I’ve stopped buying a while ago and sold down to a “core” collection. I used to review headphones for a website and I’ve heard/owned cans at all levels, but what I have now is more than enough to be “done” buying.

I now have:

• HE-500 (1 stock, 2 modded with headband upgrades)
• HD800 SDR
• THX00 Ebony with TH900 drivers and pads
• Focal Elear
• Audeze LCX-XC
• TH900
• MSR-7 for portable wired

These cover all my music nicely and I don’t see a need to chase other high-end cans anymore.

I use a THX-789 for amplification and SMSL SU-8 DAC, which cover SE and balanced with enough juice for all the headphones.

I’ve never been really into IEMs, but outside the house I usually use my AirPods Pro or AirPods Max - not perfectly matched to my music but good and convenient with ANC.

There are a lot of more technical limitations that just don’t really change based on frequency response tweaks. However, tonality is a very big part, and you can often adjust a bad headphone quite a bit with EQ before you start getting distortion, and it really does turn into something good, though I’d argue it won’t get to great.

Ultimately, you can have 2 headphones that essentially measure the same, but still sound/present the sound quite differently.

The absolute best value approach in my opinion is to get a headphone in your budget with the best technical abilities/detail and presentation style that you want, and then “fix it” with EQ.

As someone who owned them for many years I can say that it's a headphone with 2 downfalls, one being in the sub bass as seen in any graph and the second being the infamous sennheiser veil and that is a dip in the treble. It's not a completely flat headphone, it's mid forward.

What you think of the headphone is music library dependant, if you want exciting then it is not the perfect headphone as its smooth treble isn't nearly as exciting as a metallic treble of a planar headphone, it's bass cant compete with a good closed backs bass.

It's a certain presentation, it's safe, it's sub-bass deficient with a slight bump in the mids and slight woolliness in the treble.

You most certainly can find headphones that prioritize exciting over being even, I highly recommend trying a denon d5200 if you're keen on using some eq.

I remember beginning the journey back in 2009 buying my first known earphone which was beats Dr. Dre and was coming from nokia stock earphones and i was enjoying that beats a lot mainly i was listening to soundtracks and jazz , classical in general

• next upgrade was in 2016 the infamous plantronics backbeat pro And it was a huge step for me it had a nice bass and was nice and handy with long battery life

• in 2018 i got the bose QC35 ii it was good but felt nothing new compared to my old plantronics that's when i stopped .

-then few weeks ago i was told about the open back headphones and i was intrigued that's when i ordered my Audio technica ATH-R70X and that was the biggest surprise for me , the details i was missing in the open back headphones is just phenomenal . However not everyone would like the open backs .

Since i got my Samson sr850 with the Brainwavz hybrid pads xl . I stopped buying any more headphones. Have a Sennheiser hd600, HiFi Man 400i, Akg q701, Beyerdamicsdt770 250ohm and 900.All sound like crap when compared to the Samson. The Samson sound is so pleasing with all freq.making the sound and soundstage the better than my other headphones.. .

You had me at the first half, not gonna lie

Great answer, thank you

The reason it's repeatedly stated it's all about frequency at the ear drum is because blind listening tests showed that to be the major if not only factor in what determines what people perceive as different about a given sound setup.

Everything else audiophiles talk about is currently completely subjective and "some" hear these differences and some don't.

The reason people don't think it's just frequency is because they can't eq one headphone to sound like another and assume that is proof it's not just that. Ignoring the fact that they most certainly did not achieve the same frequency at the ear drum.

There are some actual differences, such as the feeling of bass with your body from a subwoofer.

it's not necessarily something you hear, but feeling air being pushed at you is a real feeling and some headphones with bigger drivers and thicker pads can give you the feeling of more bass presence and that physical feeling cannot be eq'd.

I stopped buying when I heard my HD600s. It what that moment when I realized nothing will be as comfortable with this amount of sound quality. Absolutely astonishing. I’ve owned them for 8 years, and even wear them over my HD800S. They are too good.

Well I haven't been able to get my Elac Debut Reference speakers to sound decent. It really is a hassle to me and I've stopped trying, I already glued acoustic panels onto my walls, I'm not going to deal with bass traps, not only do I not have room for them, they're ugly.

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>But the question of OP was if you can tune suboptimal frequency curves to match a "known good" curve.

That's not how I read it. "If we can tune a headphone to a harmon target, why can't we use the same device to make a crappy headphone sound like a great one." is (to me) a statement not about making a crappy headphone match the harmon target but to make a crappy headphone sound like a good headphone. Subtle but different.

I was using the tweeter/sub comparison as an extreme example. The fact is that EQ isn't free, there are phase shifts at EQ points, and extreme EQ moves (especially bell curves with tight Qs) produce artifacts at their limits. This is common knowledge when talking to people who EQ rooms for a living, one of the reasons we are going to woven projection screens is that there is less EQ that needs to be applied to a speaker array to make up for the transmission through the screen than needs to be applied for acoustic perf.

This is also why even with great examples like the UA Audio Sphere you can't exactly match all microphones. And to be clear, in that comparison you are using a great headphone to match all other headphones including crappy ones, not a crappy headphone to match a great one.

So yes, the analogy was limited but it still suggests what's going on: Firstly that there are things not in a FR plot that are acoustically important, and Secondly that it's not as simple as using an EQ to make one curve match another, because in some cases the sonic information isn't there to be boosted, and in some cases doing so to the degree needed creates other problems that can not be ignored (or fixed).

Technically this statement is no different than "can I EQ a crappy microphone to sound like a great microphone?" and everyone has already tried this. It's constantly being tested and attempted because it represents such a potential change in the recording industry. No one has got there, and there is a huge economic incentive to get there, much more than EQing headphones.

I would say buying things is not a hobby, it's that simple. Sure, finding that one thing you like can be difficult, but just getting more and more? To me that's an obsessive behavior driven by fear of missing out on something, or idk, the attempt to fill some sort of void in your daily life. But that doesn't mean that everyone is nuts here. I too have been in this trap, bought many thing I didn't need and so on. It just happens and advertisements, reviews and opinions on here fuel this process. However, I've somehow learned to not fall for this lately. My 6XX does plenty and heck, after long sessions with the HD800 at a friend's place I still love my setup just as much, if not more.

I also can listen to music with almost anything, as long as it's not too muddy or absolutely spicy in the treble response. Sure, I love my setup, but a pair of good budget IEMs does plenty and gives you 85% of the experience, if not 100.

So I personally, as a friendly advice, recommend to focus on the music after you've invested into some proper gear and by that I mean one pair of headphones or IEMs with the potential dac and amp, if needed. Headphones and IEMs became so good that chasing some sort of endgame is just unnecessary for most. Sure, if you have the money to burn, go for whatever, but spend your money wisely, no matter what your income is. Things you don't like can still be sold, but I personally would not hoard headphones.

Btw I can already smell the downvotes lmao. But I don't care. Spend your money wisely and responsibly!

Cheers, have fun listening!

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This hobby is indeed mostly about buying hew gear, it's fun, exciting and a little addictive! However sometimes you find that perfect piece of gear that you're just completely happy with. I still want to try different amps and different headphones, but I will never want a different dac!

>auto EQing to a target is fairly inaccurate in the treble frequencies (Idon’t know why. It’s just something that I and others have noticed)

2 main reasons, first is that popular measurment systems are inaccurate past 10K (that might be fixed with B&K 5128 adoption), and second one is HRTF, treble can differ drastically, depending on a person. You can't really fix second one without measuring your personal HRTF.

Weedskey?

When I posed the original question I was actually thinking more along the lines how could I, for shits and giggles, add EQ to tune my HD660s to sound more like my Sundara. Then I thought if could accomplish that why not go all the way and see what the experts think about tuning turd to treasures. It’s an interesting conversation and I’m really enjoying reading the responses.

Very much the same. Can’t do it forever, but suddenly I’ll come back to headphones. I keep hearing good things about the Qudelix…

I enjoy watching reviews and keeping up with new releases and such, but im not shopping for any audio equipment right now. I'm happy with one solid midrange choice that fits my use and preference in each category, open back, closed back, iems, tws. I have everything I need really, so if there's something new i want to buy then there's something else I'd have to sell.

Yeah, me. Bought a pair of HD 600 in 2013 and haven't changed them since (and not for a lack of trying other headphones). IEMs are different; I've hopped around a bit there (LS-200 > ER3XR > ER4SR > B2D > IER-M9) but also feel quite confident I've reached the end of the journey there too.

This is where I hit wall too. Cavalli tube hybrid, apple dongle and hd600, I am content with this sound.

I got myself a pair of used headphones after that, but they were all for trying the sound and selling afterwards, never for keeping.

You are right that you can not magically have an EQ add something out of thin air that wasn't there before.

But the question of OP was if you can tune suboptimal frequency curves to match a "known good" curve.

Between 20-22k Hz there are hardly any frequencies that "whatever headphone in question" ist NOT able to reproduce AT ALL. Contrary to what you say we are not in home Cinema and try to make a tweeter from a sub.

You will have dips and bumps and the EQ will tune down the bumps and push up the dips.

In regards to music the frequency range in question is much closer to 34-18/19k Hz for the most parts and most people.

1997 to be precise