• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Earsonics Stark - Help me EQ these

Jasperous

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
101
Likes
134
Location
Canada
I used to be in love with my Earsonic Starks, but recently I have found them lacking. After a quick search I saw how awkward its response graph was courtesy of Crinacle.com If any of you folks are good at creating graphic EQs. Apple Music on MacOS doesn't support PEQ.

Stark.jpg
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
7,531
Likes
11,998
Apple Music on MacOS doesn't support PEQ.
It does if you use SoundSource or eqMac.

If you'd rather not install anything, then you can use this web app to generate a GEQ preset for the IEM: https://autoeq.app/
One caveat is that that none of the target responses offered by the tool are what I would call neutral. Though that's subjective really.
 
OP
J

Jasperous

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
101
Likes
134
Location
Canada
Thank you, anything helps.
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
7,531
Likes
11,998
Thank you, anything helps.
I recommend you give SoundSource a try. Proper PEQ really is the way to go.
SoundSource rather than eqMac because it supports importing .txt files that contain custom PEQ presets.

If you'd like, I can prepare some presets for you with different target curves. Harman, Crinacle's IEF Neutral, oratory's Optimum HiFi, ...
That way you can directly compare them and decide for yourself what sounds best.
 

heraldo_jones

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2020
Messages
82
Likes
104
I used to be in love with my Earsonic Starks, but recently I have found them lacking. After a quick search I saw how awkward its response graph was courtesy of Crinacle.com If any of you folks are good at creating graphic EQs. Apple Music on MacOS doesn't support PEQ.

View attachment 285924
Just use the built in eq from the Crinacle website. Try not to overdo the peaks.
 
OP
J

Jasperous

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
101
Likes
134
Location
Canada
Just use the built in eq from the Crinacle website. Try not to overdo the peaks.
I have no idea how to properly create EQs. I tried last night and it sounded… alright
 
OP
J

Jasperous

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
101
Likes
134
Location
Canada
I recommend you give SoundSource a try. Proper PEQ really is the way to go.
SoundSource rather than eqMac because it supports importing .txt files that contain custom PEQ presets.

If you'd like, I can prepare some presets for you with different target curves. Harman, Crinacle's IEF Neutral, oratory's Optimum HiFi, ...
That way you can directly compare them and decide for yourself what sounds best.
Yes please!! I’ll download the software tonight and hopefully it’ll give new life to these IEMs. I bought them before joining ASR, and I’m regretting them.
 

staticV3

Master Contributor
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
7,531
Likes
11,998
@Jasperous I found two measurements of the Stark online:
https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/earsonics-stark/
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...arsonics-stark-earphones&catid=263&Itemid=203

I digitized both graphs and also used Jaakko's Compensation curve on Crinacle's measurement.

Here are all measurements overlaid:
Earsonics Stark Frequency Response Comparison.png

That shows pretty awful unit-to-unit variation and quality control. Especially considering the price.

For reference, here's how three units of the Moondrop Chu measure. They cost $20:
chu_sample_variation_after_alignment.jpg

I decided to average the two measurements of each reviewer, then apply three different targets to each of them.
That leaves you with six presets to compare to each other, which I have attached as Zip.

I used https://autoeq.app/ to generate the presets.

For sample rate, I chose 44.1kHz since that's still the most prevalent one.
So please open the Audio MIDI Setup on your Mac and make sure that your DAC is set to 44.1kHz before you start comparing.

Here's how to import the presets into SoundSource: https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowledgebase/?showArticle=SoundSource-Custom-HPEQ
 

Attachments

  • Earsonics Stark PEQ Presets for SoundSource.zip
    2.6 KB · Views: 29
Last edited:
OP
J

Jasperous

Active Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
101
Likes
134
Location
Canada
@Jasperous I found two measurements of the Stark online:
https://crinacle.com/graphs/iems/earsonics-stark/
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...arsonics-stark-earphones&catid=263&Itemid=203

I digitized both graphs and also used Jaakko's Compensation curve on Crinacle's measurement.

Here are all measurements overlaid:
View attachment 286354

That shows pretty awful unit-to-unit variation and quality control. Especially considering the price.

For reference, here's how three units of the Moondrop Chu measure. They cost $20:
View attachment 286355

I decided to average the two measurements of each reviewer, then apply three different targets to each of them.
That leaves you with six presets to compare to each other, which I have attaced as Zip.

I used https://autoeq.app/ to generate the presets.

For sample rate, I chose 44.1kHz since that's still the most prevalent one.
So please open the Audio MIDI Setup on your Mac and make sure that your DAC is set to 44.1kHz before you start comparing.

Here's how to import the presets into SoundSource: https://rogueamoeba.com/support/knowledgebase/?showArticle=SoundSource-Custom-HPEQ
Thank you! You’re the best!
 
Top Bottom