Linus

EQ isn’t the end all for headphone tuning. Not even close lol. It’s also only good on certain headphones, especially planar dynamics that have remarkably low distortion. EQ also is more of a bandaid for things you want to fix, and an enhancer in other areas, rather than a complete overhaul.

> they just provide the raw measurement data.

Did it change so they provide it directly? It used to be that an image reading program was used and that is why sometimes the filters are in the wrong place.

The only eq I tried of his was the adi2 specific one for the LCDX and it’s incredibly good

I thought mixing engineers used speakers that were "flat", and Harman wasn't "flat"?

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Yeah I'm not a fan of the Oratory sound. I just tune it to custom with Harman as a base.

I believe that if a headphone needs EQ then it's probably not a good headphone. This is probably not a popular opinion around here.

I think I'm going to need another one soon. I only have e like 2 nice watches so I wouldn't really need a box this big for those but I could put them in one if I get another one.

100%. I've tried AutoEQ and also manually dialing in the EQ settings from the PDFs and on all the headphones I've tried (Sony Z5/XBA Z5, Sennheiser IE 800, IE 600, HD 6XX, HD660S, Moondrop KATO) they all lose their charm and end up sounding dead.

My theory is the EQ profile to "flat" doesn't take into consideration the specific driver/housing resonance and therefore can't compare to the stock tuning.

On some cases the difference is minimal (like the KATO) but on other cases you loose a lot of detail, sparkle and layering (HD 660S).

I love a tiny bit of EQ, especially in the treble region but changing the whole sound signature never yields good results for me.

Seems you got down-voted for claiming oratorys profiles are computer generated, but your conclusion is absolutely spot on. In-ear FR varies depending on ear and skull shape/size, and sensitivities to particular frequencies are amplified compared to listening to speakers.

One needs to understand what's being adjusted in each EQ profile, instead of blindly applying them (although it's not surprising in an era of auto-everything). Your personal EQ settings should always be tuned to fit your ears and preferences.

This is the box I'm using... I also put watches in it, weirdly enough.

It was the Kato but lately the Thieaudio Legacy 2 is really growing on me.

porta pros. ksc75 are a bit more detailed but if you can EQ (even just with what looks like a treble knob on your amp there?), then you can get the porta pros to sound even better.

other than that there aren’t really any around-ear headphones that sound like either of the koss imo

Have you compared to the LCD-5?

1-in to 3-out, right? Usually those kinds of switches are either button push like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Nobsound-Audio-Switcher-Selector-Splitter/dp/B07Q1W4484 or knob like this one: https://www.amazon.com/PROZOR-Bi-Directional-Channel-Splitter-Selector/dp/B099WMC1DJ, I am currently using both because I use one dac with multiple outputs: hp amp, speaker amp, and tube amp. And I used the other one when I want to compare several cans. I have yet to find one that you can use with remote control. If everything is connected to your pc, then u/dezas35's suggestion is worth looking into.

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DACoid detected, opinion rejected

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No, Apple dongle is not sufficient. 97 dB at 300 ohm requires 20mW to reach 110 dB SPL (for peaks and transients), or 7mW to 105 dB SPL (in the very best case where someone listen to low volume and compressed music).

Apple dongle is measured to be 3.6 mW at 300 ohm. This is 2x short for 105 dB and 5x short at 110 dB.

so the point of oratory1990 is to be as near as possible to the harman curve? and the measurements that we see is relative to the measurement tool as well then? what is the margin of error on a measurement rig?

If you like the ksc75 then you should also love the kph30i. But one tip, don't open them up too far or they'll break. The whole thing is made of plastic, not metal like the porta pros or kph40. Open them just wide enough to get them on your head and you should be good.

That's the one! I would never guessed it was a Sennheiser. Astonishing how thin and surprisingly simple it looks.

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I'm not an expert and may be wrong but from what I understand:

1. Measurements are an imperfect representation of personalized sound. Unless your ears and head match the rig exactly, what you hear is not what is measured on the rig. Placement of the headphones, pad seal, and unit variation will change the FR at your ears. Treble measurements are also inaccurate on the older standard rigs, above like 10kHz or even lower the measurement is unreliable.

2. The harman curve, as well as most measurements, are extremely smoothed and zoomed out to make them easier to read, but you lose the nuances in return. All the little dips and peaks that you don't see on the FR change the sound. It's basically impossible for two headphones to have the exact same raw measurement and thus sound the same, even if their smoothed compensated graph closely matches.

EQing to harman gets you close to the overall shape, but the small dips and peaks will still remain. It's like trying to draw a perfect circle by hand. You probably won't succeed and there will be different squigglys each time, but people will still recognize it as a circle.