Hello everyone,
I’m new to the Roon family and loving it. Every day I discover a new setting that bumps my listening experience up another notch. I should introduce my gear before diving into my latest eq experience. I have an SMSL SU-9 dac that I feed via USB directly from my PC, and this feeds a Flux FA12-S headphone amplifier. (The amp builder is located in Ukraine, so I’ve been worried about him–haven’t heard how he is doing.) My phones are Sennheiser HD650. As for the parametric eq, I tried pushing up frequencies in the hearing range of consonants (1k-8k) just slightly to compensate for mild hearing loss (I’ve been a drummer for over 35 years). But whether I increased the gain on these frequencies or not, I was getting piercing high midrange on some songs. For me, adjusting the sound was a conflict between compensating for hearing loss and putting up with uncomfortable congestion that occurred. Then I tried the Oratory1990 suggested parametric eq settings for the HD650. With my combination of gear, the change was incredible. At first, I was dubious because it was pulling DOWN some of the frequencies I thought I needed in order to hear the details. Actually, it had been the congestion in that 1k-8k range that was causing the issue–apparently, HD650s are overly hot in that area. The oratory settings created the perfect audio illusion for listening: it pulled the instruments apart into their own spaces, created more depth and low-end, and I realized that the low end had been very one-dimensional before. The vocals had more space and therefore came to the front a bit more–that solved the problem posed by hearing loss. Most importantly, every genre of music and type of production sounds correct–no more noodling on the fly to make one particular song listenable. To me, that’s when I know I have a setting that is right–when I can set it and forget it. The Senns have never sounded so full, rich, and yet detailed, with no hint of distortion. Thanks to the designer of these outstanding oratory charts!
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