I recently upgraded to a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro headphones, and while the detail is impressive, the overall sound feels a bit flat and lifeless, especially in the low end.
I am using a Topping L30 amp + E30 DAC combo and listening mostly to lossless music on Tidal and local FLAC files.
Could this be an amp synergy issue, wrong gain setting, or maybe just something about the headphone tuning I wasn’t ready for? I came from warmer-sounding headphones, so maybe I am just not used to the brighter, more analytical signature.
Any tips for EQ settings or pads that could help add more body to the sound?
That combo is like exact synergy for bright and sterile. This isn’t surprising at all. I’d pop on an oratory1990 auto EQ and see how you like it and go from there.
yeah not sure why so many people say they like 770 I thought they were pretty meh even a few years ago.
T3/Amiron are supposed to be more fun/enjoyment beyers.
880/Tygr/T2 are still pretty bright but can actually be enjoyable, solid gaming with a side of music hp’s.
EQ or a Tube Amp might be the only two options to bring some life to those headphones. They are designed for a studio setting, and therefore are tuned for that purpose in mind.
YMMV and all, but EQ might be the easiest of the two solutions.
Try these PEQ settings. Will bring back the richness. You will have to turn up the volume a bit more than usual, but will sound much better, I think. You can apply with Roon or Equalizer APO. Or you can purchase a DAC/Amp with PEQ support.
This will do the opposite…“richness” comes mostly from having mid-bass/lower-mids, by cutting that out more you are just making the note-weight much thinner.
no sir, I am equally cutting out the treble region as well. I am cutting 200hz a bit to maintain separation with the Mids. I am doing it this way to avoid clipping and add complexity of having to worry about pre-gain adjustment. With your setup he may get clipping if they do not adjust pre-gain. If they want a thicker mid-bass, they can re-introduce a bit at 200hz… something like 200hz +2(or 3) 1q will do the trick and shouldn’t be an issue with clipping. Also I wouldn’t recommend to EQ Treble with high Q values at all. It’s impossible to do accurately for someone else without knowing their exact hrtf.
you always want to adjust the preamp if you are boosting.
High q value is needed in this case when the stock tuning has very noticeably peaks. This smooths it out, if th q value is lower it is harder to adjust the fr without it affecting other areas without using a lot more filters.
It only requires it if you boost past 0. You are boosting past zero. I am not. That’s the point.
Also No, you do not know where these peaks are on individuals. In the treble, peaks shift for everyone, rig measurements are only broadly accurate up to maybe 3-5k. You cannot EQ peaks in the treble for individuals. You can only make broad adjustments, unless you tune it by ear for yourself or have an HRTF measurement of the individual to know where the peaks are.
I think that bayerdynamics and topping amps are not a good match. They are both very bright sounding. The bayers would sound much better with a warmer sounding dac amp like an ifi zen dac. You can always warm the cans up with the x brass on the zen dac.
