Earsonics Stark - Help me EQ these

[Jasperous]

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.

 

[staticV3]

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.

 

[Jasperous]

Thank you, anything helps.

 

[staticV3]

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]

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.

 

[Jasperous]

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

 

[Jasperous]

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]

@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:


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:


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

 

[Jasperous]

@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!