Audiophile Settings for Equalizer? - Page 3

First of all you shouldn't add to the equalizer, only subtract from it. And audiophiles don't use an equalizer as that takes away the quality at which the headphones are originally designed for. You must use amplifiers or sound cards if you want quality audio.

In general, most audiophiles don't EQ. A few do, but I'm going to go ahead and say most don't (I'm talking about the ones that frequent audiogon and all that). If a (stereotypical) audiophile identifies a deficiency in the sound they're getting, they typically do something to their equipment (switch to a new amp/dac, or simply roll tubes/caps/etc).

In my "high end" audio rig I expect a sound I like without EQ. If there's something about the sound I don't like I change out the equipment until it's the sound I like. Honestly to me... telling me to EQ my high end rig is like telling me to go ahead and put a bullet through it. I just really am opposed to the idea for some reason >_<<br />
In a "budget" rig (like earbuds connected direct to my laptop) then I'll EQ, but only to take out anything that might be offensive like bright treble, or to bump up the bass for gaming.


However, one thing I'd like to say. Don't try to EQ your headphones into another headphone. Just let them be themselves unless there's an easily identifiable flaw (such as fatiguing treble or weak bass for gaming), in which case it'd be ok to tweak slightly with some EQ. And even then, it'd probably be preferable to make equipment tweaks instead if you had the $$$, though in many cases it tends to not be possible.

I follow a different philosophy.

that being:

there is nothing wrong with equalising (yes an 's' not a 'z' ) as long as it's used as the name 'equalise' indicates: For equalising the frequency response.

Also of course not all equalisers, hardware or software implemented are the same, so a good quality one must be used. I prefer the use of good software equalisers as they are more flexible and the potential negatives such as digital clipping (or digital shedding) is negated by the use of a higher bit depth. If you are using anything digital to adjust the volume or affect the sound, it's best to use 24 bit. This is only the real reason to use 24 bit bitdepth, not because 24 bit bitdepth music sounds inherently better an long-time audiophile myth would have you think.

Also you cannot 'equalise' to another headphone. It's impossible as although you might equalise the frequency response, you cannot 'equalise' things such as soundstage presentation or mechanical driver quality.

1. Please note that the majority of people on the planet prefer colored unnatural sound over flat-response accurately reproduced sound. That's the main reason that companies like Bose have done so well.

2. The term "audiophile" doesn't really mean anything until you are talking about and listening to true high fidelity equipment. The marketing world has destroyed what high definition and high fidelity actually mean. Even if you hooked up really high quality (true hi-fi) speakers to the best available computer sound cards (such as Creative ZxR), it's questionable if the end result could be considered true hi-fi, it almost might be close if you also used a high quality amp, but you'd probably need to use an external DAC to actually reach hi-fi quality. There's just too much EM chaos going on inside the case to be sure that you get a clean signal. That all said, most people either can't hear the difference or don't mind non hi-fi audio as long as it sounds good enough to them. The equipment that you have listed is by no means hi-fi or audiophile quality.

3. An EQ is generally used to help "fix" sound by coloring the sound to help offset speaker frequency response or simply to color the sound into what sounds better to the listener's ears. More advanced EQs, such as Odyssey's MultEQ do this automatically and dynamically depending on amplitude (because amplitude changes the frequency response).

4. Audiophiles prefer to not run the signal through any unnecessary electronics; thus instead of using an EQ they listen to their music at a fixed amplitude (usually at reference volume or close to it) and pair their amplifier and speakers in such a way as to produce the closest to flat frequency response as possible. The more aggressive audiophiles will even consider crossover circuits to cause too much sound coloration and thus will use multiple amps per speaker, with each only amplifying a specific range of frequencies per driver.

5. I have yet to find a pair of headphones that can even come close to the sound able to be produced from even entry-level hi-fi speakers. In headphone to headphone comparisons, my best experiences have been with a high-end Sennheiser and high-end Beyerdynamic.

Rule of Thumb:
Use equipment that sounds good. If you can't hear the difference between $20 speakers and $2000 speakers, then it's a waste of money. The same goes for other gear: if you can hear no difference between an external DAC with class A amp and a sound card's built-in headphone amp, then there's no reason to spend extra money on it. What's more, if having an accented mid-range or low-range from an equalizer sounds better to you than having a flat response, then listen to the colored sound.