Equalized vs non-equalized headphones

[musica]

I installed EQ APO and Peace, and I downloaded several equalization curves available online for my headphone model, but when I turn the EQ on and off, I don’t notice any difference. Am I doing something wrong in the EQ settings or somewhere else?

 

[kemmler3D]

I installed EQ APO and Peace, and I downloaded several equalization curves available online for my headphone model, but when I turn the EQ on and off, I don’t notice any difference. Am I doing something wrong in the EQ settings or somewhere else?

Run the configurator for EQAPO and make sure it's installed on the output device you are listening to. There should be a pretty noticeable difference with/ without EQ.

To make it more obvious you can just use a preamp / gain to see if it goes up and down.

 

[respice finem]

If you have ASIO enabled, while Equalizer APO uses DS, your EQ is "seen but not heard".
It doesn't work with ASIO (or at least wasn't last time I checked).

 

[musica]

I’m using Peace. I created two configurations — one flat and one with EQ levels applied — and I set the preamplifier to the same dB level. But when I switch between A/B, I don’t hear any difference.

 

[respice finem]

Peace is just a GUI for Equalizer APO. You should IMHO do what @kemmler3D wrote, and check if your player software uses the same audio device / driver. If you have more than one device, or more than one driver, this can be confusing.

 

[musica]

So, should I use only APO?

 

[respice finem]

Not ASIO, not WASAPI exclusive. See tutorial (I can't provide screenshots because I'm not using it any more, doing my EQ via the RME ADI-2 DAC).

 

[kemmler3D]

So, should I use only APO?

There is a separate utility / executable that comes with EQAPO called Configurator.exe and you need to run that before the EQ will actually do anything. It tells EQAPO which audio devices (i.e. DACs, soundcards, or other outputs) to run on. Before you do that step, it doesn't do anything whether you turn on the EQ or not.

 

[musica]

Yes, but can I also select the DAC from Peace, or not?

 

[Chagall]

Yes, you can. Go to Settings -> Debugging and Testing -> Device selector/Configurator -> Check that APO is installed on your soundcard/DAC.

But first your EQ is disabled..

 

[musica]

Is that correct?

 

[Chagall]

Is that correct?

Yes, APO is installed on your V-DAC. Now go back to Peace and enable EQ.

 

[musica]

So everything is configured correctly, but at the same volume, I don’t hear any difference between the equalized and non-equalized headphones.
Is this a problem of listening training, or of the type of music I’m using?

 

[Chagall]

So everything is configured correctly, but at the same volume, I don’t hear any difference between the equalized and non-equalized headphones.
Is this a problem of listening training, or of the type of music I’m using?

Pull 1.5kHz band down to -30dB while music is playing. If you still don't hear any change, then your EQ isn't on. Is the on/off button in Peace red or green?

 

[musica]

Yes, the configuration is now set up correctly, but how can I compare the equalized headphones (with filters applied) to the same headphones without equalization?
I’m asking this to understand whether equalization has beneficial effects on the sound quality.

 

[kemmler3D]

how can I compare the equalized headphones (with filters applied) to the same headphones without equalization?
I’m asking this to understand whether equalization has beneficial effects on the sound quality.

You can turn the EQ on and off quickly using the green/red button/switch highlighted previously in the thread.

To make the effects of EQ more obvious:

The effects are most apparent when listening to harmonically dense, broad signals. To maximize that effect, If you listen to pink noise while switching the EQ on and off, it will be easiest to hear the difference.

Otherwise, listening to rock music with lots of distortion and loud drums will tend to carry the same characteristics and make it easier to hear the effects of EQ.

In terms of how you should listen for it - focus on one instrument or voice at a time, listen to the same section of music repeatedly, and turn the EQ on and off quickly.

If you are having trouble noticing the difference, the above should help it become apparent.

More generally, pay attention to: Are you hearing more details in the background of the recording? Do instruments sound more, or less balanced against each other? Do loud notes or tones "jump out" unpleasantly or jarringly, or do they still sit in the mix well? Does one instrument make another instrument hard to hear, or can you hear everything clearly at once?

Lastly, It's possible that your headphones are already pretty close to a given target and don't need much EQ to begin with. If the adjustments are only +/- 1 or 2dB, especially if the biggest adjustments are outside of the midrange between 100hz and 5Khz, the difference might be subtle and hard to catch while listening to music, especially Jazz or solo instrumentals.

If you can't hear it immediately with pink noise, though, I recommend you keep trying, as even slight EQ changes tend to be audible that way.

 

[musica]

You can turn the EQ on and off quickly using the green/red button/switch highlighted previously in the thread.

To make the effects of EQ more obvious:

The effects are most apparent when listening to harmonically dense, broad signals. To maximize that effect, If you listen to pink noise while switching the EQ on and off, it will be easiest to hear the difference.

Otherwise, listening to rock music with lots of distortion and loud drums will tend to carry the same characteristics and make it easier to hear the effects of EQ.

In terms of how you should listen for it - focus on one instrument or voice at a time, listen to the same section of music repeatedly, and turn the EQ on and off quickly.

If you are having trouble noticing the difference, the above should help it become apparent.

More generally, pay attention to: Are you hearing more details in the background of the recording? Do instruments sound more, or less balanced against each other? Do loud notes or tones "jump out" unpleasantly or jarringly, or do they still sit in the mix well? Does one instrument make another instrument hard to hear, or can you hear everything clearly at once?

Lastly, It's possible that your headphones are already pretty close to a given target and don't need much EQ to begin with. If the adjustments are only +/- 1 or 2dB, especially if the biggest adjustments are outside of the midrange between 100hz and 5Khz, the difference might be subtle and hard to catch while listening to music, especially Jazz or solo instrumentals.

If you can't hear it immediately with pink noise, though, I recommend you keep trying, as even slight EQ changes tend to be audible that way.

Can pink noise also be used to tell whether the headphones are properly equalized?

 

[staticV3]

how can I compare the equalized headphones (with filters applied) to the same headphones without equalization?
I’m asking this to understand whether equalization has beneficial effects on the sound quality.

See here:

Does anyone use "Peace" with EQ APO?

https://sourceforge.net/projects/peace-equalizer-apo-extension/ It's a sort of extension of EQ APO and its developer is very responsive and enthusiastic about feedback. I know they're adding Mid/Side EQ with channel mixing to the panel as well, and there's quite a few other niceties. (Upmix...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Chagall]

You can turn the EQ on and off quickly using the green/red button/switch highlighted previously in the thread.

But with EQ enabled, the signal will be about 6 dB quieter than with EQ off. He should create one flat (no-EQ) profile that applies a similar ~6 dB attenuation, and then switch between that and the EQ profile.

No wonder he has trouble picking out EQ on or off. X2HR is preety good out of the box.

 

[kemmler3D]

Can pink noise also be used to tell whether the headphones are properly equalized?

Yes, using a measurement jig.

Or, by ear, just decide if the pink noise sounds exactly like pink noise or not. I am 75% joking here. If you have training or a lot of experience, pink noise is a good tool for identifying problems by ear. But there is no one thing I can tell you to listen for to know if something is properly calibrated or not. And for subtle changes like we are discussing here, I find it very hard to say if "A" or "B" is most correct by ear.

Like if you have a blue and green colour, it's easy to say which one is blue. But if you have two very slightly different blue colors, it's not so easy to say which one is the most blue. That's basically what you have to do, to verify correct tuning by ear. Picking out wrong answers is not that hard, picking out the better right answer is.