Is EQ BAD for your headphones?

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[@AceDeclan]

Answer: no.

[@illustrious420]

If eq or in general dsp affect your headphone (especially in a bad way), then nearly all music will affect yout headphone because they will use dsp and more specifically eq in the process of making and mastering the music 😑 Just remember not to clip anything in the process and you will be fine

[@AceDeclan]

Yeah exactly. EQ’ing doesn’t negatively affect the sound at all.

[@iknowyounot88]

@@AceDeclan unless you do it wrong lol

[@kingstoler]

I like using Roon's PEQ and EqualizerAPO depending on the headphones/ music, and it's usually an improvement even with minimal EQ.

[@lukabosnjak3829]

You can do anything with good eq, I have 109 parametric filters on my sony 110w (10$ lol) to make the perceived response as natural and smooth as possible (tuning just by my own ears using frequency generator to seek for peeks and anomalies) , they are probably better sounding than 80% of "hi end" crap out there. Basically 200$ headphone hardware and correct eq could be the best sound in the world

[@toinfinity095]

@@lukabosnjak3829 Wait wtf are you using that can reach 109 filters? I need it lmao

[@gjermundification]

Not all records can be Dark Side of the Moon.

[@daysofgrace2934]

Best I have come across is Equalizer APO on Windows. I have Wiim Pro+ streamer/PEQ/DAC, best reading watching reviews to see how the headphones measure and take EQ. I just PEQ to Harman target...

[@saurangowallah]

From a mastering perspective, EQ’ing is a slippery slope and all digital EQ’s are far from equal. We use MAAT EQ’s which are by far the cleanest with accurate phase. Sadly DSP eq is often a standard code. I copied Sonarworks EQ settings to the MAAT EQ Orange, it was like night and day. I would never go back… Love these discussions by the way. Thank you for the content :-)

[@HyperOpticalSaint]

You are full of shit, DSP simply stand for Digital Signal Processing, the MAAT EQ you boosting about is a form of DSP too. You really need to STFU stop this misleading BS.

[@iknowyounot88]

Focal Clears come to mind for me. You try to touch the eq at all and you lose so much volume capabilities and introduce what most people call mechanical clipping. Very limited.

[@Synthematix]

Im looking for a passive inline headphone equalizer, do they exist?

[@DarbyCDoll]

Wish you guys spent a little more time talking about EQ hardware. I got the Schiit Lokius and dig how I can tweak levels. Good or bad, reminds me of old skool EQ back in the 70s-80s and way better than software EQ IMHO.

[@hartyewh1]

How is it better than software EQ. Way simpler and more limited at least.

[@dontbeedgy]

I still use eq hardware, Specifically the audiocontrol c101 series 2 from the 80s, I think it definitely makes a big difference in my system, in my opinion eq programs on desktop don't make much of a difference in sound compared to eq hardware

[@hartyewh1]

@@dontbeedgy I'm pretty sure measurements would show that there is no difference when an identical EQ is applied.

[@DarbyCDoll]

@@hartyewh1 maybe so but I find software EQ apps cumbersome vs tangible feeling of turning knobs

[@hartyewh1]

@@DarbyCDoll Yeah, true, they are. The effort to understabd EQ, learning to listen to the changes and being able to get to something properly balanced and personalized is a huge amount of work in the beginning and most don't have the interest.

[@dangerzone007]

Most people who don't like EQ don't know how to use it. I've used it so many times to get amazing results from budget headphones.

[@harackmw]

The other argument I have heard is that eq introduces distortion, but the question there is whether you can even hear it?

[@Borednlonely]

I always hear distortion with eq. The hardcore headphone guys claim headphones are higher resolution than speakers. I disagree. Also if they believe they are higher resolution then one should most definitely not eq as the distortion is always present and should be audible, No?

[@johngalt9989]

Different headphones certainly respond differently to EQ as well. My admittedly budget daily driver setup is an Audeze LCD-X with a Topping E50/L50 combo powering it, and on some types of music, a bit of bass boost does wonders for it. For video games, the bass boost needs to be turned off. I'm pretty happy with Equalizer APO software and Peace interface for this purpose.

[@hartyewh1]

Same set, but a 789 as the amp. With EQ I haven't found a reason to go higher with the headphones. Nothing just seems overall better.

[@kingstoler]

"budget"

[@vancybergoth]

It's a pity that you guys weren't there in person in Munich. I tested the Abyss & and Feliks Audio combo yesterday.

[@sjqideez6626]

Was it good, bad or meh?

[@vancybergoth]

@@sjqideez6626 The Feliks Audio Envy was a great pairing with the PHI TC and Diana TC. But with the Susvara, I found the Envy sensational and absolutely fantastic. For me the Envy with the Susvara is better than the Susvara with the Hifiman EF-1000.

[@sjqideez6626]

@@vancybergoth thanks for that, Feliks Audio make some good amps

[@vancybergoth]

@@sjqideez6626 The Feliks Audio Envy is a real work of art with the beautiful wood accents.

[@AmazonasBiotop]

For 2ch DSP on TT is no brainer. 🎉 Even if we take a poor DSP device going from analog -> digital -> analog. Done that and talk from first hand experience. Why. It is simple that inaudioble conversion analog -> digital -> analog is more than coverd for the room correction that the DSP does. (Plus so much MORE!) When ~50% of what you hear at sweet spot is the listening room.😢 So "purists" are missing out big time and are just a word for a dinusar that dont want/cant not bothered to learn new tech in my opinion.😅

[@adrianmorrish8494]

So many approaches, the normal software eq's of various types, schitt loki approach using dedicated hardware, ifi analogue only "eq", mojo 2 "losless " eq, where I have a problem is when people spend a pile on high end headphones and eq the he k out of them, maybe they bought the wrong headphones, accepting the very valid point of older rock etc tracks never meant for Digital with the various harmonics etc lost. Good discussion as always, thanks guys.

[@hartyewh1]

For some, many in fact, there is no headphones that they consider good without EQ. Haven't heard the Susvara, but most 4k$ headphones just don't cut it for me. I'd rather listen to my well EQ'd $50 TWS earbuds than an LCD-4, Utopia, Elite etc without any EQ.

[@adrianmorrish8494]

@@hartyewh1 I think there is a cutoff point where diminishing returns come in and its not necessarily price but driver performance and the chain driving it, but i will never argue with someone who has found the sound that suits them, trying to normalise the way people hear is like asking them what does a lemon taste like or what does the color blue look like to you.

[@a0r0a7]

Amazes me what on earth some mastering engineers hear when the are producing artist music. There is good and bad in all formats. So EQ when used in the right areas makes these bad albums sound a bit better.

[@gaborozorai3714]

EQ-ing has been a no-no for a long time with the audiophile crowd as regards speaker based systems (you like to call them 2 channel but that should be used to distinguish them from multi-channel HT setups, not from headphones which are obviously also 2 channel.) It's a no-no albeit it is exactly with these systems that some correction for room effects could make sense. Conversely, many headphone users seem to be using EQ as a matter of course, essentially altering the tuning that the engineer had worked on. Just makes no sense to me.

[@AceDeclan]

It doesn’t matter how much the engineers try. There’s just limits to how you can get speakers to sound through design & build without digital correction. EQ pushes speakers & headphones beyond what is physically capable.

[@shroud1390]

As an audiophile I agree, eq is a no no. However now that I do only headphones I have changed my tune. Ok. Not exactly using an eq, but I have 3 boxes that alter the sound: Black Ice soundstage expander (widens sound stage and slight bass boost) -> BBE sonic maximizer (cleans things up really. Not exactly eq but a/b ing it always sounds better even adjusting for volume) -> Hafler Ha-75 headphone amp (bass boost and crossfeed). Anyhow i can listen to things with and without and the jacked up chain sounds better. Definitely not what is on the recording but better. Thats all I really care about.

[@luxinterna3370]

​@@shroud1390 What many people completely underestimate is the inherent amplification of the ear canal. Depending on how the ear canal is shaped and how large the remaining volume is when the headphones are in the ear, different frequencies are amplified differently. This means that everyone perceives the sounds differently and almost never hears what the sound engineer intended an equalizer for headphones is absolutely necessary.

[@nashsanadiki3104]

Eq to headphones would be like trying to edit a Raw images…. there are limites

[@AceDeclan]

Limits? EQ can push headphones further than what physical design can.

[@hartyewh1]

Yes, and not doing any editing is very rarely better than doing at least some.

[@nashsanadiki3104]

@@hartyewh1 like I’m not trying to saying eq is a bad thing, but each camera has a different format of raw file size and there are limits to raw files on dslr.

[@testtester3363]

@@nashsanadiki3104 You made a dumb comment tbh.

[@lukabosnjak3829]

You can do anything with eq, literally 200$ headphone hardware with correct eq could be the best sound in the world...