Headphones and EQ

[BinkieHuckerback]

Can adjusting EQ settings make (all) headphones sound the same?

 

[Helicopter]

Can adjusting EQ settings make (all) headphones sound the same?

Frequency response makes up most (85%?) of the differentiation and can be EQ'd, but you can't get distortion profiles or driver and cup interactions to be the same with EQ. With low distortion headphones, you should be able to get pretty close.

 

[BinkieHuckerback]

Frequency response makes up most (85%?) of the differentiation and can be EQ'd, but you can't get distortion profiles or driver and cup interactions to be the same with EQ. With low distortion headphones, you should be able to get pretty close.

Thank you! 85% - and I note the '?' - sounds pretty high...Buy one set of headphones and spend time EQ 'ing them?!

 

[Jimbob54]

Can adjusting EQ settings make (all) headphones sound the same?

No. But you can get them all in the same ballpark as opposed to all over the map.

 

[julian_hughes]

Can adjusting EQ settings make (all) headphones sound the same?

Not even close. It's a myth. There are some good eq apps out there where you supposedly can eq headphone a to match the frequency response curve of headphones b,c,d,e etc. Anyone who ever used *any* of these apps and has several of the compatible headphones can tell you 100% that it's not even close. You can make different sounding headphones sound like they are somewhat vaguely more alike than without eq but the rest is nonsense. You can't eq away resonances, inabilities, many types of distortions etc.

 

[BinkieHuckerback]

Not even close. It's a myth. There are some good eq apps out there where you supposedly can eq headphone a to match the frequency response curve of headphones b,c,d,e etc. Anyone who ever used *any* of these apps and has several of the compatible headphones can tell you 100% that it's not even close. You can make different sounding headphones sound like they are somewhat vaguely more alike than without eq but the rest is nonsense. You can't eq away resonances, inabilities, many types of distortions etc.

'Not even close'? Surely some EQ settings do something to headphones to change their sound, so making them sound similar?

 

[Berwhale]

Not even close. It's a myth. There are some good eq apps out there where you supposedly can eq headphone a to match the frequency response curve of headphones b,c,d,e etc. Anyone who ever used *any* of these apps and has several of the compatible headphones can tell you 100% that it's not even close. You can make different sounding headphones sound like they are somewhat vaguely more alike than without eq but the rest is nonsense. You can't eq away resonances, inabilities, many types of distortions etc.

The question is not if any headphone can be made to sound like any other headphone, but if all headphones can be EQ's to sound similar. I think the answer is 'yes', within reasonable limits. Amirm has measured many headphones that show high deviation from the Harman preference curve, but if they don't have other issues such high distortion, they can often be redeemed by EQ.

 

[julian_hughes]

'Not even close'? Surely some EQ settings do something to headphones to change their sound, so making them sound similar?

Try it. I have.