u/OpaliusDK

Hi all,

Here’s another rabbit hole for everyone who likes to EQ their headphones :)

If you just want the very short version:

Position variation is a real thing, and it can have a pretty big impact on the FR we actually get at the ear — especially in the upper mids / treble.

Anyway, the slightly longer version:

I was reading through some old posts, measurements and blogs (yes, actual old-school blogs still exist) about the HD800S, and came across measurements showing how much the response changes depending on where the headphone sits on the head.

https://preview.redd.it/e2u07vqmk0jh1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=f20df6bdedfc538e5098cf295ff8c2894c6e3c5b

The first graph is a good example. Below roughly 2 kHz things are pretty well behaved, but once you get further up, especially around 4–10 kHz, the different positions start doing their own thing. And above that it basically turns into spaghetti.

That got me thinking about my beloved LCD-X.

So naturally, instead of doing something productive, I got out my DIY in-ear mic setup and started measuring.

I did.... way to many measurements ( just showing 2 here), taking the headphones off and repositioning them between each one.

https://preview.redd.it/vxmyzrlok0jh1.png?width=1493&format=png&auto=webp&s=4b605f2a157cb553ffd4a6f15583baf0251eded7

And... yeah.

There was alot more variation than I expected.

The lower frequencies were fairly consistent, but once you get into the upper mids and treble the response starts moving around by several dB depending on position. Peaks move, dips move, and some areas change quite a lot.

At first I honestly thought my mesurements were just being weird.  - I even did a sine sweep by ear as a sanity check, and yep — things move around a lot above ~3 kHz just from repositioning

So I went looking to see if anyone else had measured positional variation on the LCD-X, and found this from Unheard Lab:

https://unheardlab.com/2023/08/29/review-audeze-lcd-x-2021/

https://preview.redd.it/88jd5czpk0jh1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb4cc19890773dbf721ad125e885ce8af969e425

And their measurements seem to show the same general behaviour: relatively small changes down low, and increasingly large differences as frequency goes up.

So I guess my little DIY experiment wasn’t completely drunk after all.

The takeaway?

I’m not saying “don’t EQ” — quite the opposite, I love EQ.

But it does make me question how useful it is to obsess over correcting every tiny 1–2 dB peak or dip, especially high up in the treble. The response can change simply because the headphone moved a few millimetres on your head.

So maybe the sensible approach is just EQ the broad stuff, use your ears for the final bit, and don’t lose sleep over every little squiggle in the graph. (^_~)

Or, alternatively, spend another three hours moving your headphones around by 4 mm and measuring them.

...which is probably what I’ll do.

Hi all,

Here’s another rabbit hole for everyone who likes to EQ their headphones :)

If you just want the very short version:

Position variation is a real thing, and it can have a pretty big impact on the FR we actually get at the ear — especially in the upper mids / treble.

Anyway, the slightly longer version:

I was reading through some old posts, measurements and blogs (yes, actual old-school blogs still exist) about the HD800S, and came across measurements showing how much the response changes depending on where the headphone sits on the head.

https://preview.redd.it/3ugw1nnlj0jh1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=979bdefee0a0164e8019a0bfbcd4ce495537173b

The first graph is a good example. Below roughly 2 kHz things are pretty well behaved, but once you get further up, especially around 4–10 kHz, the different positions start doing their own thing. And above that it basically turns into spaghetti.

That got me thinking about my beloved LCD-X.

So naturally, instead of doing something productive, I got out my DIY in-ear mic setup and started measuring.

I did.... way to many measurements ( just showing 2 here), taking the headphones off and repositioning them between each one.

https://preview.redd.it/tlrs403pj0jh1.png?width=1493&format=png&auto=webp&s=a7a9d1d3783a8a45f32d406b9f770801ee2bba11

And... yeah.

There was alot more variation than I expected.

The lower frequencies were fairly consistent, but once you get into the upper mids and treble the response starts moving around by several dB depending on position. Peaks move, dips move, and some areas change quite a lot.

At first I honestly thought my mesurements were just being weird.  - I even did a sine sweep by ear as a sanity check, and yep — things move around a lot above ~3 kHz just from repositioning

So I went looking to see if anyone else had measured positional variation on the LCD-X, and found this from Unheard Lab:

https://unheardlab.com/2023/08/29/review-audeze-lcd-x-2021/

https://preview.redd.it/mcw6bn3vj0jh1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=d3326ceab114ce77adb265cf661cc7aa32482c69

And their measurements seem to show the same general behaviour: relatively small changes down low, and increasingly large differences as frequency goes up.

So I guess my little DIY experiment wasn’t completely drunk after all.

The takeaway?

I’m not saying “don’t EQ” — quite the opposite, I love EQ.

But it does make me question how useful it is to obsess over correcting every tiny 1–2 dB peak or dip, especially high up in the treble. The response can change simply because the headphone moved a few millimetres on your head.

So maybe the sensible approach is just EQ the broad stuff, use your ears for the final bit, and don’t lose sleep over every little squiggle in the graph. (^_~)

Or, alternatively, spend another three hours moving your headphones around by 4 mm and measuring them.

...which is probably what I’ll do.

Hi everyone

Long-time fan here—I've been listening to Evanescence since Fallen came out when I was 15.

I am incredibly excited to finally see Amy Lee live, but I have to admit, about 24 hours after buying the tickets, a bit of that pre-concert anxiety started setting in. Since it's a different country and my first time doing a concert road trip completely solo, I’m starting to feel a little nervous about hitting the venue alone.

Since my wife isn't into the music and my daughter is still a bit too young for a loud rock show (even though she loves Sanctuary), I decided it was finally time to just pull the trigger and get a ticket for myself.

I’m driving down from Copenhagen to Hamburg for the show on September 23rd.

Is it pretty common for people to attend Ev shows solo? Has anyone else traveled alone for a show, and what is the venue/queue vibe usually like? Do people tend to mingle, or mostly stick to their own groups?

Either way, I'm stoked to finally make this happen.

Let me know if anyone else here is traveling down from Denmark!

​Thanks in advance!

If you want your DT1990 to lose that brutal 8kHz "Beyer peak" without using EQ, just move the headphones back 1 to 1.5 cm (~0.4 to 0.6 inches). Position them so the pads sit just before the tragus and about 1 cm away from the helix of your ear. This simple shift drops the peak by a massive 6 dB. That's it.

And now... time for the RANT.

Before I start going off on how almost every reviewer should be ashamed of themselves, here is the backstory. I bought my DT1990 Pro four years ago. Initially, I was super happy with them—until I started noticing the piercing Sssses, ttttss, and zzzzes.

Like anyone down this rabbit hole, I started diving into reviews, reading Audio Science Review (ASR) and Head-Fi, staring at graphs, and quickly realized I was dealing with the infamous Beyer peak.

Fast forward four years and alot of headphones later (Grados, Audeze LCD-2 CB, LCD-X, etc.). I got deep into EQ, bought a MiniDSP EARS, and finally built my own DIY in-ear microphone.

Sooooo......

Recently (today), I decided to pull out the DT1990s to finally save them with a EQ profile. I put my DIY mic in, slap the headphones on, and take a measurement. I look at the screen and... there is no Beyer peak. I was completly stunned. I repositioned the headphones to where I normally wear them, measured again, and boom—there it is, piercing right back at me.

So what actually happened? I discovered that if I move the headphone just a tiny touch back—literally 1 to 1.5 cm—so the pads are slightly away from the helix of the ear and not touching it, the acoustic interaction changes entirely.

Why am I the only one who seems to know this? Why doesn't Beyerdynamic put a single line in their manual saying, "Hey, if you want a normal sound, place the bloody things a bit further back"? More importantly, why have mainstream reviewers completely missed this? These "experts" are supposed to have god-knows-how-much experience listening to and testing gear. I am incredibly mad and dissapointed in almost the entire reviewer community—especially channels like The Headphone Show. Honestly, it feels like everyone missed the mark here except maybe Zeos.

The Measurements For the skeptics out there, I brought receipts. Take a look at the graph:

https://preview.redd.it/6dwmbqg06b6h1.png?width=1427&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e097617d8a7a99e6fee30077780f7bcfc009c47

Blue Line: Headphones centered on the ear (hello, 8kHz murder peak).

Green Line: Headphones shifted sligtly back by 1.5 cm (peak dropped by ~6 dB).

White Line: HD650 included for a baseline comparison.

Do you see that difference? Yes, they are still a "bright" headphone, but gods do they sound good when you tame that peak just by moving them a fraction of an inch.

Best regards everyone! - Thomas