Topic: ADI 2/4 PEQ / Sennheiser HD660S

It‘s all subjective, I know.
But I tried some HD660S presets by Oratory1990 on my brand new adi-2/4 pro se - and I felt like i was in the wrong movie. I think the Optimun hifi preset was kind of ok, but the Standard preset was pretty terrible. To my ears of course…Fyi I tried the presets with hires recordings of Old Man/Neil Young and Marooned/Pink Floyd, so rather transparent/airy songs.
A couple of questions:
- which 5 (7) bands are to be used in the ADI PEQ, considering the Oratory presets are based on 10 bands?
- as I might have blundered when putting in the values: is there a site where you can download Headphone presets for ADI-2?
- any user suggestions for PEQ settings for HD660S? I‘d appreciate it!

Thanks

2 (edited by IdleTalk 2024-05-06 20:55:32)

Re: ADI 2/4 PEQ / Sennheiser HD660S

Don't use presets made upon measurements unless those measurements are taken using your own head.

You'd notice that FR graphs of a same headphone are different when equipments and their operators are different. None of them simulates your head properly. Their equipments may represent average of population at best but never a specific individual.

You may consult published measurements to adjust bass & treble roughly, with very low Q values.
But surgeon-like adjustment with 10 bands PEQ is a pure nonsense.
It's like a tailoring a suit for a mannequin when you should be the one who wants to wear it.

"Scientific" reviewers should stop this nonsense immediately.

Re: ADI 2/4 PEQ / Sennheiser HD660S

IdleTalk wrote:

Don't use presets made upon measurements unless those measurements are taken using your own head.

You'd notice that FR graphs of a same headphone are different when equipments and their operators are different. None of them simulates your head properly. Their equipments may represent average of population at best but never a specific individual.

You may consult published measurements to adjust bass & treble roughly, with very low Q values.
But surgeon-like adjustment with 10 bands PEQ is a pure nonsense.
It's like a tailoring a suit for a mannequin when you should be the one who wants to wear it.

"Scientific" reviewers should stop this nonsense immediately.

Well, it‘s great to have those presets to start with and I appreciate the work that has been put into these measurements and profiles. I made adjustments of the specific preset I finally found for ADI-2 - and I think I am getting there. It‘s early days for me with the ADI-2/4, so lots to experiment and learn. I will mainly use it in conjunction with my UFX+. But I am currently travelling with it - fab form factor for this! - and messing about with Headphone settings…

I agree that good EQ practice is about minor adjustments in the right place - rather than drastic changes all over the place.

Not going to discuss the need for 10 band EQs. But note that RME has introduced 9 band PEQ for their flagship interfaces. So there certainly is a place for surgical adjustments, especially when it comes to room correction.

4 (edited by KaiS 2024-05-07 07:09:38)

Re: ADI 2/4 PEQ / Sennheiser HD660S

I can just underline what @IdleTalk said:
All the AutoEQ, and Oratory1990 presets are based on wrong assumptions.


For lower frequencies they usually are correct.
But - the more they approach ca. 3 kHz, the less they are valid for real people.

Everything above 3 kHz should be ignored, except VERY prominent peaks like the famous Sennheiser HD-800 6 kHz peak.
Even this one does not annoy everybody.


There’s not much wrong with the Sennheiser HD6##–series phones.
A bit more sub-bass, a little less 2-3 kHz maybe, and according to taste, a tiny bit more upper brilliance.


From the Oratory1990, try band 1, 2, (3 maybe), 5 and 7.
Retune band 5’s frequency to taste.

It’s often a good approach to reduce all bands gains to half, to not kill a ‘phone’s character.

5

Re: ADI 2/4 PEQ / Sennheiser HD660S

See here:

https://youtu.be/_Nq9ZGAYTwU

TheMonk wrote:

It‘s all subjective, I know.
But I tried some HD660S presets by Oratory1990 on my brand new adi-2/4 pro se - and I felt like i was in the wrong movie. I think the Optimun hifi preset was kind of ok, but the Standard preset was pretty terrible. To my ears of course…Fyi I tried the presets with hires recordings of Old Man/Neil Young and Marooned/Pink Floyd, so rather transparent/airy songs.
A couple of questions:
- which 5 (7) bands are to be used in the ADI PEQ, considering the Oratory presets are based on 10 bands?
- as I might have blundered when putting in the values: is there a site where you can download Headphone presets for ADI-2?
- any user suggestions for PEQ settings for HD660S? I‘d appreciate it!

Thanks

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME