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People who use a 10 Band Fixed EQ on their HP's to get their preferred sound, what's your process?

38yEj5SxGA

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I have a pair of AKG K702's and a Sound Blaster G3 which has 10 band fixed EQ functionality. I have it set to the Oratory settings for my headphones which sounds good, but I would like to try my hand at EQ'ing them myself. What's your process? Do you start with the high or low frequencies first? What songs do you EQ to? Would be great to hear some advice and opinions on what process works for you.

Thanks!
 

Jimbob54

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I would use the fixed 10 band settings from AutoEQ (using the Crinacle or Oratory measurements if possible) as a start and adjust to taste.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/AKG K702

If you dont want/ like the Harman curve as your target then still use the measurements but try and adjust from Harman to what you do like (eg lower bass shelf, less hump in the treble etc.

Starting from just ears only listening and adjusting freestyle over and above broad shelves is unlikely to result in a "better" sound.

1631010212167.png
 

jazzendapus

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Depends on your goals really.
Oratory's EQ settings conform to Harman's research about how headphones are supposed to sound ideally. But if you don't care about that and want to divert from that goal then you can pretty much EQ however you like, according to your own taste.
 

mysiak

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My usual process is to try existing EQ from Oratory or AutoEQ and not liking the result. :) When available, Amir's EQ settings are much closer to my personal preference. I find measurements useful though, as they can point me to areas which might need fixing.

Bass - tuned to preference, but mostly I just add 3-6dB below ~100Hz

Mids - unless they sound really bad, I keep stock tuning

Treble - I start Sine wave generator (https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/) to sweep higher frequencies and identify all major peaks. I am especially sensitive to region around 4000Hz, which unless "fixed" causes major listening fatigue to my ears (up to the point of mild tinnitus). If there is a major dip, it mostly can't be fixed with an EQ, so I just leave it alone. I sweep frequencies with/without EQ until I don't hear any more major volume fluctuations (it is never flat, but there can't be any "ear piercing" frequencies).

Then I play some well known songs and turn EQ on and off. Sometimes I blindly move with EQ sliders in the mid range to see if I can improve the "soundstage" or not. Stock tuning is usually fine for upper mids/lower treble, but it can become "broken" after earpads swap.

The end result is sound profile which I can listen to for hours with no fatigue and is probably resembling Harman profile, but I doubt that it's "accurate" in absolute terms. But as long as it sounds good to me, I don't really care. :)

P.S. some headphones benefit from "fixes" which are impossible to be done with GEQ and require PEQ, or you must accept some kind of compromise
 

Adahn

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If you wanna do it by ear, use a tone generator as already suggested.

Start by assuming 1kHz is fine, because it usually is and you gotta base your corrections off somewhere anyhow. So, set it to 1kHz and lower your volume until you can barely hear it.

Then proceed with the rest of the bands and if 1kHz was barely audible it should be pretty clear when a certain frequency is much louder/quieter. Adjust as necessary to bring all your eq bands to parity with the 1kHz band's perceived volume, keeping in mind that sub 100Hz and above 10kHz your ears might not be very trustworthy for various reasons.

After the initial pass is done, test with some music and keep iterating. It's pretty tricky even for trained ears, but can be fun seeing where you end up this way.
 

Oldasdrt

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38yEj5SxGA

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If you wanna do it by ear, use a tone generator as already suggested.

Start by assuming 1kHz is fine, because it usually is and you gotta base your corrections off somewhere anyhow. So, set it to 1kHz and lower your volume until you can barely hear it.

Then proceed with the rest of the bands and if 1kHz was barely audible it should be pretty clear when a certain frequency is much louder/quieter. Adjust as necessary to bring all your eq bands to parity with the 1kHz band's perceived volume, keeping in mind that sub 100Hz and above 10kHz your ears might not be very trustworthy for various reasons.

After the initial pass is done, test with some music and keep iterating. It's pretty tricky even for trained ears, but can be fun seeing where you end up this way.

These are great suggestions, thanks. I tried it with the suggested web site above. Treble seems to work out pretty well, but bass and low mid frequencies sound very quiet and I need to put the db up quite a bit to get it sounding around the same volume level. I am thinking this would be required to an extent with open back headphones, but ~7 to 9db?
 

Oldasdrt

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A quick suggestion,
If your on windows,switch to Linux,Ubuntu,
So many great programs,Pulse Audio in particular,
The learning curve isnt too bad :)
 

Adahn

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These are great suggestions, thanks. I tried it with the suggested web site above. Treble seems to work out pretty well, but bass and low mid frequencies sound very quiet and I need to put the db up quite a bit to get it sounding around the same volume level. I am thinking this would be required to an extent with open back headphones, but ~7 to 9db?

The K700 series is pretty anemic bass wise, so sure, why not? Oratory's eq for the 702 has double 5db bass shelves actually.

But as I said earlier, keep in mind that the extreme bands can't really be adjusted this way reliably. Best you can do is adjust the 125-8k range by ear and then tune bass and treble by feeling, while listening to music. Sub 100Hz there's limitations of the headphone in play and above 10k there's limitations of your ears depending on age. Give it as much oomph and air as you feel like and keep iterating whenever something feels off.
 

ziddy76

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I got tired of messing with APO Equalizer and the various Harmon curve that just annoyed me, cause I really didn't want to make my headphones sound like Beats, if I wanted Beats I'd just buy them. I really hated Oratory and AutoEQ.

I tried SoundID Reference for the Focal Elegia and I do prefer that sound most with that headphone. But honestly I'm not sure I'll keep the Elegia cause if I don't enjoy that much without that EQ, do I really want it? I can listen to my other headphones all day without EQ, this is the first headphone I've bought that has something tonally very wrong without EQ, but does sound great with it.

If I'm using EQ, just feels like I'm just trying to find an excuse to find a headphone rather than find a headphone that sounds right? Elegia is the first headphone I felt the need/want for EQ.

Depends on your goals really.
Oratory's EQ settings conform to Harman's research about how headphones are supposed to sound ideally. But if you don't care about that and want to divert from that goal then you can pretty much EQ however you like, according to your own taste.

That's a farce. C'mon, we can all agree what Harmon target really is an industry standard to sell more headphones. It's the lowest denominator average preference. It's not how headphones supposed to sound ideally, it's what headphones should sound to sell the most. If all headphones conformed to that curve, this hobby would be horrifically boring. Don't care what Harmon says, my most beloved headphones will always be the AD900 (1st gen).

It's also what makes headphones fun IMO. I can't switch out speakers. I have one set for the TV and one set for the desktop, I don't switch among speakers. Headphones on other hand, I regularly change and switch depending on how I'm just feeling. If all my headphones conformed to that idiotic curve, why would I even bother buying other headphones?
 
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ziddy76

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When available, Amir's EQ settings are much closer to my personal preference. I find measurements useful though, as they can point me to areas which might need fixing.

Where are these?
 

ASRaddict

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ziddy76

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i found the test interface in Peace UI (https://sourceforge.net/p/peace-equalizer-apo-extension/wiki/Headphones and hearing test interface/) to give me the best result. It also has a setting for GEQ instead of the PEQ, and I did not find them to be audibly different in my situation.

There may be a placebo effect too as I think this provides a custom result based on the IEM and my ear .. but I like it

I do increase the bass frequencies by 3-6 dB

Didn't know about this feature, thanks, trying it out now.

Wow.. this is far better than any EQ I've found that are based on that atrocity that is Harmon target.
 

Tom C

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i found the test interface in Peace UI (https://sourceforge.net/p/peace-equalizer-apo-extension/wiki/Headphones and hearing test interface/) to give me the best result. It also has a setting for GEQ instead of the PEQ, and I did not find them to be audibly different in my situation.

There may be a placebo effect too as I think this provides a custom result based on the IEM and my ear .. but I like it

I do increase the bass frequencies by 3-6 dB
I’ve so been looking for something like this. I have something similar on an old phone, but couldn’t find anything I could use on my main rig. Can’t wait to try it out!
 

ADU

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Not sure if this'll help. But this is a diffuse field graph of the K702's frequency response compared to some other well-extended headphones with a fairly neutral response. Might give you a little better idea where some adjustments in the K702's response could be needed.

The AKG K702 is the black curve. And all of the response curves are normalized to 1 kHz. So you'd probably want to leave that band pretty much alone. Or only make small adjustments to it. And do most of your adjustments with the other bands, where the response is more off. Since you only have 10 controls to work with though, you will probably have to make a few compromises in some spots.

AKGK702.jpg


I would not try to raise the sub-bass as high as the Apple APM and AKG K371, because the bass may begin to distort. You could try raising it up at least a few dB though, so it's close to the Senn HE1, for example. And may also want to bring the level down a bit at 250 Hz, so it doesn't start to sound too muddy there.

You should also use a negative preamp setting to prevent clipping in the lower frequencies where you've boosted the bass. If you raise the level at 32 Hz in the sub-bass by +5 dB, for example, then use a preamp setting of about -5 dB to ensure that louder sounds aren't clipped in the sub-bass.

Some general settings or ranges you might try as a rough starting point based on the above graph...

32 Hz - Up at least a few dBs.

64 Hz - Up a couple or few dBs.

125 Hz - Ok as is, or maybe up a dB.

250 Hz - Down a couple dBs.

500 Hz - Down maybe a dB. (Or possibly less.)

1 kHz - Ok as is. Or maybe up a bit to help balance out the drop at 2k.

2 kHz - Down at least a few dBs.

4 kHz - Probably down a few dBs. You will have to play around with this though (and probably also the levels at 2k and 8k), to achieve the best sounding balance to your ears between the dip at ~3.3 kHz, and the peak at ~5.5k. The 2 kHz band should definitely be set somewhat lower than this 4k band though.

8 kHz - Down at least a couple dB.

16 kHz - Probably down a couple dBs. But it probably depends on how much air you want.

Link to Ora's graphing tool, if you want to try using some other headphones as a guide for the response of your K702....

https://headphonedatabase.com/oratory/headphones
 
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ADU

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What bit depth and sample rate are you currently using for your audio device btw, 38yEj5SxGA?
 

Oldasdrt

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Not sure if this'll help. But this is a diffuse field graph of the K702's frequency response compared to some other well-extended headphones with a fairly neutral response. Might give you a little better idea where some adjustments in the K702's response could be needed.

The AKG K702 is the black curve. And all of the response curves are normalized to 1 kHz. So you'd probably want to leave that band pretty much alone. Or only make small adjustments to it. And do most of your adjustments with the other bands, where the response is more off. Since you only have 10 controls to work with though, you will probably have to make a few compromises in some spots.

View attachment 153598

I would not try to raise the sub-bass as high as the Apple APM and AKG K371, because the bass may begin to distort. You could try raising it up at least a few dB though, so it's close to the Senn HE1, for example. And may also want to bring the level down a bit at 250 Hz, so it doesn't start to sound too muddy there.

You should also use a negative preamp setting to prevent clipping in the lower frequencies where you've boosted the bass. If you raise the level at 32 Hz in the sub-bass by +5 dB, for example, then use a preamp setting of about -5 dB to ensure that louder sounds aren't clipped in the sub-bass.

Some general settings or ranges you might try as a rough starting point based on the above graph...

32 Hz - Up at least a few dBs.

64 Hz - Up a couple or few dBs.

125 Hz - Ok as is, or maybe up a dB.

250 Hz - Down a couple dBs.

500 Hz - Down maybe a dB. (Or possibly less.)

1 kHz - Ok as is. Or maybe up a bit to help balance out the drop at 2k.

2 kHz - Down at least a few dBs.

4 kHz - Probably down a few dBs. You will have to play around with this though (and probably also the levels at 2k and 8k), to achieve the best sounding balance to your ears between the dip at ~3.3 kHz, and the peak at ~5.5k. The 2 kHz band should definitely be set somewhat lower than this 4k band though.

8 kHz - Down at least a couple dB.

16 kHz - Probably down a couple dBs. But it probably depends on how much air you want.

Link to Ora's graphing tool, if you want to try using some other headphones as a guide for the response of your K702....

https://headphonedatabase.com/oratory/headphones
Very helpful information here,thanks,got it bookmarked :)
 
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38yEj5SxGA

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What bit depth and sample rate are you currently using for your audio device btw, 38yEj5SxGA?

Hi ADU, thanks for your info, very interesting. I have it set to 24bit, 48k, which I think is pretty good for dynamic range?
 
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