Hot Take (or not), if you EQ your headphones to your ears, you can easily beat ANY unEQ'd headphone.

[JoelDollie]

Hey There,

I've recently joined this forum. Been a professional mixing engineer for about 9 years now. I own Kii three, a fully treated home studio, and HD800S.
Having all these made me realize many things about headphones, and even though I've shared some of these in the HD800S thread I wanted to make another post talking about all this stuff with a more generalistic approach.

To set the scene, I've recently EQ'd my HD800S, and a few of my engineer friends did the same because I wouldn't stop yapping about it. Honestly I've realize many things about headphones. It went from a bright resonant mess with heavy left/right imbalance to almost identical to perfect monitors.

The imbalance and flaws in the frequency response have been checked against monitors which are -+2db ''in room'' flat (in REW) in my studio and I have confirmed it's not my ears but the headphones.

1: Without DSP, manufacturers can only approach a ''flat'' curve at best, but they can never get your HRTF profile. They will usually try to go towards the Harman curve or similar, which sounds quite similar to speakers in a room but they cannot fix your narrow treble peaks.
2: Almost all open back suffer from lack of sub.
3: Distortion must be checked on dynamic drivers when trying to boost back the sub.

Points 2 and 3 are probably well known but what I believe isn't talked about enough is how insanely close you can get your headphones to monitors if you take the time to sine sweep and compare the response with a good monitoring system.

Not sure the Slate VSX are popular here but they are actually quite famous in the audio engineering world. They sound surprisingly good for ''cheap'' closed backs due to DSP.
Now what these can't do, what sonarworks can't do and what the newest beyerdynamic ''room simulator and headphone EQ'' program can't do is fix the goddamn narrow peaks.

These narrow peaks can actually be EQ'd and the results can actually be quite consistent and predictable. This will vary from headphone to headphone and the higher you go in frequency the more the headphone will be sensitive to positioning, and moving them slightly will create/undo peaks and dips in the high treble, but I now firmly believe that everybody should at least try to sine sweep a bit and fix the worst narrow peaks and dips and see how far you can go before it becomes unreliable. There are pretty obvious ones on any headphone, which can be about 3-9db in amplitude, sometimes more. Recovering that can dramatically improve the frequency response and completely change the listening experience.

Speaking for myself and 4 of my friends who did the same thing, the ''sine sweeped'' HD800S with manual EQ sounded a lot more neutral, biggest difference was the ssss sounds in vocals, and the fact that the hi hats weren't on top of the vocals anymore which is a massive flaw of the HD800S.

The corrected HD800S (which sound extremely close to good monitors now) feel almost as linear when sweeping from 100 to 1k, than 1k to 10k. Before EQ the 1k to 10k was an absolute resonant mess, and even though the Oratory preset can help fix some of the issues, I think that going more in depth and more narrow Q is extremely beneficial.

I know this might seem like a joke but the EQ below is what's needed to make my headphones as close as possible to my monitors. when sweeping I've reliably ''killed'' all the dips and peaks and things are extremely linear. My glasses aren't exactly symmetrical (or maybe it's my face lol) so I have ever so slightly less seal on the right side, so that EQ was needed. Or maybe it's the drivers. Doesn't happen on speakers. This depends too much on the person.

TDLR: Sine sweep your headphones and fix the worst peaks, the benefits are too great and you can go from a resonant mess to something that is very close to a good monitoring system. Even if you don't have a great monitoring system to compare, fixing the most obvious narrow peaks without changing the overall curve can be night and day for your high end. Since this is super dependant on your ears and HRTF, no program can do this for you and nobody can do this for you. No matter how much you pay for headphones you will have this treble issue. This is just due to the nature of having drivers so close to the ear.

EQ presets are a good start, but it's not that simple. Example a simple high mid boost on the HD800 would reveal a nasty 2.6k peak. Every single one of my friends who participated to this ''study'' had a similar peak at 2.6k. Talking 3+db so something audio engineers can hear easily. Trying to ''counter the curve'' with a ''low resolution'' EQ preset isn't ideal. You need to get in there and figure out the actual dips and peaks which are narrower than you think.

By sine sweeping I mean using something like this. You will hear wild variations in SPL https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
These variations will be very different to what any headphone rig can measure. Headphone measurement rigs can only try to approach with lots of mistakes.

 

[Jiraya369]

while all that is true, why not just get a good low distortion headphone like the hifiman edition xv and then eq to taste? it follows the harman curve in all but subbass and the intentional 1-2khz dip, very simple fixes, and the treble is shockingly smooth. Distortion, based on unheardlab's testing, is quite low as well especially for the bass which needs boosting, upper mid distortion shouldnt be too noticeable as it's 94 db spl and not even crossing 1% that much.

The Moondrop Para 2 is another gem. These new "Cheap" planars are excellent bases for EQ. Distortion imo isn't really a factor for most headphones unless it has 10% distortion in the bass at the level in which you want to boost.

Getting a ****** headphone that's tough to eq is not the best move imo. And the prices of good quality (in terms of FR at least) headphones is getting lower and lower. FiiO has the FT1 closed back and the JT7 open back.

You do need to pay more for better looks, comfort and also perhaps channel imbalance/distortion anomalies not being there but honestly i doubt even the most expensive headphones are usually exempt from this.

We're in the golden age of audio right now, cheap shit's so good and good shit's quite cheap as well. Lovely times we're living in.

 

[Chromatischism]

I used a tone sweep to get my EQ started for the Truthear Zero Blues, which had way too much treble, among other issues. I could hear the peaks and dips and it was much easier to focus on where the improvements should be made.

I posted my results in the thread and was laughed at. There were all kinds of snide comments about how I shouldn't do it that way, that's not how it works, etc.

Well the reality is, that is how it worked. Only fine tuning was needed afterward while listening to music to get the overall balance nailed down and any remaining brightness tuned out. They then matched very closely my neutral speakers in my main system, which are my reference. People who tried my EQ said it mostly fixed the issues for them and then they could adjust the overall tilt to taste since with earphones there is a greater variance from person to person.

So if you are someone who has normal to good hearing and a good ear for tonality, there is nothing wrong with this method.

And it turns out, later when the company came out with their Red version, the response was much closer to what I ended up at. So not only does that validate what I was hearing, but that others were hearing it, too, and that I can successfully develop a really good EQ.

 

[Soandso]

Quote from O.P. =

A Comment =

It seems the "2.6k peak" treble variation from studio monitors is inherent to ear canal/eardrum proximity with headphones. For example see the red curved line in the below graphic of gain for sound arriving to the ear at a 45 degree angle.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

If a headphone has high distortion, EQ probably can't help much.

 

[IsaacOscar]

I'm probably doing something wrong, but I have not been able to use EQ to fix the sound of overly boomy bass. I can obviously lower the volume of the bass, but it still sounds "boomy" just quieter. (I've had this issue on the Sennheiser HD 599 SE, which I returned as it was horrible; I also have the Sennheiser M2 IEG, but I got the bass to a nice level, it just still sounds a bit boomier than my headphones).

Similarly, EQ doesn't make the bass boomy on my non-boomy Sennheiser HD 558.
(Maybe "boomy" is the wrong word? it sort of feels like the inside of my head is vibrating?)

So I'm sceptical of the claim you can just modify the sound of your headphones with EQ, instead of getting better sounding headphones.

 

[Jiraya369]

I used a tone sweep to get my EQ started for the Truthear Zero Blues, which had way too much treble, among other issues. I could hear the peaks and dips and it was much easier to focus on where the improvements should be made.

I posted my results in the thread and was laughed at. There were all kinds of snide comments about how I shouldn't do it that way, that's not how it works, etc.

Well the reality is, that is how it worked. Only fine tuning was needed afterward while listening to music to get the overall balance nailed down and any remaining brightness tuned out. They then matched very closely my neutral speakers in my main system, which are my reference. People who tried my EQ said it mostly fixed the issues for them and then they could adjust the overall tilt to taste since with earphones there is a greater variance from person to person.

So if you are someone who has normal to good hearing and a good ear for tonality, there is nothing wrong with this method.

i mean, if it sounds good to you it sounds good to you, dunno why people will laugh at someone for enjoying something, that is goofy.

 

[Jiraya369]

I'm probably doing something wrong, but I have not been able to use EQ to fix the sound of overly boomy bass. I can obviously lower the volume of the bass, but it still sounds "boomy" just quieter. (I've had this issue on the Sennheiser HD 599 SE, which I returned as it was horrible; I also have the Sennheiser M2 IEG, but I got the bass to a nice level, it just still sounds a bit boomier than my headphones).

Similarly, EQ doesn't make the bass boomy on my non-boomy Sennheiser HD 558.
(Maybe "boomy" is the wrong word? it sort of feels like the inside of my head is vibrating?)

So I'm sceptical of the claim you can just modify the sound of your headphones with EQ, instead of getting better sounding headphones.

probably distortion, lack of ample amp power (dubious), and most likely the fact that the rest of the FR is affecting the bass.

You cant just isolate the bass, when a kick drum or bass guitar is played there's more than the bass frequencies being played. That must also be considered

Those are probable causes but sometimes the one which affects us the most is our brain/our biases, important to keep in mind

 

[IsaacOscar]

i mean, if it sounds good to you it sounds good to you, dunno why people will laugh at someone for enjoying something, that is goofy.

I hope this also applies to me, as I'm pretty sure I've EQ'd my headphones incorrectly.. (i.e. the music doesn't sound like it's supposed to). I've made the bass a bit louder to make it feel more "enveloping", at the cost of making the singing harder to understand unless I concentrate...

 

[IsaacOscar]

probably distortion, lack of ample amp power (dubious), and most likely the fact that the rest of the FR is affecting the bass.

Definitely not an AMP issue, the issue persists on lower volumes.

You cant just isolate the bass, when a kick drum or bass guitar is played there's more than the bass frequencies being played. That must also be considered

Those are probable causes but sometimes the one which affects us the most is our brain/our biases, important to keep in mind

Thanks, I'm very new to the EQ world, and I don't use my IEM's enough for me to bother trying to work it out though (my EQ does make them sound nice now, I do wish they sounded the same as my headphones though). I feel like buying better ones would be much easier though (assuming I can work out which ones are "better" from their frequency response graphs without trying them first...)

 

[Jiraya369]

I hope this also applies to me, as I'm pretty sure I've EQ'd my headphones incorrectly.. (i.e. the music doesn't sound like it's supposed to). I've made the bass a bit louder to make it feel more "enveloping", at the cost of making the singing harder to understand unless I concentrate...

yeah, 2 things

firstly the headphone has bloated/puffy bass already, to exacerbate the issue, the 100 hz and lower bass frequencies are rolled off. All in all, not exactly hard to see why you have an issue with it, if you turn down the bass there then the bass will seem more lacking as the deeper, more felt bass that is supposed to be loud, is just not there.

You might be able to eq it, but these headphones might have loads and loads of distortion at that point, and a 10 db boost in the bass would mean a shit ton of power would be needed, don't think a simple apple dongle would be able to handle it if you listen loud.

the fiio jt7 is a new entry in this price range and imo is a really decent buy.

only a 5 db boost needed till 30 hz. Based on the FiiO FT1 Pro distortion data, it should have minimal audible distortion.

So yes, you need better headphones, something inadequate cant be pushed beyond its limits. Bass is extremely important for perceived audio quality. I'd suggest trying out a little moondrop chu 2, 7hz zero 2 or truthear gate. They're good iems with good tuning. Any change can be fairly easily made with eq and since sweeps for your own hrtf.

 

[Jiraya369]

very new to the EQ world

nearly everyone sucks at eq'ing lol, if anyone says they're great they're just being pompous 90% of the times. Only eq'ers i can truly trust are solderdude and oratory

problem with headphones/iems is variations due to your own head/ear's anatomy, which is why eq to taste is recommended, it's a long journey but if done right, can be a highly rewarding one.

 

[IsaacOscar]

yeah, 2 things
View attachment 508838firstly the headphone has bloated/puffy bass already, to exacerbate the issue, the 100 hz and lower bass frequencies are rolled off. All in all, not exactly hard to see why you have an issue with it, if you turn down the bass there then the bass will seem more lacking as the deeper, more felt bass that is supposed to be loud, is just not there.

The irony is that my current headphone EQ is just me using AutoEQ with the HD 558 as the base, and HD 599 as the target:

the fiio jt7 is a new entry in this price range and imo is a really decent buy.

Yeah I've heard this recommendation before. As I don't actually have a problem with my headphones (just my earphones), I'm not going to risk the time and money (I'd either have to buy them from China, or spend $30 extra to get them from a local seller...)

nearly everyone sucks at eq'ing lol, if anyone says they're great they're just being pompous 90% of the times. Only eq'ers i can truly trust are solderdude and oratory

What about Amir?
One of the reasons I tried the HD 599 SE was that I couldn't find any EQ's for my discontinued HD 558. And thanks for reminding me to try Oratory's EQ on my IEMs (Solardude hasn't got one sadly); the EQ profile is very similar to my current one, however it's not as nice as it's more "hollow".

 

[Jiraya369]

HD 599 as the target

why exactly are you doing that?

As I don't actually have a problem with my headphones

well as long as you're happy with your products, just turn off the internet and enjoy your music my friend. Everything else is just random noise if you enjoy your stuff.

Amir

i like this site cus of its objective nature, not subjective. Amir is human and can be prone to bias/mistakes, headphones aren't his main thing either unlike Oratory and solderdude so there's that, loads of reasons for not being reliant on him.

Additionally, just dont listen too much to any one person's eq take on a headphone as it is for their head/tastes.

more "hollow

your current one is muddy, so obviously the eq'd one will be hollow as the eq is doing the exact opposite. Tell you what. Use oratory/harman eq and then keep using the eq'd version for 2-3 days. Then turn it off and do A/B comparisons. See what your brain thinks then of the eq compared to the OG.

 

[IsaacOscar]

why exactly are you doing that?

I was trying to "simulate" other headphones to see if they were worth buying.
(It didn't work, as an actual HD 599 was horrible). I've tried tweaking the EQ's, but everything I come up with seems worse (or too similar to tell).

I also did the same with my IEMs (I tested all the other Sennheiser ones, and found "simulating" the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 to produce the best results).

well as long as you're happy with your products, just turn off the internet and enjoy your music my friend. Everything else is just random noise if you enjoy your stuff.

Yes, but they could be better! (I guess I feel better about wasting time on EQing, then I do about wasting money on new headphones; but then I have important things I need to spend time on, and no important things to spend money on...).

i like this site cus of its objective nature, not subjective. Amir is human and can be prone to bias/mistakes, headphones aren't his main thing either unlike Oratory and solderdude so there's that, loads of reasons for not being reliant on him.

Fair enough! I was just curious, he seams to know what headphones "should" sound like though, I haven't the faintest clue.

Additionally, just don't listen too much to any one person's eq take on a headphone as it is for their head/tastes.

Yes! Honestly I'm just torn between wanting stuff to sound nicer to me, and wanting to listen to music the "correct" what the artists want me to hear).
And it's not just music of course, my EQ made an NPC sound like a totally different person! I have no idea what was correct (the EQ version made her sound less like an average person?)

your current one is muddy, so obviously the eq'd one will be hollow as the eq is doing the exact opposite. Tell you what. Use oratory/harman eq and then keep using the eq'd version for 2-3 days. Then turn it off and do A/B comparisons. See what your brain thinks then of the eq compared to the OG.

That's a good idea, unfortunately, I only use my IEMs when I go out, and I'm not doing that much these days (stuff in my ears are just not very comfortable, but that seems to be the only option when you want easily portable, the sound to not be hearable by other people, and outside noise to not leak in...).

I'd certainly try that with my headphones if I had an EQ that I knew was supposed to be "good" (they are the opposite of IEMs: large, comfortable, they let everyone else hear what I'm hearing, and they let outside sound in; only downside is when I'm leave the air-conditioning with them on...)

 

[Jiraya369]

"simulating"

absolute waste of time, why spend time simulating other mediocre products instead of trying to go for something nicer?

they could be better

maybe, maybe not, who knows? just try to enjoy your stuff that's the most important part

what headphones "should" sound like though

no one can tell you that as our anatomies are different. Only a neutral speaker can be properly tested to have a "X should sound like this", that's what the in room response will tell us but there still are other factors like distortion and the dispersion (how wide or tight the soundstage is). Headphones are just mostly FR and the issue again is just our anatomy being different and stuff.

EQ that I knew was supposed to be "good

Oratory or harman. Or DF+10db tilt auto eq on gras measurements. Loads of different ways of reaching the same answer, something that sounds nice to your ears.

 

[Briocat]

I, too, had trouble trying to get the best EQ for my headphones. I finally solved everything with a simple and inexpensive solution: the FiiO JT7. All I had to do was eliminate the annoying peak around 6kHz and pair them with an underrated DAP like the Surfans F28, which has a rich bass sound without the need for EQ. The result: a delight, and I'm left wanting nothing more.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Hey There,

I've recently joined this forum. Been a professional mixing engineer for about 9 years now. I own Kii three, a fully treated home studio, and HD800S.
Having all these made me realize many things about headphones, and even though I've shared some of these in the HD800S thread I wanted to make another post talking about all this stuff with a more generalistic approach.

To set the scene, I've recently EQ'd my HD800S, and a few of my engineer friends did the same because I wouldn't stop yapping about it. Honestly I've realize many things about headphones. It went from a bright resonant mess with heavy left/right imbalance to almost identical to perfect monitors.

The imbalance and flaws in the frequency response have been checked against monitors which are -+2db ''in room'' flat (in REW) in my studio and I have confirmed it's not my ears but the headphones.

1: Without DSP, manufacturers can only approach a ''flat'' curve at best, but they can never get your HRTF profile. They will usually try to go towards the Harman curve or similar, which sounds quite similar to speakers in a room but they cannot fix your narrow treble peaks.
2: Almost all open back suffer from lack of sub.
3: Distortion must be checked on dynamic drivers when trying to boost back the sub.

Points 2 and 3 are probably well known but what I believe isn't talked about enough is how insanely close you can get your headphones to monitors if you take the time to sine sweep and compare the response with a good monitoring system.

Not sure the Slate VSX are popular here but they are actually quite famous in the audio engineering world. They sound surprisingly good for ''cheap'' closed backs due to DSP.
Now what these can't do, what sonarworks can't do and what the newest beyerdynamic ''room simulator and headphone EQ'' program can't do is fix the goddamn narrow peaks.

These narrow peaks can actually be EQ'd and the results can actually be quite consistent and predictable. This will vary from headphone to headphone and the higher you go in frequency the more the headphone will be sensitive to positioning, and moving them slightly will create/undo peaks and dips in the high treble, but I now firmly believe that everybody should at least try to sine sweep a bit and fix the worst narrow peaks and dips and see how far you can go before it becomes unreliable. There are pretty obvious ones on any headphone, which can be about 3-9db in amplitude, sometimes more. Recovering that can dramatically improve the frequency response and completely change the listening experience.

Speaking for myself and 4 of my friends who did the same thing, the ''sine sweeped'' HD800S with manual EQ sounded a lot more neutral, biggest difference was the ssss sounds in vocals, and the fact that the hi hats weren't on top of the vocals anymore which is a massive flaw of the HD800S.

The corrected HD800S (which sound extremely close to good monitors now) feel almost as linear when sweeping from 100 to 1k, than 1k to 10k. Before EQ the 1k to 10k was an absolute resonant mess, and even though the Oratory preset can help fix some of the issues, I think that going more in depth and more narrow Q is extremely beneficial.

I know this might seem like a joke but the EQ below is what's needed to make my headphones as close as possible to my monitors. when sweeping I've reliably ''killed'' all the dips and peaks and things are extremely linear. My glasses aren't exactly symmetrical (or maybe it's my face lol) so I have ever so slightly less seal on the right side, so that EQ was needed. Or maybe it's the drivers. Doesn't happen on speakers. This depends too much on the person.

View attachment 508776
TDLR: Sine sweep your headphones and fix the worst peaks, the benefits are too great and you can go from a resonant mess to something that is very close to a good monitoring system. Even if you don't have a great monitoring system to compare, fixing the most obvious narrow peaks without changing the overall curve can be night and day for your high end. Since this is super dependant on your ears and HRTF, no program can do this for you and nobody can do this for you. No matter how much you pay for headphones you will have this treble issue. This is just due to the nature of having drivers so close to the ear.

EQ presets are a good start, but it's not that simple. Example a simple high mid boost on the HD800 would reveal a nasty 2.6k peak. Every single one of my friends who participated to this ''study'' had a similar peak at 2.6k. Talking 3+db so something audio engineers can hear easily. Trying to ''counter the curve'' with a ''low resolution'' EQ preset isn't ideal. You need to get in there and figure out the actual dips and peaks which are narrower than you think.

By sine sweeping I mean using something like this. You will hear wild variations in SPL https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
These variations will be very different to what any headphone rig can measure. Headphone measurement rigs can only try to approach with lots of mistakes.

A lot of excitement in your post but I can’t for the life of me, work out what you actually did!

Any chance you (or someone else who understands) could explain in a few bullet points what the actual procedure is that you went through?

 

[IsaacOscar]

absolute waste of time, why spend time simulating other mediocre products instead of trying to go for something nicer?

Of course, I tried "simulating" more expensive headphones. It's just the HD 599 sounded the best to me. I just tried the JT7 and FT7 and their simulations are also nice, but not as good.

maybe, maybe not, who knows? just try to enjoy your stuff that's the most important part

I know, I just get very self-judgmental.

Oratory or harman. Or DF+10db tilt auto eq on gras measurements. Loads of different ways of reaching the same answer, something that sounds nice to your ears.

Um the tilt only goes up to 1.5dB/oct. Regardless, I tried all the AutoEQ targets, and they all sounded worse than no-EQ. (I couldn't find any GRAS measurements for my headphones, only HMS II.3, KB501x + 711, and HDM-X).

Anyway, thanks for all the advice! I'm keeping my EQ profile and headphones. Although I might look into buying new IEMs later when I get a job and have to leave the house... (or perhaps my issue with them is inherent to all IEMs? I wish I had some others to test with, but I only have those horrible hard-shell earbuds that you get with stuff for free).

 

[Blockader]

Hey There,

I've recently joined this forum. Been a professional mixing engineer for about 9 years now. I own Kii three, a fully treated home studio, and HD800S.
Having all these made me realize many things about headphones, and even though I've shared some of these in the HD800S thread I wanted to make another post talking about all this stuff with a more generalistic approach.

To set the scene, I've recently EQ'd my HD800S, and a few of my engineer friends did the same because I wouldn't stop yapping about it. Honestly I've realize many things about headphones. It went from a bright resonant mess with heavy left/right imbalance to almost identical to perfect monitors.

The imbalance and flaws in the frequency response have been checked against monitors which are -+2db ''in room'' flat (in REW) in my studio and I have confirmed it's not my ears but the headphones.

1: Without DSP, manufacturers can only approach a ''flat'' curve at best, but they can never get your HRTF profile. They will usually try to go towards the Harman curve or similar, which sounds quite similar to speakers in a room but they cannot fix your narrow treble peaks.
2: Almost all open back suffer from lack of sub.
3: Distortion must be checked on dynamic drivers when trying to boost back the sub.

Points 2 and 3 are probably well known but what I believe isn't talked about enough is how insanely close you can get your headphones to monitors if you take the time to sine sweep and compare the response with a good monitoring system.

Not sure the Slate VSX are popular here but they are actually quite famous in the audio engineering world. They sound surprisingly good for ''cheap'' closed backs due to DSP.
Now what these can't do, what sonarworks can't do and what the newest beyerdynamic ''room simulator and headphone EQ'' program can't do is fix the goddamn narrow peaks.

These narrow peaks can actually be EQ'd and the results can actually be quite consistent and predictable. This will vary from headphone to headphone and the higher you go in frequency the more the headphone will be sensitive to positioning, and moving them slightly will create/undo peaks and dips in the high treble, but I now firmly believe that everybody should at least try to sine sweep a bit and fix the worst narrow peaks and dips and see how far you can go before it becomes unreliable. There are pretty obvious ones on any headphone, which can be about 3-9db in amplitude, sometimes more. Recovering that can dramatically improve the frequency response and completely change the listening experience.

Speaking for myself and 4 of my friends who did the same thing, the ''sine sweeped'' HD800S with manual EQ sounded a lot more neutral, biggest difference was the ssss sounds in vocals, and the fact that the hi hats weren't on top of the vocals anymore which is a massive flaw of the HD800S.

The corrected HD800S (which sound extremely close to good monitors now) feel almost as linear when sweeping from 100 to 1k, than 1k to 10k. Before EQ the 1k to 10k was an absolute resonant mess, and even though the Oratory preset can help fix some of the issues, I think that going more in depth and more narrow Q is extremely beneficial.

I know this might seem like a joke but the EQ below is what's needed to make my headphones as close as possible to my monitors. when sweeping I've reliably ''killed'' all the dips and peaks and things are extremely linear. My glasses aren't exactly symmetrical (or maybe it's my face lol) so I have ever so slightly less seal on the right side, so that EQ was needed. Or maybe it's the drivers. Doesn't happen on speakers. This depends too much on the person.

View attachment 508776
TDLR: Sine sweep your headphones and fix the worst peaks, the benefits are too great and you can go from a resonant mess to something that is very close to a good monitoring system. Even if you don't have a great monitoring system to compare, fixing the most obvious narrow peaks without changing the overall curve can be night and day for your high end. Since this is super dependant on your ears and HRTF, no program can do this for you and nobody can do this for you. No matter how much you pay for headphones you will have this treble issue. This is just due to the nature of having drivers so close to the ear.

EQ presets are a good start, but it's not that simple. Example a simple high mid boost on the HD800 would reveal a nasty 2.6k peak. Every single one of my friends who participated to this ''study'' had a similar peak at 2.6k. Talking 3+db so something audio engineers can hear easily. Trying to ''counter the curve'' with a ''low resolution'' EQ preset isn't ideal. You need to get in there and figure out the actual dips and peaks which are narrower than you think.

By sine sweeping I mean using something like this. You will hear wild variations in SPL https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
These variations will be very different to what any headphone rig can measure. Headphone measurement rigs can only try to approach with lots of mistakes.

Not really, because you're missing a key piece of data: how the headphone actually interacts with your ear canal and eardrum.

Standard headphone measurements only tell you how they perform on a measurement rig's coupler. That's useful for comparing headphones measured on the same rig, but it doesn't tell you what's happening at your eardrum.

Here's the thing: the air trapped in your ear canal has its own stiffness, and it couples with the stiffness of the headphone driver. That interaction is unique to you. Unless you know your personal HRTF and how a specific headphone system couples with it, you're basically aiming in the dark when you EQ.

Above 2kHz especially, it's the wild west. Everyone's ear canal interacts differently with each headphone.

That said, headphones with low acoustic impedance (low driver stiffness) tend to minimize these individual differences, so they behave more consistently across different ears.(Electrostatic headphones for example)

Here's how few closed back headphones measure next to the eardrum of different individuals.