🔶 Drop + Sennheiser HD8XX

[luige06]

These are kind of growing on me. Best comparison I can make is that it’s like a ZMF Verite lite. It reminds me most of that headphone which is a very good thing actually! The sound has really grown on me, and I’m now thinking that the mid gap might be less extreme than I thought before and I’m very very very curious what the fenstrated dekoni pads could do to these.

Probably the most satisfying treble response I’ve heard on a headphone. No doubt these are a bit V shaped, but the more time I have with them the more I don’t actually see how they could be different and be better EXCEPT just boosting the vocals ever so slightly. Really really curious about those pads!

If those do some kind of magic these could be endgame level for sure.

[Tommy]

oratory1990’s adjustment

my own amateur adjustment

Irjshabaz’s on a wim adjustment

hope this can help someone, i think all of them are better than the stock tuning but thats just me, brings back some of the ‘‘zing’’ that the 800s model had.

if you’re trying my preset then just make sure to pull the gain back until the volume fluctuations are gone. if you’ve come across an EQ preset or made one of your own feel free to share that.

if you’d like to be as moderate or close to the original Drop tuning as possible i can recommend Irjshabaz’s preset, i enjoyed it more than my own i think and it’s not a drastic adjustment either

[tkddans]

And here it is! Review with sound demos

Sennheiser HD8XX | A terrible 800 or something new? Sound demos

[Tommy]

gosh darn hotn me totn you sound very handsome. anyhoo, did ya try out any EQ yet? i found i was able to bring out much much more clarity with Oratory1990’s EQ preset, it’s great, i don’t think i want to say i got it to the clarity of the S from with the preset from what i recall from the original sound of the S because it’s been a while. but if you already own the S it really takes away the purpose of delving into that, id still recommend you go ahead and check it out if it is just for science so to speak. i found them to answer extremely well to EQ for a dynamic driver headphone

[tkddans]

Interesting recommendation. I’m up for trying different gear as much as my wallet allows! Hah. I don’t know how reviewers do this with so much gear. I guess they have good savings or partnerships.

[Tommy]

the EQ software popular in the community is freeware.

i went ahead and got the link for you. it’s called ‘‘Peace EQ’’ and the best part, you don’t have to fiddle around with it on your own and you can easily choose to have it run when the computer starts as well as the system remembering if the EQ was set to off or on the last time Peace were used, making it seamless with the rest of your audio system

i would be super interested in seeing how an EQ’d 8xx stands up against the stock sound of the 800S. i’d love to see an EQ review too, just an idea. because if you’d enjoy the 8xx with the EQ preset provided above just as much as the 800s stock sound then i think you’d turn a lot of heads just because of the price proposition.

i was able to get SO much out of the 8xx just by doing a couple 10 minute adjustments and with Oratory1990’s preset all i had to do was to punch in the numbers provided anyways, his preset for the 8xx is excellent, the guy is a wizard when it comes to EQ

whats more is that Oratory1990’s presets hits the preverence curve (harman target) by 100 percent according to his PDF data if i recall correctly. And the EQ should not have any impact on the quality of the driver what so ever as long as the drivers are flexible with EQ to start with and that the EQ sofware don’t apply any filters of any kind, which Peace do not, if anything i was able to get much much more clarity out of the 8xx drivers, both vocally and instrumentally, Peace is just a really powerful tool. really interested to hear what you think!

thanks for writing and i hope you try it out!

Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO

[tkddans]

I would like to do a EQ video. I’ll probably see about making adjustments work using the Schiit Lokius EQ.

Thank you for the kind words of support

And I am flattered my voice sounds handsome! Hah!

[Tommy]

im probably just reiterating what you already know but the problem that arises with the Loki is that you are restrained to the folowing bands: 20Hz, 400Hz, 2kHz and 8kHz.

furthermore you have no options what so ever to tune the ‘‘EQ agression’’ of those bands other than just the EQ ‘‘volume’’ itself, at least i do not believe so.

however Peace does that and imo it’s vital to get the tuning right for any given adjustment made to a headphone but i’m sure the 2kHz band on the Loki would help the 8xx, but the tamber you’ll get out of any adjustment made with the Loki is going to be hit or miss compared to Peace which is much easier to keep the tamber right throughout any adjustment.

i’m pretty sure my terminology is off but thats that, im far from an expert, FAR, just wanted to make that clear, it’s a slider called ‘‘quality’’ in peace and does things thats far beyond my understanding, i just know it affects the tamber considerably depending on the headphone and the ‘‘quality’’ value that is being set

i’m sure it’s a nice piece of hardware but it has it’s limits, compared to Peace, i suppose the reason you’d want to get a Loki in the first place is the experience of having something physical just like with any other piece of gear, it’s fun to have something physical, further more is also that it is ofcourse very much simplified, just down to 4-5 knobs compared to Peace’s infinite adjustability, whats so great about Peace is that you don’t really need to fiddle with sliders and numbers all over the place because that job is already done by people in the community, notably Oratory1990 which has a concrete list on every headphone he has EQ’d for, unless you want complexity and depth which Loki as an EQ unit doesnt have anyways. But yeah, it’s totally worth a shot to see where you can get with it, in short, Peace is definitely a step up both in quality and adjustability

anyhoo, i suppose on a general level the Loki makes EQ more accessible to more people, which is nice, it just isnt able to finetune or tackle certain problem areas like Peace would be able to. IMO, a Loki is more of a toy than an actual EQ tool. See where it takes you, good luck!

yes, very handsome. mlem

[Tommy]

i’d be interested to hear about how you’d feel about a 2kHz adjustment on the Loki with the 8xx if you do decide to try it out though, for sure

[tkddans]

Yea a total system EQ would be ideal, especially if it has more control over the frequency response at any custom point to create adjustments.

The Lokius having only so many bands at discrete points means for limits in what control we can have with it.

I suppose though I would indeed Iike to strike the balance of audiences and try it with the simple dials on the table

Perhaps it’ll get the attention of those of the system EQ-willing crowd, as well as the rest of desktop headphone buyers who may be more interested in the Lokius’s easy to approach EQ.

I would do a EQ video yea, particularly if the results of tweaking are interesting.

[Tommy]

@Tommy

i just know it affects the tamber considerably depending on the headphone and the ‘‘quality’’ value that is being set

i assume the Loki has it’s own static value of that since its hardware based

[Tommy]

@tkddans

Yea a total system EQ would be ideal, especially if it has more control over the frequency response at any custom point to create adjustments.

one hardware option i know of that could be a great option would be the RME ADI-2 for one, the unit itself has a lot of depth so i assume it’s EQ is pretty in depth as well, used to own one, and its both a dac and an amp so, thats nice

[Tommy]

@tkddans

I suppose though I would indeed Iike to strike the balance of audiences and try it with the simple dials on the table

Perhaps it’ll get the attention of those of the system EQ-willing crowd, as well as the rest of desktop headphone buyers who may be more interested in the Lokius’s easy to approach EQ.

absolutely. i think it’s a great idea

[tkddans]

I had a Monolith DAC/amp at one time, with built in EQ customization for, I think, up to 6 bands of choice frequencies. Filters and such too I think.

But controlling it all with a single dial via rotating a single dial and clicking my way through options to get through EQ’ing? It was a bit of a journey to operate. Not terrible per-se, but using the Lokius feels like a relative breath of fresh air.

It is so nice to have conveniences. There’s a kind of happy simplicity to even dialing things to a static set of band choices. The ease of use makes toying around those pre-made bands faster to tinker with. Enjoyable settings become wonderfully quick to find even with the limited control.

[Tommy]

@tkddans

It is so nice to have conveniences. There’s a kind of happy simplicity to even dialing things to a static set of band choices. The ease of use makes toying around those pre-made bands faster to tinker with. Enjoyable settings become wonderfully quick to find even with the limited control.

absolutely, there is definitely a place in the market for it no question about it

[luige06]

Any good EQ for Android?

[gallappago]

Maybe this will work for you

play.google.com

Poweramp Equalizer

Poweramp Equalizer is an advanced audio processing ap...

Free

[Nr48]

Or Wavelet

[Jared_S]

Anybody here ever tried pad swapping? Dekoni has like 4 pads. I think Z made a video about it.

[luige06]

Unfortunately this one doesn’t work with older versions of Android like what’s on the M15