Ok I have just bought another pair of the HD800S after selling them 2 year ago What a hobby this is.
I guess its the comfort that I really miss about these and of course its nice to have a different sound signature every now and then.
However I will be looking to use EQ as I would like to tame the treble a touch as I know I used to do this in the past.
Maybe also give the bass a little boost as I used to love my HD800S with my Ifi Micro SD with the bass boost on. So I would like to try this.
I am a novice with EQ and I use Roon so woule be using this to do it.
Anyone have any setttings they could share or any tips. All advice welcome as I can experiment when i receive them.
Use this site to create filters to load in Roons convolution ending in DSP. Download the ones for each free zip them up and load them up. Has a huge selection of other headphones as well.
Great site. It’s worth playing with the advanced filters and trying different target curves and boosts. I believe it defaults to Harman 2018 which I’m sure is good for lots of people but for me is too bassy and the ear gain isn’t quite right for me either. If you find the HD 800S pretty pleasant out of the box you might well be in my camp too as it doesn’t have a bass boost.
If you have a headphone you know you like the tuning of, or a reviewer with similar seeming tastes, you can upload those as target curves but if not starting with Harman and playing with the boosts is a good place to start. They have 3 broad groups so I found those as nice starting points:
“Harman curve Lovers”: This group, which constitutes 64% of listeners, includes mostly a broad spectrum of people, although they’re generally under age 50. They prefer headphones tuned close to the Harman curve.
“More Bass Is Better”: This next group, which makes up 15% of listeners, prefers headphones with 3 to 6dB more bass than Harman curve below 300Hz, and 1dB more output above 1kHz. This group is predominantly male and younger – the listeners JBL is targeting with its headphones.
“Less Bass Is Better”: This group, 21% of listeners, prefers 2 to 3dB less bass than the Harman curve and 1dB more output above 1kHz. This group is disproportionately female and older than 50.
All that said in the end with my HD800 I found the SDR mod (which takes them close to the S) pretty much did the trick for me and I couldn’t find an EQ setting I always prefered so I just gave up and focused on enjoying them instead
So got the HD800S yesterday and without EQ I realy like the sound.
I had them abiut 3 year ago and thought the treble was a bit too much at times , but this time so far I really like it.
Tried the EQ settings above and really didnt like it at all. seemed to take all of the life and energy out of the music.
However yeah I would like to enhance the bass a touch. I dont want to get them to sound too bassy as I have the 1266TC also , but would like to experiment.
I am guessing this is the settings in Band 1 and 2?
I will reset all of the rest to sstandard and just focus on experimenting with the above Bands, am I on the right track here?
Yeah the settings above are more or less Harman I think. Never my taste really.
You actually inspired me to have a play again. I’ve ended up with HD 800 SDR but flat bass (like the S) and a bit more off the the 6khz peak (like, erm, the S. I’m going to end up buying one aren’t I?).
These are my settings applied to the S:
Preamp: -2.4 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 1.800
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 63 Hz Gain 0.8 dB Q 2.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 110 Hz Gain -1.4 dB Q 0.500
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 4000 Hz Gain -1.4 dB Q 2.000
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4800 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 1.300
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain 3.4 dB Q 2.000
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 6100 Hz Gain -7.1 dB Q 2.000
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 7900 Hz Gain 4.3 dB Q 2.000
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 11000 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 2.000
Filter 10: OFF PK Fc 0 Hz Gain 0.0 dB Q 0.000
The preamp setting I chuck in to Headroom management to avoid clipping but I suspect leaving it on auto does that for you. Tbh they more or less make the 800 and S so it might be more a game of spot the difference. But I suspect you’ll want more bass than that so maybe starting with that and playing with the bottom 3 would be a good start.
For this kind of playing around I find Squiglink really helpful. You can find a measurement of your headphones then go to “equaliser” on the left. This lets you do the same adjustments as Roon but lets you see what the resulting frequency response on your headphones is. Find it a lot easier to understand to get a good baseline before tweaking. There’s also a good guidance on how to use peaks, low shelf, Q and all the fancy bits if you click on the yellow circled question mark.
EDIT: Oh and to answer your last question, sort of This is why I find the above helpful. They all interact and overlap so just turning them off can result in odd things. So the way it is there you’d basically just get a massive sub-bass boost but not much where most bass in music is by just changing the bottom 2. The third one is boosting a lot of the bass but also doing stuff in the mid-range.
Out of interest I chucked in the ASR values and compared to the 800s and 6XX which are basically a 650 which they compare them to:
Thanks so much for the very comprehensive reply .
Unfortunately I am a total novice with this kind of thing so only have the Roon EQ to experiment with
I know what you mean about having to experiment with EQ as every time I try I feel,as if it takes something away from the music
Sorry, I should have been clearer. Those settings you can just pop into Roon. The PK out in front just means set the filter type at the bottom to “peak/dip” (should be the first one on the list). Then it’s just the frequency, the gain and the Q value for each “band” as Roon describes it. This is what the first 3 look like with the entry for number:
The site I’m using just generates the values for any parametric EQ for you like Roon uses. I’m using the numbers in makes in Arc right now
And yes, it’s a tricky one to get the balance right. My numbers above actually reduce parts of the bass but they also reduce the treble and midrange more hence it sounding more bassy. My pattern with it seems to be play for while, never quite be satisfied, turn it off and go back to enjoying my headphones. But others swear by it so it might work out.
Thanks yes thats a lot clearer to me now.
Just to make it clear I am liking the trebke this time around, I dont hear the harshness , could be my age
So I am really only looking to give the bass a slight lift. I may even stick with it as it is as.
So I will experiment with the above when I have a bit more listening time.
Once again thanks for your input.
What a hobby this is.
