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Topic: Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones. (Read 7749 times) previous topic - next topic
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Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Hi


First, I'm sorry if it isn't the good place to ask.

What I'm trying to do is to equalize my headphones (using Xnor's graphic equalizer for Foobar2000) in order to have a response as flat as possible.

For the moment, what I'm doing, is take the Frequency Repsonse graphs, and raise or lower with the oposite levels of the bumps I see.
For example, if at 600 Hz, there's a +5 dB, then, in the GEQ, at 600 Hz, I put the slider at -5 dB.

I wanted to know if anyone could point me onto a tutorial, or a list of tools to equalize headphones.

I understand that everything in-line with the headphones, such as a dac, an amp and a soundcard play a role too, since they also work with the signal.

Alan

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #1 –
The published data is a good starting point.  Foobar can also generate test tones as well, so you can use those to refine your settings by checking for parts of the response that sound overly strong or muted.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Juha on
I've seen some tutorials @ http://www.head-fi.org/f/


Seen that too, and no offence, but I'd rather not go there... Don't want to talk about it, also it isn't the place to, but hrm, personal reasons.

Thanks for taking the time to answer though.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #4 –
it's a good tutorial....just go there quick, print it out and never go back

if you really want to do proper EQ by using measurement graphs as a start point, you NEED a good parametric.  a GEQ is usually never very good, as the Q is too broad and will affect the surrounding FR

foober has an excellent graphic PEQ plug-in, i can't remember what it's called right now but i'm sure the HA guys do.  i think it was created by a member here IIRC (xnor, was that yours?)

also remember that you may drive your transducers into distortion, so you should correct for that.  most good EQ's have a "pre-amp" slider which is an easy way to take care of it, or you can "reverse EQ" by taking your peak desired EQ as 0 and lowering all other values.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #5 –
Quote from: ferday on
it's a good tutorial....just go there quick, print it out and never go back

if you really want to do proper EQ by using measurement graphs as a start point, you NEED a good parametric.  a GEQ is usually never very good, as the Q is too broad and will affect the surrounding FR.


No, not A graphic EQ but THE graphic EQ for foobar made by Xnor, and excellent component at that.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Aldem on
No, not A graphic EQ but THE graphic EQ for foobar made by Xnor, and excellent component at that.


ah yes, i thought i remembered that correctly.  yes, it is an excellent little component and perfect for what you are doing IMO.  i've moved away from foobar but i used to use it a lot

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Juha on
For foobar2k:
http://www.yohng.com/software/foobarvst.html
List of few EQ's ...
http://www.kvraudio.com/q.php?search=1&q=eq&pr[]=f (freebies)


maybe that one instead? http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=84947  probably not needed here, but I think yohng's wrapper couldn't support multiple VSTs at once (if I remember that's why I changed at some point).

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #9 –
Quote
For the moment, what I'm doing, is take the Frequency Repsonse graphs, and raise or lower with the oposite levels of the bumps I see.
That's fine.  Just a few things to be aware of...   

Measuring the frequency response of headphones is notoriously difficult because of interaction between the headphone and ear.  I think the variations are worse at high frequencies (probably above 5kHz) but you can also get low-frequency variations depending on how tightly the headphones "seal" around the ear.  I'm sure different manufacturers (and different testing labs) use different artificial heads with different microphones, so if two different labs measure the frequency response, you are going to get different results. 

So, don't go by the frequency response curves alone!  If music sounds worse with the EQ, or it just doesn't sound quite-right, back-off the EQ a bit or adjust by-ear (with music, of course) so that it sounds good to you.


Quote
I understand that everything in-line with the headphones, such as a dac, an amp and a soundcard play a role too, since they also work with the signal.
With modern electronics it's cheap & easy to get flat frequency response over the audio range as well as low noise and low distortion.  (Transducers... Headphones speakers, and microphones are NOT so easy!  )

The one thing that CAN happen is the headphone amp (or soundcard) can have (relatively) high output impedance.  Then, the output impedance of the amp and the "load" impedance of the headphone can affect frequency response.  The rule-of thumb is that the amplifier's impedance should 1/8th or less of the headphone impedance.    But, the spec isn't easy to find.  If there is an impedance spec at all, it's usually the recommended headphone impedance rather than the internal source impedance.

If the headphone impedance were constant (flat) over the frequency range, the only result would be lowered voltage level.    But the impedance isn't constant, and any bumps in the headphone's impedance curve will result in bumps in the frequency response if the amplifer's internal impedance is too high. 

With any halfway decent headphone amplifier or MP3 player, this shouldn't be an issue, or it shouldn't be an issue it if you are using high impedance headphones (150 Ohms or higher).    But, if you are using a regular soundcard or if you just want to check, you can run an RMAA Test with and without the headphones to see if adding the headphones causes the frequency response to change.  (You'll need a Y-Adapter/Splitter to connect the headphones and the loopback cable at the same time.)

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #10 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Quote
For the moment, what I'm doing, is take the Frequency Repsonse graphs, and raise or lower with the oposite levels of the bumps I see.
That's fine.  Just a few things to be aware of...   

Measuring the frequency response of headphones is notoriously difficult because of interaction between the headphone and ear.  I think the variations are worse at high frequencies (probably above 5kHz) but you can also get low-frequency variations depending on how tightly the headphones "seal" around the ear.  I'm sure different manufacturers (and different testing labs) use different artificial heads with different microphones, so if two different labs measure the frequency response, you are going to get different results. 

So, don't go by the frequency response curves alone!  If music sounds worse with the EQ, or it just doesn't sound quite-right, back-off the EQ a bit or adjust by-ear (with music, of course) so that it sounds good to you.


Quote
I understand that everything in-line with the headphones, such as a dac, an amp and a soundcard play a role too, since they also work with the signal.
With modern electronics it's cheap & easy to get flat frequency response over the audio range.

The one thing that CAN happen is the headphone amp (or soundcard) can have (relatively) high output impedance.  Then, the output impedance of the amp and the "load" impedance of the headphone can affect frequency response.  The rule-of thumb is that the amplifier's impedance should 1/8th or less of the headphone impedance.    But, the spec isn't easy to find.  If there is an impedance spec at all, it's usually the recommended headphone impedance rather than the internal source impedance.

If the headphone impedance were constant (flat) over the frequency range, the only result would be lowered voltage level.    But the impedance isn't constant, and any bumps in the headphone's impedance curve will result in bumps in the frequency response if the amplifer's internal impedance is too high. 

With any halfway decent headphone amplifier or MP3 player, this shouldn't be an issue, or if you are using high impedance headphones (150 Ohms or higher) this shouldn't be an issue either.    But, if you are using a regular soundcard or if you just want to check, you can run an RMAA Test with and wihout the headphones to see if adding the headphones causes the frequency response to change.  (You'll need a Y-Adapter/Splitter to connect the headphones and the loopback cable at the same time.)


Thanks for all the tips Doug, really appreciate it.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #11 –
Quote from: castleofargh on
Quote from: Juha on
For foobar2k: http://www.yohng.com/software/foobarvst.html List of few EQ's ... http://www.kvraudio.com/q.php?search=1&q=eq&pr[]=f (freebies)
  maybe that one instead? http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=84947  probably not needed here, but I think yohng's wrapper couldn't support multiple VSTs at once (if I remember that's why I changed at some point).


With Yohng's wrapper you can use Chainers (examples: http://www.ctaf.free.fr/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=meslogiciels http://www.ddmf.eu/products.php)

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #13 –
Quote
So, don't go by the frequency response curves alone! If music sounds worse with the EQ, or it just doesn't sound quite-right, back-off the EQ a bit or adjust by-ear (with music, of course) so that it sounds good to you.


This a thousand times. Don't just blindly go for the graphs; only try to fix what is actually wrong with the phones when you put them on and play audio. Even then, EQ can only get you so far. A really imbalanced headphone is never going to be a good phone by adjusting a bunch of sliders.

Quote
The one thing that CAN happen is the headphone amp (or soundcard) can have (relatively) high output impedance. Then, the output impedance of the amp and the "load" impedance of the headphone can affect frequency response.


Question:
I've never looked into these things much because Most Things Sound Good to me, but if I had a look at all the specs for my equipment that I can find, could I say with reasonable certainy that I'm getting impedance-affected audio?

Not that I have real audio problems right now, mind you, and there's probably not much I can do anyway short of buying new stuff, but I'd like to know regardless.

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #14 –
Quote from: Aldem on
What I'm trying to do is to equalize my headphones (using Xnor's graphic equalizer for Foobar2000) in order to have a response as flat as possible.

For the moment, what I'm doing, is take the Frequency Repsonse graphs, and raise or lower with the oposite levels of the bumps I see.
For example, if at 600 Hz, there's a +5 dB, then, in the GEQ, at 600 Hz, I put the slider at -5 dB.

I wanted to know if anyone could point me onto a tutorial, or a list of tools to equalize headphones.

I understand that everything in-line with the headphones, such as a dac, an amp and a soundcard play a role too, since they also work with the signal.


Equalizing is really pretty simple (conceptually):

(1) Have a good idea what you think what you are listening to should sound like.

(2) Experiment with the adjustments that are available to you in order to determine what they do, audibly.

(3) Adjust the adjustments until things sound right.

There is your tutorial! ;-)

Looking for a tutorial to equalize headphones.

Reply #15 –
the difficulty of EQ isn't to EQ, it's to be all alone while doing it. if you're insecure, you will never be satisfied about your EQ settings unless someone listens to it and pats you on the back.
that's why so many people abandon EQ, but will get a 350$ cable to add +0.3db in the trebles to some IEM. it's obviously a waste of money, but then you have all those people who bought it too, telling you how good it is and how clever you were for buying it. even if you're just really one more victim with a Stockholm syndrome, you get support for you decision. you can feel good about it and post a pic of the cable on facebook.
I may look sarcastic, but I'm dead serious.
when you EQ you're alone with your... slider in your hand. nobody is gonna show you the way, nobody is gonna tell you how good you are at EQing. you'll need some confidence in your own judgement. not something everybody has in audio.


when I started I would just use simple dichotomy:
I followed some graph (try to know at least how it's compensated) or someone's recommendations of EQ, then I would create another EQ with all the values halved. just try both for some times and see what I liked more. it never gave me the right EQ, but a good sens of direction. I knew where to go from there. then I did that only on the bass or only on the trebles, and slowly a shape of what I liked was coming up. it helped me a lot, compared to trying at random from a straight line.
luckily, at some point you just get used to it, you recognize that guitar hitting the 2khz or that voice being harsh because of some 4.5khz. and you don't need any nifty trick or graph anymore. practice is probably the best tutorial you can get.