left or the right side? To see instantly what any settings actually does.
4. By now profiles seems don't keep current target curve or I did something wrong on it.

 

[usersky]

AutoEq is a project for automatically equalizing headphones. While this project is now familiar to many people engaged in headphone hobby, it has always been a bit of a pain to use if you want anything else than the pre-computed presets.

autoeq.app is a web app using AutoEq but now with a graphical user interface in the browser without needing to install anything yourself. All the same features and power that has made AutoEq great is now available on any device in your browser. The main driver behind developing a web app was to give an easy way for users to tweak their experience and not needing to settle for the single preset.

It's well know at this point that the preferred bass and treble levels are very individual and therefore should always be optimized. There are a lot more than those two though and I encourage you to explore the advanced parameters in the app. The player in the app simulates whatever equalizer app you choose so that you can quickly tweak and compare different profiles without needing to alwyas import them to the eq app.

You can even create completely custom changes to the frequency response target with sound signature or copy a sound signature from another headphone to simulate (roughly) other headphones on your single pair.

A fair bit of design, development and testing has gone into this app but no doubt there are still problems and room for improvement. Please share your opinions and discoveries and I'll take them to consideration for future updates.

I've also updated all measurements in the same release so all the data you have in the app (and the Github repo) are now the latest and greatest from all supported sources.

Thank you so much for your outstanding work!

 

[Shadrach]

I have an old pair of Sennheiser 595s. I replaced the ear pads on them a while ago and used this to equalize them.

AutoEq/results/Headphone.com Legacy/over-ear/Sennheiser HD 595 at master · jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

Automatic headphone equalization from frequency responses - jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

github.com

I'm using Linux and Pulse Effects.
I entered the values manually and the head phones sound wonderfull.
Thank you very much for the work you've put into this project. Absolutely wonderful results for me and the headphones get used much more than they did.

 

[jaakkopasanen]

Thank you very much Jaakko! It's really long waited app for me. Here are some suggestions -
1. Ability to save advanced settings into target curve. So the next time I've got new headphones I can upload it via CSV uploader and got starting point without tweaking knobs.
2. Player now is not working. Also adding to player some test signals like continous pink noise might be good idea (or not, depends on users)
3. Could you make advanced settings not below the graph but on the left or the right side? To see instantly what any settings actually does.
4. By now profiles seems don't keep current target curve or I did something wrong on it.

1. I'll think about it. Definitely you can do this with profiles already since those are kept between sessions.
2. I know. I'll fix this hopefully today.
3. Provably no but I'll give it a think. Restructuring is always quite the pain.
4. Profiles save the targets as intended. Or am I missing something?

 

[jaakkopasanen]

Here's what I believe you're asking for? I don't know how to sample points on the curve in Pro-Q3. Maybe I'm missing something...
View attachment 285514

I should be able to work with this. Thanks.

 

[BeerBear]

Congrats, this looks great!

Feature request for "Custom Parametric Eq": a toggle between Q-factor and Bandwidth, because some EQs use the latter. It would apply to all filters, of course.
And maybe also a toggle between min-max values and fixed values.

 

[Zensō]

I should be able to work with this. Thanks.

Great, thanks!

 

[Moderate Dionysianism]

That's one neat app @jaakkopasanen, thanks and congrats!

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Very nicely done, thank you.
In case of my current headphone Audeze LCD-XC 2021:

If one was to remove just one screw from each cup (a very simple MOD), then the low frequency boosts, would not be needed, together with the preamp cut!
In addition, just about anybody who has listened to the headphones would tell you that the 10K boost is not warranted! in fact, a cut would be more appropriate.
So we would be left with just the middle two!

BTW, the 10K droop is part of measuring gear anomaly, it should not be corrected, on any headphone:

see this:

Audeze LCD-XC 21 & effects of small venting

A while back, I asked on LCD-XC review page, for feedback on subjective effects on bass output, by removing one screw from the cups. I got talked down to by some members, as to the pitfalls of such an experiment, and how without measurements, it would be a waste of time. And the wasting time...

www.audiosciencereview.com