HD 600 EQ. Help me do better?

[tccalvin]

Hey all. In the past couple of days I was messing around with EQ with my HD 600 as a total newbie and... I really don't know what I'm doing.

I watch The Headphone Show like a good science fan, but they've probably left me with more doubts than answers...

Following their advice to use a tone generator I came up with this ballpark response:

This is just an indication of where I hear peaks and dips, but it doesn't help much. I hear the 5kHz peak as a bit louder than the ear-gain 3kHz peak if it means anything.

My goal is coming up with a "neutral" (whatever that means) response that would match what I would hear if I were listening to a flat-measuring speaker in a room.

I tried Auto EQ-ing to the Harman target with mixed results. The only thing I know I enjoy for sure is the bass boost (up to +12dB).

This is the Auto EQ profile that sounds "best" to me among the ones I tried:

Preamp: -12.5 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 30 Hz Gain 12.00 dB Q 0.713
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 44 Hz Gain 2.57 dB Q 0.977
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 70 Hz Gain 1.93 dB Q 1.246
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 205 Hz Gain -1.70 dB Q 1.050
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1285 Hz Gain -4.36 dB Q 1.167
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 1420 Hz Gain 2.84 dB Q 0.494
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 3013 Hz Gain -3.22 dB Q 2.983
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 6581 Hz Gain 2.78 dB Q 3.986
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 8904 Hz Gain 2.61 dB Q 2.146
Filter 10: ON HSC Fc 13286 Hz Gain -4.07 dB Q 1.310

It did a good job of "smoothing" the in-your-face mids of the HD 600, although it maybe made the headphone a bit too V-shaped (the vocals felt distant at times...).

I tested with a couple of rock songs (the new Linkin Park album and Foo Fighters) because those are where I feel the most need for improvement from the "stock" sound.

Any ideas on how I can improve the tuning? Thanks in advance.

 

[StephanB]

If you want to do "equal loudness" equalisation, try this web app, and get back to me if you have comments or questions. It works better on a laptop browser; on Android but I haven't figured out how to reload an EQ curve.

Or use Dr Giesinger DG Sonic Focus, which looks unmaintained (the link is not working), but the downloads are still on DropBox.

A tone generator is not ideal, Dr Griesinger explains why. It's also tiring to listen to, this is why I'm using pink noise filtered in 1/3 octave bands. The ISO loudness contour for 80 phons and a Harman curve is already factored into my app.

 

[solderdude]

When equalizing by ear is would be best to use narrow band noise (Griesinger also did it this way) instead of pure tones and even that requires trained listening skills.
The problem here is one's reference, SPL test level and sharp peaks and dips in headphone drivers (cone break-up, standing waves etc.) which are obvious and could/should not be EQ'ed in certain cases. By using narrow band noise you aren't bothered by this.
See post above.

When one has a calibrated reference speaker and using pink noise one can get pretty close when experienced with this.

Relying on measurements can be crapshoot above 6kHz or so where individual ears deviate substantially from standards.

IMO the HD 600 only needs some correction in the bass (can even do that to taste) and perhaps per individual at best some correction for ear-gain effects in the 2-5kHz range.

The next problem is that many recordings have tonal issues in the same frequency bands, below 100Hz and around the ear-gain bands so even when you have your headphone set-up correctly you will still be wanting different bass levels and different 'clarity/brightness' for different recordings.

 

[MRC01]

IMO the HD 600 only needs some correction in the bass (can even do that to taste) and perhaps per individual at best some correction for ear-gain effects in the 2-5kHz range.

Agreed. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good, and apply EQ to adjust every nitnoid wiggle in the response. I prefer using EQ sparingly only to correct the big stuff.

The HD600 is quite good out of the box and the only correction I apply is a gentle bass lift. That's a low shelf, +6 dB centered at 60 Hz, Q=0.5. This creates a lift that starts around 120 Hz and smoothly rises to +6 dB around 30 Hz. Before the EQ, apply an overall gain reduction of -6 dB to prevent clipping.

 

[tccalvin]

Thanks guys.

I decided to settle for a simple bass boost for now. Maybe I'll give Dr. Griesinger's method a go when I have the time.