imo the Sonarworks average calibration for the DT 770 250 ohm sounds excellent. I run that at about 60% wet signal and it's just right. Turn it up to 100% EQed and it starts to sound very bizarre, flat and distorted in a bad way.
On the hand, the Sienna profile for the DT 770 250 ohm sounds terrible.
For reference this is the Sonarworks 770 measurement. I wonder though, how useful this is... for a headphone as popular and long-running as the 770, there must be so many different versions it may be very difficult to EQ without doing a good number of measurements on your own.
I'm sorry that after all this time I'm still not ready to but a button on this, and commit to one EQ curve or another. There is a fairly familiar pattern though to most of my EQ projects for this headphone, based both on my own by-ear adjustments, and using other headphones as a general guide. And it goes a little somethin like this. Whether this will work for others or not, I can't really say...
20 Hz: 1 or 2 dB above baseline
40 Hz: near or slightly above baseline
75 Hz: a couple dB above baseline
130 Hz: slightly above baseline
220 Hz: a couple dB above baseline
350 to 1k Hz: close to baseline
2 kHz: a couple dB
below baseline
3.5 kHz: a couple dB above baseline
6 to 8 kHz: a few dB below baseline
9.5 to 10 kHz: several dB below baseline
11 or 12 khz & above: a few dB below baseline
The frequency and dB values above are all just approximations. And these are the values for earpads that have had some wear and compression on them for awhile. And if you use the area between 350 and 1 kHz as your baseline or 0 dB level, then you'll need to also add some type of a negative
preamp to drop the overall dBFS levels of your headphone, so they do not clip at the frequencies which are EQ'd above the 0 dB baseline levels.
You'll notice that I've underlined the fact that the area around 2 kHz needs to go
below the baseline. Others may disagree with this, but this is an area that I think alot of DT-770 correction curves simply get wrong. (And it appears from the image above, that Sonarworks may also fall into this category.)
Since the DT-770 is designed mainly for studio work (as a "beater"), there may be reasons why it has a bit more emphasis in this 2k range.
From a pleasure and listening standpoint though, it's problematic. Because most of the speakers, even many of the very good ones which are used for both music production and home listening, will have a cross-over between their tweeter and midrange drivers that will cause a slight depression in their in-room response in this range. And headphones that don't generally take this into account, in some way, will tend to have a somewhat harsher and flatter sound in their upper mids.
The problem is exacerbated on the DT-770 because it is more
withdrawn and
lacking in some warmth in the upper bass and lower mids at around 220 Hz, or so. So the net effect of these two features combined (brightness at ~2k & darkness at ~220 Hz) is that the critical midrange region often seems to be tilted or skewed towards the brighter side... Unless you are an older male who suffers from excessive upper midrange hearing loss.
The dB ranges I've listed above are more speculative towards the extremes of the frequency range btw, particularly above about 12 or 13 kHz in the treble where my hearing is more deficient, and also below about 50 or 60 Hz in the bass. So take any suggestion in those areas with a grain of salt. Some of this is a matter of taste as well, and how much "air" in the higher frequencies, or extension in the sub-bass you prefer.
. You have all the music from sub bass to the higher treble with these. These actually have higher harman preference score than Ananda which heavily praised for it's stock tuning.
