So a question and maybe a debate: A person or person’s have a headphone that sounds really good on a particular amp/dac at home but when taken portable of course the sound is different (different amp/dac.)
Would you consider using eq at all to tweak said headphone closer or be satisfied with what you get.? I am not taking sides one way or another just curious as to yes/no/maybe and why/why not here.
While I personally don’t, you could try and use eq to compensate for the change in gear and the change in environment, but realistically I don’t know how far that would actually get you
agreed and I do not either but I could see why one would in this specific circumstance.
Personally I would just get higher tier portable players, but of course that’s not a free tweak, and even the highest end portables aren’t going to stand up to a desktop setup of the same cost, but you can now get some portables that might offer a desktop like solution. EQ is free and (somewhat) easy so might as well try it out to see if you can make a more enjoyable experience for yourself on the go. With some of the daps and dac amps I have had, I found that a bass boost when going portable was always nice for more fun and to make up for lower power solutions, I just don’t know about trying to go ham with eq since you won’t really be able to recreate the desktop setup that way imo, but smaller tweaks makes sense
In my work I cannot carry or conveniently use much in the way of wired so I end up using my phone and my Fiio BTR3K… works well but not quite what a good dap would provide.
EQ can only fix the frequency response and 9 times out of 10 that won’t be the difference.
Well, a iem that sounds good at home versus at work in a noisy environment to me sounds completely different and I would think that punching things up could help a little.
Sure if it works do it.
But outside of actual transducers, the difference the components in the chain make is rarely simple Frequency Response.
If you did FR sweeps through the entire chain and them swapped amps, they would be more or less the same for almost any source gear from Tube amps with 0.5% THD to THX Amps with 0.000001% THD.
The “errors” introduced by the transducers dwarf everything else in the signal chain.
All EQ does is left you tweak that, and introduce phase issues while doing it.
As to the different environment, that I buy, noisy environment probably means listening at louder volumes and perceived frequency response changes with volume.
this is a matter of personal preference and philosophy.
there are purists, who would match the headphones to the DAC and amp and then there are those who don’t have as much money and will use EQ to balance things out to their likes.
I don’t eq at home but find that when out and about the background noise tends to dull the frequency extremes so I find myself switching the bass boost on my Topping amp on…not strictly eq but makes a difference.
I dont personally EQ cause I enjoy the uniqueness and quirks for gear I like keeps them unique and have a reason to keep.But thats just me What other people sdo with their gear is their thing IF I have an issue with a headphone and IEM the market is expandind pretty large so I would just get rid of it and move on and find something else I like. if sometrhing doesnt suit one environment but I like it I just grab something else that suits that environment and keep both
My cowon daps always had good eqs and dsp. I love playing with it and usually give my music a slight U shape as it sounded sharper to me which is nice during noisy transit. At home i still eq but it seems less extreme