I’ve been making use of Roon parametric filters to tweak my Focal Elegia… just to lift the 4k & 6k frequencies. Not by much, 3-4db as there is a dip in that area for these headphones. Also added a 2db to 25 Hz.
I intend to do something similar with some HD800s when I get hold of them.
The Aries G1 has something similar along with speaker position tweaks.
I’ve recently bought a new headphone amplifier, the equipment in the signal chain is:
I did a search for pre-made filters and found this:
Which includes a number of pre-made convolution equalisers; I simply:
It certainly changed the presentation to the headphones, they became a lot less ‘bass murky’ and quieter (so I had to turn the volume up).
Do I prefer the sound? Really not sure but it’s easy to turn off the filter; need more time to appreciate it.
Quite a neat system since I can load different filters for different headphones (or my speakers to adjust for the room) and switch them in a couple of seconds.
@Richard.Dane- I assume it’s OK to link to the GitHub headphone filter resource? It’s non-commercial, isn’t a discussion forum as such and could be helpful to other members- I don’t think it contravenes the forum rules.
Thanks for this. I will give them a try.
I’ve been tweaking the one I made (based on similar files/recommendations) to suit my needs and tastes.
I was going to pickup a pair of HD800s but I’ve been enjoying the tweaks made to the Elegia so far so I may well leave it for a bit.
As I am sure you are aware the HD800 cans don’t need a 6k boost! Bass lift possibly.
Fortunately loading a convolution equaliser I don’t need to worry about ‘the details’.
But looking at an image of the frequency response it would agree that it needed a bit of a hike in the bass region (if you want it to be flat). Frankly though I thought the headphones were fine before loading the filter (then again, the comparison was AKG 701s)
Yeah, the profiles for the HD800S I’ve seen reduce the 6k spike… as well as a quite a few other tweaks to the range. They’re a good starting point from which to work from to get the sound you want.
But that needs you to load (I guess) a parametric filter or at least one you can edit?
Yes… I’ve copied a few from the page you linked to for different headphones I’m interested in as well as the Elegia which I have. It’s quite easy to add bands (different freq) , Q and DB gain in Roon and then save them as a preset.
The settings for the HD800S are below.
Edit. Forgot to say. Once you’ve created the preset it’s then easy to tweak each one up/down after listening to your system to get the sound you like.
|Type |Fc. |Q. |Gain|
|Peaking|23 Hz|0.53|4.0 dB|
|Peaking|1705 Hz|1.05|4.7 dB|
|Peaking|3479 Hz|0.01|-1.9 dB|
|Peaking|3486 Hz|2.79|5.4 dB|
|Peaking|5913 Hz|3.88|-3.7 dB|
|Peaking|16 Hz|1.43|1.3 dB|
|Peaking|62 Hz|1.36|2.7 dB|
|Peaking|532 Hz|1.16|1.2 dB|
|Peaking|8164 Hz|8.09|-1.9 dB|
|Peaking|12312 Hz|1.25|1.7 dB|
Just put them in. Thank you.
It sounds different to the Convolution Equaliser I had loaded. Maybe a little less ‘compressed’ with more life in the music? But that’s based on about 30s of listening.
A bit worried that there’s too much to play with…
I’ll take a look in a bit for a frequency table that splits the range into low med high bass, miss and highs etc. Then, if you feel the bass needs boosting in the sub range, you’ll know which values to tweak.
Edit. Couldn’t find the page I was thinking of but THIS one is also good as it provides details as where each frequency sits in the Low, Mid and High range.
The link gives the graph for the HD800 and as you can see, it peaks around the 6-8k mark. You can also use this page to compare headphones to see how they stack up against each other. It’s not a replacement for listening to them but it does give you some idea. Just use the dropdown boxes to select different headphones.
I’ve used several of these for my different phones, but always go back to without. With the Mezes it takes all the fun out of them. Some things are not meant to be balanced.
Indeed, you need to tune for your hearing, not a test rig.
By all means use the github filters as a base and adjust to suit.
Also I am inclined to use the IIR filter responses, rather than the FIR ( so called convolution ) impulse response filter unless you want to resample for each sample rate.
Remember Naim use IIR filtering, not FIR.
Well… made a preset with the settings that website had for the Focal Elegia and in fairness, they’re make a really good starting point. I made a couple of minor tweaks from the settings and added some extra gain at 20Hz for a bit more slam.
That said… I didn’t like the Convolution Equaliser though. You’re also stuck with their settings with that, no easy tweaks.
Starting point settings for the Fiscal Elegia
|Type |Fc. |Q. |Gain|
|Peaking|3655 Hz|2.82|6.9 dB|
|Peaking|5379 Hz|1.42|7.3 dB|
|Peaking|9217 Hz|0.03|-2.9 dB|
|Peaking|9266 Hz|2.53|6.3 dB|
|Peaking|22050 Hz|2.5|3.5 dB|
|Peaking|278 Hz|2.01|-2.0 dB|
|Peaking|2118 Hz|3.84|5.3 dB|
|Peaking|2336 Hz|1.33|-3.5 dB|
|Peaking|3354 Hz|9.58|3.0 dB|
|Peaking|12348 Hz|3.41|1.6 dB|
Actually can tweak and adjust in REW.
That is create your own FIR impulse filter response… as long as you have a ‘seed’ filter to start with.
However my advice is to have as few filters as you can get away with, and limit the dB adjustments.
I use 5 or less. Try and aim for smooth curves.
Ok… that sounds a little more involved for me 
Hey… I’m amazed that I’m really enjoying the headphone sound. Being more of a speaker person I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it this much. The better half is now based from home so I’m having to adapt a little. Closed backs were required first but I’m very tempted to get a pair of open backs for when noise leakage isn’t an issue.
Yep, I agree headphones certainly can get you closer to the music and emotion.
The only downside is it is not really sociable…
True… with speakers the artists are playing the music for / to you. Headphones is air guitar territory it sounds like the guitar is slung over your shoulder and you’re giving it some.
I’ve been playing with the Roon DSP functionality (and my headphones) some more.
Yesterday I changed the connector on a spare lead for my HD800S to try ‘balanced’ use; Can’t really work out if that made a lot of difference.
I’d put the parametric equalizer into use and it’s a lot cleaner than the convolution filter. I’ve used the basic 10 bands but I’ve seen there are different sets on the github site; I need to do a bit more reading really.
The HD800s certainly benefited from the parametric equalisation, and I enabled ‘crossfeed’ which I feel make the experience of listening to headphones a bit more comfortable.
I then got my AKGK701s out. I really like these headphones, they’re a lot more comfortable than the Sennheiser’s for a start. I built a filter for these and enabled it. Wow. The improvement for these was considerable compared to the delta for the HD800S. They aren’t as good as the HD800S by any means but they’re now a lot better than they were.
Half wondering about rewiring the K701s for balanced operation (since the Sennheiser HDVA600 has a balanced output) but suspect I won’t in the short term- mostly because I don’t have a spare plug to hand and I don’t think the existing cable is screened.
Suspect the next step is removing some of the filters so I’m only using five bands rather than the full ten. Anyway… I can see this taking up some time.
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