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HD800 owners thread

This is kinda old, but might be worth to try/read.


Didn't find any newer method.
Bloody hell, he takes a long time to get to the point! I have used sine tones to aid in EQ tweaking before, but one drawback he didn't mention is that your natural hearing can have peaks & dips in some areas so you don't want to be EQ'ing out those - ie you can't assume your hearing is smooth. For instance, last time I checked I've got a massive peak in my hearing between 8-12kHz, and you wouldn't want to use EQ to correct for that in headphones. The only way to know for sure what your natural hearing is like is to listen to some sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat Speakers, and that's how I confirmed I have this massive peak in my hearing sensitivity between 8-12kHz. I didn't really notice any other hearing anomalies when listening to sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat speakers, apart from of course your hearing is less sensitive in the low bass and at higher frequencies (Fletcher Munson) - which is again something you don't want to correct for. In one of my EQ's for another of my headphones I did use this sine sweep method to locally flatten areas at around 5kHz if I remember rightly - but you have to do it locally, ie identifying peaks to iron down because Fletcher Munson issues means you can't really compare far distant parts (from each other) using this method because hearing sensitivity should be different in different broad areas of the frequency response.

I'm not sure if I'll use the sine wave method on my HD800, I might have another go at tweaking the bass to try to get a good level and to see if I can gain some impact & detail to it.....but problem is that lots of people report that HD800 just doesn't do clean impactful bass even if you try to make it do so through EQ. And then I might see if some of Oratory's user customisation filters can be tweaked to perfect other areas, following are the user customisation filters of the HD800 2020 EQ that I've been using (circled in red):
HD800 2020 EQ User Customisation Filters.jpg

I think I'd need to play with bands 1&2, 6, 8 - and probably in that order. Might give it a go now. As I said I've only really had a go at finetuning the bass by ear, probably because nothing else jumped out at me as deficient, but Band 6 might gain some dividends.
 
Bloody hell, he takes a long time to get to the point! I have used sine tones to aid in EQ tweaking before, but one drawback he didn't mention is that your natural hearing can have peaks & dips in some areas so you don't want to be EQ'ing out those - ie you can't assume your hearing is smooth. For instance, last time I checked I've got a massive peak in my hearing between 8-12kHz, and you wouldn't want to use EQ to correct for that in headphones. The only way to know for sure what your natural hearing is like is to listen to some sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat Speakers, and that's how I confirmed I have this massive peak in my hearing sensitivity between 8-12kHz. I didn't really notice any other hearing anomalies when listening to sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat speakers, apart from of course your hearing is less sensitive in the low bass and at higher frequencies (Fletcher Munson) - which is again something you don't want to correct for. In one of my EQ's for another of my headphones I did use this sine sweep method to locally flatten areas at around 5kHz if I remember rightly - but you have to do it locally, ie identifying peaks to iron down because Fletcher Munson issues means you can't really compare far distant parts (from each other) using this method because hearing sensitivity should be different in different broad areas of the frequency response.

I'm not sure if I'll use the sine wave method on my HD800, I might have another go at tweaking the bass to try to get a good level and to see if I can gain some impact & detail to it.....but problem is that lots of people report that HD800 just doesn't do clean impactful bass even if you try to make it do so through EQ. And then I might see if some of Oratory's user customisation filters can be tweaked to perfect other areas, following are the user customisation filters of the HD800 2020 EQ that I've been using (circled in red):
View attachment 387955
I think I'd need to play with bands 1&2, 6, 8 - and probably in that order. Might give it a go Hz w. As I said I've only really had a go at finetuning the bass by ear, probably because nothing else jumped out at me as deficient, but Band 6 might gain some dividends.
For the bass, try a combo of the 100hz shelf then a peak instead of the 34hz second shelf oratory uses. . Try a 2 or 3db peak of between q0.5 and q1 centred around 40 Hz with the 100hz shelf adjusted accordingly too. I find you can get better clarity than using 2 stacked shelves.
 
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Bloody hell, he takes a long time to get to the point! I have used sine tones to aid in EQ tweaking before, but one drawback he didn't mention is that your natural hearing can have peaks & dips in some areas so you don't want to be EQ'ing out those - ie you can't assume your hearing is smooth. For instance, last time I checked I've got a massive peak in my hearing between 8-12kHz, and you wouldn't want to use EQ to correct for that in headphones. The only way to know for sure what your natural hearing is like is to listen to some sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat Speakers, and that's how I confirmed I have this massive peak in my hearing sensitivity between 8-12kHz. I didn't really notice any other hearing anomalies when listening to sine sweeps on Anechoic Flat speakers, apart from of course your hearing is less sensitive in the low bass and at higher frequencies (Fletcher Munson) - which is again something you don't want to correct for. In one of my EQ's for another of my headphones I did use this sine sweep method to locally flatten areas at around 5kHz if I remember rightly - but you have to do it locally, ie identifying peaks to iron down because Fletcher Munson issues means you can't really compare far distant parts (from each other) using this method because hearing sensitivity should be different in different broad areas of the frequency response.

I'm not sure if I'll use the sine wave method on my HD800, I might have another go at tweaking the bass to try to get a good level and to see if I can gain some impact & detail to it.....but problem is that lots of people report that HD800 just doesn't do clean impactful bass even if you try to make it do so through EQ. And then I might see if some of Oratory's user customisation filters can be tweaked to perfect other areas, following are the user customisation filters of the HD800 2020 EQ that I've been using (circled in red):
View attachment 387955
I think I'd need to play with bands 1&2, 6, 8 - and probably in that order. Might give it a go now. As I said I've only really had a go at finetuning the bass by ear, probably because nothing else jumped out at me as deficient, but Band 6 might gain some dividends.

Yeah, he goes on and on...and it doesn't seem to be full proof.

They mention this sweep that is supposed to be attenuated in <edit>mid</edit> frequencies (Fletcher Munson curves) and I do hear a lot of peaks on HD800s (guessing above 5k it's not smooth).
The problem is there is no way to know the exact frequencies and which peaks occur :/ Maybe it's supposed to be used after EQ is done as a final check.

Anyway, the whole fine-tune by ear on top of baseline Oratory's EQ, makes sense. It should be more in line with what individuals will get at the eardrum and headphone unit-to-unit variation will be taken into account. However, this tutorial isn't the best.

Maybe we should open a new thread eg Fine-tune your EQ?
 
For the bass, try a combo of the 100hz shelf then a peak instead of the 34hz second shelf oratory uses. . Try a 2 or 3db peak of between q0.5 and q1 centred around 40 Hz with the 100hz shelf adjusted accordingly too. I find you can get better clarity than using 2 stacked shelves.
Yeah, he goes on and on...and it doesn't seem to be full proof.

They mention this sweep that is supposed to be attenuated in <edit>mid</edit> frequencies (Fletcher Munson curves) and I do hear a lot of peaks on HD800s (guessing above 5k it's not smooth).
The problem is there is no way to know the exact frequencies and which peaks occur :/ Maybe it's supposed to be used after EQ is done as a final check.

Anyway, the whole fine-tune by ear on top of baseline Oratory's EQ, makes sense. It should be more in line with what individuals will get at the eardrum and headphone unit-to-unit variation will be taken into account. However, this tutorial isn't the best.

Maybe we should open a new thread eg Fine-tune your EQ?
I didn't see your post Jimbob, not until I'd already finetuned the bass better. After listening to the Oratory 2020 EQ with some of my bass heavy tracks I decided I wanted to increase the subbass rather than drastically changing the overall warmth of the headphone, because subbass just isn't really there in this headphone, and it was also lacking slam. So I increased the 34Hz Low Shelf by an extra +4dB in the end, and I introduced a new 70Hz Peak Filter Q2 (to try to get some slam) which I ended up adding +4dB too. So this is a lot more than expected, but it's mostly restricting all of it's action below 100Hz, because I didn't want to muddy up the headphone.

Following is Oratory 2020 EQ (unmodified):
HD800 Oratory 2020.jpg


Following is Oratory 2020 EQ modified For Bass:
HD800 bass optimised.jpg


Note that because I've got toilet paper discs in the headphone then this is decreasing the brightness above 8kHz by -2.6dB vs what you see here with the EQ, which I've counteracted in the above EQ's by adding the inverse High Shelf Filter of that effect, so an Oratory EQ would show above 8kHz to be -2.6dB below what you see in my graphs. (The toilet paper discs smooth out the peaks above 8kHz which is why I've kept it in there, eventhough I counteracted it's broad effect with EQ).

That bass EQ looks kinda crazy, but seems that HD800 needs it for me. Sounds alright, can't really identify too many other areas that need to be changed, would have to investigate further. Also not compared it in this session to my other best EQ'd headphones so I don't really know where it's at vs my other headphones at the moment. Soundstage effects are noticeably centre of head and behind, rather than slightly in front of head and behind for some effects in my tracks that normally seem to circle head - I wonder if the toilet paper discs are messing up the HD800 soundstage, I should probably take them out & try again to check.
 
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I didn't see your post Jimbob, not until I'd already finetuned the bass better. After listening to the Oratory 2020 EQ with some of my bass heavy tracks I decided I wanted to increase the subbass rather than drastically changing the overall warmth of the headphone, because subbass just isn't really there in this headphone, and it was also lacking slam. So I increased the 34Hz Low Shelf by an extra +4dB in the end, and I introduced a new 70Hz Peak Filter (to try to get some slam) which I ended up adding +4dB too. So this is a lot more than expected, but it's mostly restricting all of it's action below 100Hz, because I didn't want to muddy up the headphone.

Following is Oratory 2020 EQ (unmodified):
View attachment 387981

Following is Oratory 2020 EQ modified For Bass:
View attachment 387982

Note that because I've got toilet paper discs in the headphone then this is decreasing the brightness above 8kHz by -2.6dB vs what you see here with the EQ, which I've counteracted in the above EQ's by adding the inverse High Shelf Filter of that effect, so an Oratory EQ would show above 8kHz to be -2.6dB below what you see in my graphs. (The toilet paper discs smooth out the peaks above 8kHz which is why I've kept it in there, eventhough I counteracted it's broad effect with EQ).

That bass EQ looks kinda crazy, but seems that HD800 needs it for me. Sounds alright, can't really identify too many other areas that need to be changed, would have to investigate further. Also not compared it in this session to my other best EQ'd headphones so I don't really know where it's at vs my other headphones at the moment. Soundstage effects are noticeably centre of head and behind, rather than slightly in front of head and behind for some effects in my tracks that normally seem to circle head - I wonder if the toilet paper discs are messing up the HD800 soundstage, I should probably take them out & try again to check.
I think killing too much of the 6k peak might also change it from an artificial but sometimes magical 3d staging to a more mundane but tonally better headphone. Just for kicks disable any filters above say 1k and see what you think.
 
I think killing too much of the 6k peak might also change it from an artificial but sometimes magical 3d staging to a more mundane but tonally better headphone. Just for kicks disable any filters above say 1k and see what you think.

And remove the toilet paper :)))
 
I think killing too much of the 6k peak might also change it from an artificial but sometimes magical 3d staging to a more mundane but tonally better headphone. Just for kicks disable any filters above say 1k and see what you think.
That's interesting, I did try that. The most noticeable thing from between flipping between EQ's is that as soon as you flip on the no filters above 1kHz then you get this insane S-sound around drums and everything up there, but then after 5 seconds my brain tunes that S sound out and I don't hear it anymore - it's either my brain or my physical ears being assaulted by the peak and therefore losing sensitivity to that frequency - so I don't know if it's a brain effect or a physical ear effect, but I end up with that overactive "S-Sound" being tuned out after around 5 seconds - I'm imagining that peak is not supposed to be there if my brain or ears are reacting in that way to that peak. It didn't hurt and I'm not listening that loudly, so it was not pain associated. I didn't really get any magical spacial effects by removing all filters above 1kHz - so I don't think the stock frequency response up there is doing anything for me up there from that perspective. I didn't really like the stock frequency response above 1kHz (I kept the bass EQ there in both versions of course).

And remove the toilet paper :)))
I kept that in, but negated it's effect with a High Shelf Filter - but yes the paper does smooth the peaks even so up there. I might remove it now anyway & try my existing EQ's without it.

EDIT: I removed the toilet paper and first time I put the headphone back on my head it felt different - note that I removed the High Shelf Filter that I had been using to previously counteract the toilet paper overall effect, so it's not specifically a tonality change I'm experiencing, because tonality should be same before & after toilet paper because I've been counteracting it with EQ. So spacially it felt a bit different immediately. I then put on Supermassive Black Hole by Muse and waited for the spatial effect of the electric guitar that pans around your head in a circle, and what would you know it panned around my head in a circle with both some forward & rear projection (& of course side projection), but previously with the toilet paper discs in there then there was no forward projection but did have side & rear projection - so with the toilet paper it felt like the guitar panned through the centre of my head & then behind me, whereas with toilet paper removed then the guitar panned around my head without entering my head at any point (so both forward & rear projection along with the side projection). This is just one test though, but I would say it's different - so far I'm thinking the toilet paper discs hamper the soundstage abilities of this headphone.
 
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Regarding bass EQ, it's interesting that I boosted the bass so much above Harman on the HD800 whereas with my other headphones running Harman bass or 1dB above Harman bass is where I end up for my other headphones.
 
Regarding bass EQ, it's interesting that I boosted the bass so much above Harman on the HD800 whereas with my other headphones running Harman bass or 1dB above Harman bass is where I end up for my other headphones.

What's the state of the pads and are they original Sennheiser's?
 
What's the state of the pads and are they original Sennheiser's?
They're new original Sennheiser pads. Well they're HD800s pads rather than the woven fabric HD800 pads you used to be able to get from Sennheiser, they've stopped selling the woven HD800 pads and are now touting the HD800s pad as both the HD800 pad & HD800s pad. Solderdude measured some frequency response differences:
1724405327112.png


Actually though, I went and listened to some of the same tracks on my Anechoic Flat Speakers along with subwoofer (with Room EQ down to 20Hz), and I think I've boosted the bass a bit too much on my latest HD800 EQ. I think when you just tweak a headphone in isolation in a session then you end up in weird places! Oratory EQ bass level is about right when I flipped back to my HD800 afterwards. It's true that the detail & impact of the HD800 bass is not quite 100% correct like this though. My massively boosted bass EQ did bring back perceived detail in the bass but it was a bit unbalanced vs the rest of the frequency range. Perhaps I just need to shape the bass better whilst keeping it close to the Oratory overall level? Maybe I just need to give it a small hump at 70Hz. This morning I've been flipping between my different headphones and various EQ's, it's a right old minefield! They're kind of variations around a common theme really. I mean all these EQ's improve the headphones - thinking back to yesterday when I tried the HD800 with all filters above 1kHz switched off - that crazy "S-Sound" that I heard for 5 seconds until my mind blocked it out! So these EQ's are bringing all the headphones into a ballpark, but it's really hard to say which is perfection - I'm thinking none of them are perfection! My best EQ'd headphones each have their own thing that they slightly do better for a slightly different approach - and then I'll flip to that one & like it for a while, then I'll enjoy another headphone a bit more when I flip to that one.......so it's a circle, and it's probably because they're all acceptable & in the ballpark, but each still different, and probably not totally totally perfect in all areas, hence me finding something I like when I switch to the other one. This might be the limitation & reality with "fixed curve headphones" that haven't been personalised to your own HRTF (using in ear measurement mics & all that malarky). What do you think?
 
They're new original Sennheiser pads. Well they're HD800s pads rather than the woven fabric HD800 pads you used to be able to get from Sennheiser, they've stopped selling the woven HD800 pads and are now touting the HD800s pad as both the HD800 pad & HD800s pad. Solderdude measured some frequency response differences:
View attachment 388089

Actually though, I went and listened to some of the same tracks on my Anechoic Flat Speakers along with subwoofer (with Room EQ down to 20Hz), and I think I've boosted the bass a bit too much on my latest HD800 EQ. I think when you just tweak a headphone in isolation in a session then you end up in weird places! Oratory EQ bass level is about right when I flipped back to my HD800 afterwards. It's true that the detail & impact of the HD800 bass is not quite 100% correct like this though. My massively boosted bass EQ did bring back perceived detail in the bass but it was a bit unbalanced vs the rest of the frequency range. Perhaps I just need to shape the bass better whilst keeping it close to the Oratory overall level? Maybe I just need to give it a small hump at 70Hz. This morning I've been flipping between my different headphones and various EQ's, it's a right old minefield! They're kind of variations around a common theme really. I mean all these EQ's improve the headphones - thinking back to yesterday when I tried the HD800 with all filters above 1kHz switched off - that crazy "S-Sound" that I heard for 5 seconds until my mind blocked it out! So these EQ's are bringing all the headphones into a ballpark, but it's really hard to say which is perfection - I'm thinking none of them are perfection! My best EQ'd headphones each have their own thing that they slightly do better for a slightly different approach - and then I'll flip to that one & like it for a while, then I'll enjoy another headphone a bit more when I flip to that one.......so it's a circle, and it's probably because they're all acceptable & in the ballpark, but each still different, and probably not totally totally perfect in all areas, hence me finding something I like when I switch to the other one. This might be the limitation & reality with "fixed curve headphones" that haven't been personalised to your own HRTF (using in ear measurement mics & all that malarky). What do you think?

There are so many factors that influence how we perceive sounds on a given day that I think it's quite impossible to get them perfect. Even if we have personal in situ measurements, I dare to say it will change depending on the mood, specific song, and slight positional variations. But at least we would have true personal measured assurance that might alleviate brain-worms to an extent. Then we need to stop tinkering....and just listen to music.

I completely agree that flippin' between headphones is a minefield! I was soooo happy with E3, but then I listened to HD800s and heard the same song differently. Not that it was better overall, it's just a different presentation with some things I like more and some less. But it shattered my E3 perfection illusion. That in turn, shuttered my measurements on a rig are everything illusion (for headphones). Some measure great on GRAS/B&K, but might sound bad on my head while sounding close to perfect on someone else's. An additional problem is that we can't ABX headphones - they will always be sighted tests, which confuses the situation even more. Bottom line: we need more measurements.

Yes, none of them are perfect and we need to remind ourselves they don't need to be and have a good time!
 
There are so many factors that influence how we perceive sounds on a given day that I think it's quite impossible to get them perfect. Even if we have personal in situ measurements, I dare to say it will change depending on the mood, specific song, and slight positional variations. But at least we would have true personal measured assurance that might alleviate brain-worms to an extent. Then we need to stop tinkering....and just listen to music.

I completely agree that flippin' between headphones is a minefield! I was soooo happy with E3, but then I listened to HD800s and heard the same song differently. Not that it was better overall, it's just a different presentation with some things I like more and some less. But it shattered my E3 perfection illusion. That in turn, shuttered my measurements on a rig are everything illusion (for headphones). Some measure great on GRAS/B&K, but might sound bad on my head while sounding close to perfect on someone else's. An additional problem is that we can't ABX headphones - they will always be sighted tests, which confuses the situation even more. Bottom line: we need more measurements.

Yes, none of them are perfect and we need to remind ourselves they don't need to be and have a good time!
Yes, none of the fixed curve EQ's are gonna be perfect even if your headphone is 100% conforming to it, but in terms of the different rigs at least GRAS has the Harman Research to back it up - so it's not easy to say how well headphones measure on other rigs because there's not really any research associated with it. Yeah, they're just not bloody perfect, I wish they were, I have been chasing perfection with my headphones, it is an illusion when it comes to Fixed Curve Targets like Harman or any other created target that is not a personalised measured one (as in measured with in ear mics on your own person) - even then you might need to add a bit more bass to get around the lack of tactile bass from headphones. I should probably stop chasing perfection when it comes to Fixed Curve Targets and instead try in-ear mic measurement or instead just be happy with what I've got. I mean I think all my headphones sound good, most people would have stopped there! But I can't really get them that much better using conventional methods.
 
Oh no, I'm at it again, @AetherDrive just liked one of my earlier posts in this thread where I posted an early EQ, which prompted me to try it & it feels nearly there, it's the one in this post of mine:
It's a bit of a controversial EQ in some ways because it's targeted at the best EQ for my K702. Basically Oratory measured a K702 of mine and then I measured the K702 with an EQ that was derived from that on my miniDSP EARS measurement rig, that was then the target for my HD800 that I measured on the same miniDSP EARS rig. The problem with this is that because miniDSP EARS doesn't have accurate human ear impedance then it can create inaccuracies when measuring different models of headphone on it - in other words there's less guarantee that 2 different headphone models that measure the same on miniDSP EARS will sound the same vs had you done the same on GRAS. But I suppose it's a trade off between the unit to unit variation of my HD800 vs the miniDSP EARS translation accuracy between K702/HD800. I don't have the toilet paper discs in my HD800 anymore as I think it negatively affects soundstage, so that's one difference to when I last time tried the EQ in the post I'm quoting. I like the bass on that EQ. It might be a tad bright over 10000Hz as that EQ was previously based on having toilet paper discs in the HD800, so rather than slap on the full -2.6dB High Shelf at 8000Hz that the toilet paper discs create, then I might just try -1dB or so.....as it is just a touch bright up there.....perhaps I like that EQ more than I did back in June because I like a bit of that extra brightness I'm getting now vs last time I tried it. I'm too obsessed with this stuff, soon I'll be happy with it! :facepalm:

EDIT: yeah, that's fine with some finetuning above 10000Hz.
 
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Oh no, I'm at it again, @AetherDrive just liked one of my earlier posts in this thread where I posted an early EQ, which prompted me to try it & it feels nearly there, it's the one in this post of mine:
It's a bit of a controversial EQ in some ways because it's targeted at the best EQ for my K702. Basically Oratory measured a K702 of mine and then I measured the K702 with an EQ that was derived from that on my miniDSP EARS measurement rig, that was then the target for my HD800 that I measured on the same miniDSP EARS rig. The problem with this is that because miniDSP EARS doesn't have accurate human ear impedance then it can create inaccuracies when measuring different models of headphone on it - in other words there's less guarantee that 2 different headphone models that measure the same on miniDSP EARS will sound the same vs had you done the same on GRAS. But I suppose it's a trade off between the unit to unit variation of my HD800 vs the miniDSP EARS translation accuracy between K702/HD800. I don't have the toilet paper discs in my HD800 anymore as I think it negatively affects soundstage, so that's one difference to when I last time tried the EQ in the post I'm quoting. I like the bass on that EQ. It might be a tad bright over 10000Hz as that EQ was previously based on having toilet paper discs in the HD800, so rather than slap on the full -2.6dB High Shelf at 8000Hz that the toilet paper discs create, then I might just try -1dB or so.....as it is just a touch bright up there.....perhaps I like that EQ more than I did back in June because I like a bit of that extra brightness I'm getting now vs last time I tried it. I'm too obsessed with this stuff, soon I'll be happy with it! :facepalm:

EDIT: yeah, that's fine with some finetuning above 10000Hz.

Courious did you try perceptional FR sweep? Also when you AB EQ did you remember to volume match it? Asking because I forgot once and got caught in a loop. Such a basic thing.
 
Courious did you try perceptional FR sweep? Also when you AB EQ did you remember to volume match it? Asking because I forgot once and got caught in a loop. Such a basic thing.
Nope, not used any sine tones in this EQ. I have volume matched EQ's before through measuring a really sprectrally dense track on each EQ (using miniDSP EARS), and then setting the negative preamps so the average dB(A) of the track is the same for each (it really does work when you flip the change EQ switch when still listening to music, no change in perceptible volume at all); however, it's not totally fair to volume match EQ's which haven't been developed from the beginning during subjective tweaking to be volume matched, as you would have built in some loudness compensation into it. Generally when I switch EQ's I'll start low and fairly quickly increase volume until it sounds good, which should be the point at which that particular EQ will shine the best, so there's that fair basis between the EQ's, but this isn't necessary for comparing all EQ's (see next sentence). However, if I'm just tweaking an existing EQ then I won't level match the change as it's just a small incremental change to a certain part of the frequency response, like the bass for instance. I suppose if you're being extremely thorough about it you'd make sure you were listening at the exact same dB(A) each time you listened before even developing an EQ that's being developed in isolation - perhaps you'd choose an average dB(A) that you most often listen at - that way when you develop other EQ's they're at the same level - it's a faff though. And then if you're significantly boosting say for the example the shouty region of the frequency response, then you'd have to re-match your EQ's again, because you've changed an area that is gonna significantly affect the dB(A) that you're listening at, it's a faff.
 
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I've finetuned the EQ for the HD800.... finetuned from the one I described back on 23rd August post. So toilet paper discs gone, not using them (damage the soundstage), and it's the controversial K702 best EQ measured on my miniDSP EARS and then literally copied to that by measuring HD800 on my miniDSP EARS and then EQ'ing it to the measured K702 best EQ target. So it's the following filters applied to my HD800 (which has the new HD800s pads on it, not the woven stock HD800 pads, because Sennheiser now advertise the HD800s pads as the stock replacement pads for the HD800 and they no longer make the previous woven pads) so following is my best EQ (use about -5dB negative preamp):

PK Fc 38.00 Hz Gain 4.00 dB Q 0.800
PK Fc 100.0 Hz Gain -1.00 dB Q 1.500
PK Fc 175.5 Hz Gain -2.30 dB Q 2.000
PK Fc 298.0 Hz Gain -3.60 dB Q 1.000
PK Fc 742.0 Hz Gain -2.50 dB Q 1.000
PK Fc 1706 Hz Gain 2.40 dB Q 2.367
PK Fc 2802 Hz Gain -3.30 dB Q 1.000
PK Fc 3213 Hz Gain 1.60 dB Q 3.006
PK Fc 3902 Hz Gain -7.40 dB Q 5.000
PK Fc 4005 Hz Gain 9.00 dB Q 1.502
PK Fc 5522 Hz Gain -13.20 dB Q 3.307
HS Q Fc 10000 Hz Gain -1.80 dB Q 0.707

I do like the above EQ for my HD800, I think it really captures what I liked about my best K702 EQ, which is not all that surprising given I've translated it through measuring both, but I was surprised the translation worked so well. Perhaps I like the HD800 better now than the K702. Either way it's certainly good enough, and I like the bass definition vs the rest of the frequency response. It's certainly been bringing me the same or better joy from music listening vs my K702 when I've been using it recently. That's saying something as my K702 best EQ was the headphone I was always coming back to and enjoying consistently over a few years.

And then for comparison of Total EQ Curves of my best HD800 EQ vs Oratory's EQ from yr 2020:
My HD800 EQ (K702 EQ emulated) vs Oratory 2020.jpg


Now comparison between the same my best EQ vs Oratory's latest EQ from 10.06.24:
My HD800 EQ (K702 EQ emulated) vs Oratory 10.06.24.jpg


To clarify, Oratory measured my K702 unit a long time ago and I used his measurement he gave me of my unit to EQ my K702 to the Harman Curve - the measured result of that headphone on my miniDSP EARs rig was then the target for my HD800 that I measured on my miniDSP EARS rig. I think it's quite exciting that the two match up really well up to 2kHz given it's quite a translational leap between measuring rigs / headphone models / and two different people measuring them (Oratory & myself). You can also see that Oratory's latest EQ has become brighter for the HD800, you can work that out from the above two graphs but I'll compare them in following graph so you can see easier:
Oratory HD800 2020 vs Oratory HD800 10.06.24.jpg


You can see that Oratory's latest EQ has become more like my own best HD800 EQ, and maybe this could be down to the fact that Oratory's latest EQ for the HD800 included a unit or two of the HD800 using the new HD800s pads (not the woven ones), which is the pad setup that I'm using. I know in the past that I've said that I prefer Oratory's 2020 EQ to Oratory's 10.06.24 EQ, but that doesn't quite marry with the fact that my best HD800 EQ is brighter than both of them, maybe there's something specific about my best HD800 EQ that I like. I wanted to share this with you, and you can always try my EQ which is at the top of this post if you like, perhaps it will work well with HD800 that have the new HD800s pads on them.

EDIT: flipped to my HD560s best EQ's, major difference in presentation of soundstage vs K702 & HD800, I really think this on head variation thing is a massive deal for headphones and how they sound in their overall presentation, which I discussed a bit at the following post (you can still read the crossed out stuff), I think HD800 and K702 are doing something right from 20-2000kHz in terms of their on-head reliability which is making EQ's more valid from person to person:
I still like the HD560s, but I think the K702 & HD800 share reliability of presentation from 20-2000Hz between different people that is doing something to make EQ's and therefore soundstage more valid / consistent / real (but above that range plays a part too because something that the toilet paper discs did was to destroy some aspects of the soundstage, but I think the reliability/consistency from head to head from 20-2000kHz plays a part too in overall presentation).
 
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Small update re my HD800 experiences. I tried the latest Oratory EQ dated 10th June 2024 just now, it's the first time I've tried it without having the toilet paper discs in the headphone. It's just fine that EQ - I didn't like it before when I tried it with toilet paper discs and a High Shelf to counteract the measured effect of the toilet paper discs. I think those toilet paper discs were generally detrimental as well as me mentioning on earlier dates that I perceived some destruction in soundstage for them. Anyway, the Oratory 10th June 2024 EQ is just fine as is with my HD800 eventhough it's got the newer stock pads on it rather the woven stock originals. In my previous post above you can see the difference in a graph between Oratory 2020 EQ & Oratory 2024 EQ (the last graph in my previous post).

Yep, it's just fine with that 10th June 2024 Oratory EQ. I've attached Oratory's EQ to this post in case he changes the EQ in the future.
 

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  • Sennheiser HD800 10th June 2024.pdf
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Speaking of the HD800, mine were used and came with the SDR mod. I removed that mod and it sounds waaaay better IMO
 
Speaking of the HD800, mine were used and came with the SDR mod. I removed that mod and it sounds waaaay better IMO
You use them stock with no EQ? Or you used Oratory EQ both with SDR mod before and now without SDR mod & Oratory EQ? He does EQ's for both SDR & stock.
 
You use them stock with no EQ? Or you used Oratory EQ both with SDR mod before and now without SDR mod & Oratory EQ? He does EQ's for both SDR & stock.

I tried Oratory but I usually just dial in a base boost with my RME ADI-2 software
 
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