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Topic: Equalizer with Headphones? (Read 4029 times) previous topic - next topic
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Equalizer with Headphones?

I've been reading about equalizers lately, and would like to know some more information on them.  What I know right now is (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong):

--they are not meant to just tailor the music to your needs but rather to compensate for your speakers'/headphones' flaws and get their output closer to the theoretical flat-frequency response
--the "flatness" means that all the frequencies are outputted at as close to the same decibel level as possible
--testing for "flatness" is done with an SPL meter and a tone generator at a constant decibel level, and the results are used to adjust the equalizer

Well (assuming the above is correct) this all seems straight-forward, but I have a problem.  I have headphones, not speakers, so I don't really know how I would use an SPL meter.  I would think I would have to try to do it by ear, but since the ear is less sensitive at certain frequencies than others, that seems like an inaccurate method.

Is there something I'm missing, or is proper equalizer calibration with headphones just shy of impossible?

Equalizer with Headphones?

Reply #1 –
Can't you put the headphones directly on the meter?

Do you really need to equalize your headphones? The need to equalize often comes from room acoustics, which is not an issue with headphones.

Equalizer with Headphones?

Reply #2 –
Quote
Do you really need to equalize your headphones? The need to equalize often comes from room acoustics, which is not an issue with headphones.


If you want to have a flat frequency response, then you would still want to equalize, since headphones don't have a flat frequency response.  (Although some of the expensive ones come fairly close).

Equalizer with Headphones?

Reply #3 –
You should then equalize your ears, as they don't have flat response too.

You should equalize by your ears - generate slow stepping sweep with every frequency at the same, usual listening level.
The frequencies should correspond to the bands on your equalizer if it's graphical.
For parametric, you can choose many different ones, but you should use most of the spectrum.
ruxvilti'a
 

Equalizer with Headphones?

Reply #4 –
Quote
You should then equalize your ears, as they don't have flat response too.


This is very true.  In order to equalize to compensate for possible hearing loss in certain frequency ranges I would recommend the following:


http://www.earq.net

Equalizer with Headphones?

Reply #5 –
You have a loudable goal, but there are issues you must deal with.

First, you cannot easily equalize your headphones to a flat amplitude response (i.e. frequency response). You'd need a capsule mic of very good quality placed at the beginning of your ear canal (and you need blocked or open ear canal depending on the design of the headphone). Further you'd need really good frequency analyser and a very good real-time equalizer with little phase shifts. These are not cheap or easy to get. Also, they need to be calibrated.

This has been debated in head-fi forums, where some people have done in-ear measurements (some of the surprisingly good for home tests). Headphones and your head/ears are a coupled device. You cannot measure your headphones alone. They must be measured when wearing on your head. Otherwise the measurements will not correlate with what is being conducted to the tympanic membrane.

Second, good headphones do not produce a flat output. Why? Because it does not sound natural. Flat equalisation was already tried over 25 years ago and it didn't work. Most headphones (when measured at the beginning of ear canal) these days are designed for a diffuse field equalisation. The ideal amplitude response curve of such a headphone is not flat. So, even the flattest sounding headphones are not flat by design choice. Equally, even the flattest measuring loudspeakers do not measure flat at your ear canal.

So personally, I don't recommend it as it makes the sound artificial, it's been proven by listening tests not to correlate with real-life hearing and because it's VERY difficult to do it right without experience and hard to get equipment.

Of course, you could try equalizing your headphone output to such a degree that makes it sound natural rather than measure flat. This can be hard to do also, but is imho a more useful goal as it aims for personal transparency. After all, all ears are physically different and because headphones/head "make the sound" together, it's impossible to make one pair of headphones that sound neutral in every single head it's worn on.

regards,
halcyon

PS Refs available on request, too time consuming to dig up right now.