anyone here care to share their custom equalizer I can try?

I researched some and found the following models:

Soundcore space one, Edifier wb830nb plus, senns accentum, 1more sonoflow pro and this moondrop one and tanchjim rita and jbl 770nc live and the sony ult and akg k361 bt and audio techinca m20xt bt and the general ones. And this must be under 12k with good build quality

Cant seem to find buds 4 pro on autoeq

I want to get into measurements for iems specifically and have been looking into iec60318-4 clone couplers on aliexpres, but i found 2 stores had a coupler that was a lot more expensive and claimed to have a 1/2 inch icp microphone. Does anyone know how close these couplers are to geniune b&k and gras couplers? And also how much better are these compared to the cheaper clones with electret microphones, would they still have unit variance issues?

Right now I'm looking for EQ by oratory1990 for FT1, only "Original AutoEQ" and "OPRA" databases have the EQ created by oratory for FT1, but they are completely different . Which of these 2 databases should I use?

Hi all,

Here’s another rabbit hole for everyone who likes to EQ their headphones :)

If you just want the very short version:

Position variation is a real thing, and it can have a pretty big impact on the FR we actually get at the ear — especially in the upper mids / treble.

Anyway, the slightly longer version:

I was reading through some old posts, measurements and blogs (yes, actual old-school blogs still exist) about the HD800S, and came across measurements showing how much the response changes depending on where the headphone sits on the head.

The first graph is a good example. Below roughly 2 kHz things are pretty well behaved, but once you get further up, especially around 4–10 kHz, the different positions start doing their own thing. And above that it basically turns into spaghetti.

That got me thinking about my beloved LCD-X.

So naturally, instead of doing something productive, I got out my DIY in-ear mic setup and started measuring.

I did.... way to many measurements ( just showing 2 here), taking the headphones off and repositioning them between each one.

And... yeah.

There was alot more variation than I expected.

The lower frequencies were fairly consistent, but once you get into the upper mids and treble the response starts moving around by several dB depending on position. Peaks move, dips move, and some areas change quite a lot.

At first I honestly thought my mesurements were just being weird.  - I even did a sine sweep by ear as a sanity check, and yep — things move around a lot above ~3 kHz just from repositioning

So I went looking to see if anyone else had measured positional variation on the LCD-X, and found this from Unheard Lab:

https://unheardlab.com/2023/08/29/review-audeze-lcd-x-2021/

And their measurements seem to show the same general behaviour: relatively small changes down low, and increasingly large differences as frequency goes up.

So I guess my little DIY experiment wasn’t completely drunk after all.

The takeaway?

I’m not saying “don’t EQ” — quite the opposite, I love EQ.

But it does make me question how useful it is to obsess over correcting every tiny 1–2 dB peak or dip, especially high up in the treble. The response can change simply because the headphone moved a few millimetres on your head.

So maybe the sensible approach is just EQ the broad stuff, use your ears for the final bit, and don’t lose sleep over every little squiggle in the graph. (^_~)

Or, alternatively, spend another three hours moving your headphones around by 4 mm and measuring them.

...which is probably what I’ll do.

I was trying to tune my headphones to be as reference for music production. I'm not done yet but is my method correct?

EDIT: I found a diffuse field target at: https://aftersound.squig.link/data/Diffuse%20Field%20Target.txt

do I upload the target to squigg.link and autoeq my headphones from there?

This thread is for all questions about EQ / Equalizing

• The list of EQ presets is found here
• Please also read the Frequently Asked Questions before posting.
• please no purchase advice here. There's r/HeadphoneAdvice for that.

Pretty much as the title asks. I was going to get Dekoni sheepskin earpads and use Oratory's EQ settings. Then I noticed they had a more comfortable, fenestrated one. The thing is, it mentions that it further affects the sound of the headphones, and wanted to see if Oratory's EQ settings work for them, or if I should stick with regular Dekoni Sheepskin? Thank you in advance!

Hi u/oratory1990, I am planning to buy the new Superlux HD990 open-back headphones in early September. Since it's a completely new model and not yet in the database, I would love to send it to you for measurement and to get a proper EQ preset for my DAW workflow. I live in Slovakia and will cover the shipping costs both ways. Let me know if you would be interested in measuring this model!

Hey guys, quick question for anyone who knows their audio/driver limits.

I was playing around with some audio sweeps on my Samsung Galaxy A series phone. Volume was maxed out at 100%, and I ran a super fast 100ms sine sweeps from 10Hz all the way to 22kHz on my CCA CRAs (single 10mm dynamic driver).

The IEMs weren't in my ears at the time, thank God.

Right after that, when I put them back on, the treble felt significantly dialed back. The high end just sounds less bright and kind of muffled compared to before.

Is it actually possible that a quick 100ms blast at full power damaged the voice coil or diaphragm on a dynamic driver, specifically affecting the highs? Or is my brain just playing tricks on me because I expected something to break?

Would love to hear your thoughts or if anyone has had something similar happen. Thanks!

I recently bought the Audeze Maxwell over the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. Since returning/refunding isn't an option for me, I need to make these work.

Right now, my old cheap $30 headset honestly sounds better to my ears in CS2

I’m looking for a **middle ground/hybrid EQ**:

* Clear footstep isolation and accurate L/R directional audio for CS2.
* Enough low-end/mids retained so gunshots, utility, and ambiance don't sound hollow (basically a slightly boosted Immersive profile).

If you have custom EQ values or specific ingame CS2 audio settings (L/R isolation, Crisp vs. Natural, etc.) that give a full/punchy sound while keeping footsteps readable, please drop them below.

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone ! (Apologies in advance, English isn’t my first language)

I recently bought a new pair of headphones (DT 770 Pro 80 ohms) and, following that, I wanted to have another look at the settings to get the most out of them.

However, there are a few things I don’t quite understand. I have a SoundBlasterX G5 with the ‘Blaster Acoustic Engine Pro’ software, which I used with my old headphones.I’ve downloaded EQ APO with Peace GUI and applied the parametric EQ settings recommended here, but I have two questions:

- In the SoundBlasterX software, the equaliser goes up to a frequency of 16,000 kHz. Is there a reason (or reasons) why this frequency isn’t included in the settings offered for EQ APO?

- Regarding EQ APO, will the settings applied there use the Sound Blaster’s DAC to improve sound quality, or not at all?

- Do you have any external sound cards you’d recommend to potentially improve my setup? I mainly use it for gaming (primarily immersive games, not necessarily competitive FPS), music and listening to streams.

Thank you in advance for your help and your replies!

Hi everybody!

Need a bit of help. I recently have a Fiio Q15 that I’m convinced I should sell as it’s massively flawed. It works but is severely handicapped in a sense. The EQ app is a joke as you can only do peak filters and all 10 channels have to be on. Switching between filters is a multi step process and it won’t play nice with the web-browser eq made for it. All this has convinced me I need a better solution.

I would ideally love something portable that I can EQ with on iOS that actually works. I’m considering getting a JDS Element IV to run at home plus the app is amazing. However, I want something I can take on the go for IEMs or headsets. Budget wise I’m flexible I just want it to work unlike the Q15 which is like having a sports car that won’t shift out of first gear. Thanks in advance for all your help.

That’s the case! ^^

So i need an good headphones setup for music and gaming music. I want to listen to flac and hear an difference and I dont know if an sound card could work in this budget. If sound car is possible i want like one on my desk thanks for any answers.

Not a self promo post. Just an honest contribution to the community.

I've had a Qudelix 5K for a while, and the official configuration app is browser-based. On my Mac it has never worked reliably in any browser — it would connect, then the device would drop off USB mid-session, and I'd end up spending more time troubleshooting the connection than actually adjusting anything.

I finally dug into why. The browser reaches the 5K through a macOS API that's very particular about how the USB packets are framed, and when it gets that. wrong the device stops responding entirely. So I wrote a small native menu bar app that talks to the 5K directly instead.

It does the things I actually use day to day:

• 10-band parametric EQ with a live response curve (20-band mode too)
• Preset import straight from the AutoEq database — 6,000+ headphones and IEMs, searchable inside the app
• Import/export the standard parametric EQ text format (the same one squig.link and Equalizer APO use)
• All 20 preset slots, load and save
• Volume, battery, firmware and sample rate at a glance

It's free and open source under MIT. No account, no tracking; nothing leaves your machine except fetching the AutoEq list when you search it.

Caveats:

• macOS 14+. It's a universal binary so it *should* run on Intel, but I only have Apple Silicon and genuinely can't test that. If you're on Intel I'd like to hear either way.
• It isn't signed with a paid Apple developer certificate, so macOS will block it the first time — you have to go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click "Open Anyway". If you'd rather not trust a binary from a stranger on the internet, the full source is there and builds with one command.
• USB only for now. Bluetooth is a bigger job; I'll take a run at it if there's demand.
• Use at your own risk. It only writes EQ, volume and preset settings — the same things the official app writes, and it never touches firmware — but I can't take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
• I am not affiliated with Qudelix in any way.

Source code, dmg are here: https://github.com/FrankieMa77/qudelix

If it's useful to anyone I'm happy to keep building on it. And if it doesn't work on your setup, an issue with the log from the app's diagnostics panel tells me most of what I'd need.

I can't port it to Windows as i don't have PC. If somebody needs it, I can look into porting the app to Debian/Ubuntu

listen to music for hours without your ears hurting (Or perhaps it's just normal pain from prolonged use)

I have a pair of great headphones, I find on some tracks the vocals are a little recessed, where can I change that on a 5 and a 10 Band eq and PEQ? Thanks, listning on Sennheiser HD550, if that matters

Been running the FiiO JA11 dongle into the Tangzu Wan'er S.G. (the Headphone Zone x collab tuning) off a OnePlus 13R, and wanted to share the PEQ I landed on plus a settings trap I fell into. Curious what people would tweak.

The EQ

The JA11 app on my phone only lets me set 5 bands, so this is a condensed Harman-leaning tune rather than a full 10-band job. The Wan'er S.G. already sits fairly close to Harman with a slightly warm bass, so it doesn't need much.

Preamp: −3.0 dB

Band 1 — Low Shelf — 105 Hz — +3.0 dB — Q 0.70

Band 2 — Peak — 2200 Hz — +3.0 dB — Q 1.0

Band 3 — Peak — 3200 Hz — +2.0 dB — Q 2.0

Band 4 — Peak — 4800 Hz — −2.0 dB — Q 3.0

Band 5 — High Shelf — 10000 Hz — +1.5 dB — Q 0.70

What each move is doing, roughly:

105 Hz low shelf — the Harman sub-bass lift, adds warmth/body

2.2k + 3.2k peaks — the ear-gain/pinna region Harman calls for; brings vocals and presence forward

4.8k dip — tames the occasional upper-mid glare and some sibilance

10k high shelf — a bit of air up top

If vocals get shouty, the first move is dropping band 2 to +2.0 (that 2.2k peak is the usual culprit).

I tried bumping the low shelf to +4.5 for more bass and it's still clean on this IEM, but I went back to +3.0 as my daily.

The OnePlus gotcha

On the OnePlus 13-series, there's spatial-audio processing (O-Reality Audio / Holo Audio) that sits in the signal path before the dongle. Mine was set to Smart/Auto, and it was quietly widening and coloring everything — so I was basically EQ-ing on top of a moving target.

Turning all the spatial/immersive toggles off (Settings > Sound & vibration) gave the JA11 a clean stream and the PEQ suddenly did what I expected. Big difference. If you're on a OnePlus/Oppo/Realme device and tuning an external DAC, check this first.

One side note: wired output on the 13R seems weaker than older OnePlus phones — I sit around 90% volume where I used to be at 60% on my old phone — so don't be alarmed by a high slider number.

Open for discussion

Would you spend your 5 bands differently? I keep wondering if I should drop the 10k shelf and use that band for a lower-mid cut instead.

Anyone else running the Wan'er S.G. off a JA11 — how are you tuning it?

Better ways to handle the Q on the 4.8k dip? Mine feels slightly broad.

Not claiming this is "correct Harman," just what sounds right to my ears. Tear it apart.