Best Custom EQ?

[SKYLINE_GT-R]

What's yhe best custom equalizer settings? Everytime I clear my ZVM I have to go in and test it out to get it right and I'm tired of doing that. What should I have it set to?

[ZenChick]

There is no "best" custom EQ setting. What may sound good to one person may sound horrible to another. It also depends heavily on what headphones you're using, what sort of music you're listening to, etc.

The "best" EQ setting is the one that sounds the best to you. Next time you find that perfect setting, write the numbers down. Then, next time you have to clear out your player, you can just refer to that and re-enter your EQ settings.

For reference sake, mine are 4, 3, 1, 4, 7. But I doubt very seriously those will sound that good to you, unless you've got a set of V-moda Vibes, and have been working around military jet aircraft for the last twenty years.

[skippyg]

one thing that REALLY does make a difference is if your music files are leveled, ive noticed that my EQ settings work how they are supposed to when all my files are normalized, even the bassboost works good, (though still a tad boomy, no distortion though). My settings are
8/2/2/3/8

[kyle_artbow]

Mine is very similar with ZenChicks. I really dont care if using customized EQ shortens my CZVM's battery life...

[skippyg]

mine battery really doesnt go down if use Custom eq, only with bass boost, plus smart volume and eq.

[Hao]

8/-2/-4/1/4

[LingLing]

None. I tried everything and it sounded like crap. Then I turned EQ off, then turned it on to 0 everything, and there was still a noticeable difference. No EQ is definitely better.

[Aardvark]

Originally Posted by LingLing

None. I tried everything and it sounded like crap. Then I turned EQ off, then turned it on to 0 everything, and there was still a noticeable difference. No EQ is definitely better.

Yes, leave all EQ switched off including bass boost and just buy better headphones or IEMs

[Chensington]

Originally Posted by Aardvark

Yes, leave all EQ switched off including bass boost and just buy better headphones or IEMs

I couldn't agree with you more...I just got my Koss KSC75s five days ago, and as someone who never has (and probably never will) pay more than $50 for a pair of headphones, I'm incredibly happy with the way they sound. Audiophile-grade sound at an extremely low price, from what I've gathered...

[SKYLINE_GT-R]

I'll find that special combination when I feel like it. I've done it like 5 times before and I can't stand to do it again. You guys said get a good pair of earphones... I've got a pair of Sennheiser CX300s, I love them.

By the way... what's IEM stand for? In Ear... something...?

[Almoxil]

IEM = In-Ear Monitors.

They sit inside the ear canal. They are intended to isolate your ears from ambient noise, giving a much better bass response as well as allowing you to listen to music at lower volume levels.

The level of isolation will depend on achieving a good seal with the provided silicone or foam tips. Some people use bi- or tri-flanged tips with their IEMs -- they allegedly create a better isolation since they sit deeper in the ear canal. Some people find those special tips to be very instrusive, though.

[skippyg]

once again, if your music files are normalized, the Custome Eq, AND the bass boost will work a lot better, its not because the Zen sucks in the Sq, which imo, it really doesnt, its just the way your files are encoded. take this for example, im using EP630's, comparing the sound from normalized U2- vertigo and same song BUt with its level at 95 db, which is for somereason the way some cd rippers rip the music to. if i try to use bass boost with the unnormalized one, the bass is just blah and distorts like no freaking other, BUT with the normalized file, the bass is much much better, although still a tad boomy, no distortion whatsover. and over doesnt get so damn muddy like it does when non normalized files play with it. get my drift? all this time, Creative made the bass boost and custom Eq work better with normalized files, because thats how most should be so no clipping occurs. if you try to boost the lower frequenices or others your going to get distortion if the file inst normalized, because the bassboost boosts the low freq's to a level where Normalized mp3'
s can reach without distortion and clipping, i dont know if i made sense, maybe Zenchick can help since she knows about this.

[teeravuss]

I had my custom EQ set to 4-3-2-4-7. That is until I got my Sennheiser PX100 headphones this past friday Now, I have the EQ off. Bass boost: off. Smart volume: off.

If you want good sound, do your zen (and your ears) some justice and invest a little more money into good headphones.

As far as normalizing your mp3s... I think that's a BAD idea. Professionals with lots of expensive gear optimize the music you're paying for. The last thing you should do is mess with the levels of your mp3. For example. My g/f copied two Linkin Park CDs she had. She used the normalizing setting of her ripping software on one album. The other album, she didn't normalize. You listen to the two albums back to back, and you can hear a definite difference. The uneffected mp3s are loud and dynamic. The normalized mp3s are low and flat.

[dissembled]

In my experience, dynamic driver phones that I own don't need EQuing. This includes canal phones and full sized cans.

The armature (iem) driven one however needs to be EQued to oblivion. Maybe it's just underdriven though. Dunno for sure.

[ZenChick]

Originally Posted by teeravuss

As far as normalizing your mp3s... I think that's a BAD idea. Professionals with lots of expensive gear optimize the music you're paying for. The last thing you should do is mess with the levels of your mp3. For example. My g/f copied two Linkin Park CDs she had. She used the normalizing setting of her ripping software on one album. The other album, she didn't normalize. You listen to the two albums back to back, and you can hear a definite difference. The uneffected mp3s are loud and dynamic. The normalized mp3s are low and flat.

This depends a lot on what normalizing program you used. The safest ones are the ones that edit the normalization tag rather than resample and re-encode. MP3Gain uses the tag method. It's completely non-destructive, is reversible, and does not modify the music in any way.

MP3Gain also has both track- and album- normalization modes. In Track mode, all tracks are normalized to the set level. In album mode, all tracks within an album are analyzed, then renormalized so that the album average is equal to the set level, but the tracks themselves still maintain their volume level relative to the other tracks. When normalizing whole albums, this is the recommended method - and one that I use extensively. It works very well.

[skippyg]

Originally Posted by ZenChick

This depends a lot on what normalizing program you used. The safest ones are the ones that edit the normalization tag rather than resample and re-encode. MP3Gain uses the tag method. It's completely non-destructive, is reversible, and does not modify the music in any way.

MP3Gain also has both track- and album- normalization modes. In Track mode, all tracks are normalized to the set level. In album mode, all tracks within an album are analyzed, then renormalized so that the album average is equal to the set level, but the tracks themselves still maintain their volume level relative to the other tracks. When normalizing whole albums, this is the recommended method - and one that I use extensively. It works very well.

have you tried using bass boost on normalized files? ive noticed that using it works pretty good on normalized ones, i too use MP3gain to normalize.

[ZenChick]

I don't really use bass boost when on my headphones, as it becomes just way too much bass; but if I have my ZVM plugged into one of my bookshelf stereos, I use it then (because the stereo's EQ is pretty crappy). It sounds pretty good there.

[JL3001]

Originally Posted by Chensington

I couldn't agree with you more...I just got my Koss KSC75s five days ago, and as someone who never has (and probably never will) pay more than $50 for a pair of headphones, I'm incredibly happy with the way they sound. Audiophile-grade sound at an extremely low price, from what I've gathered...

Exactly. I was using all 7 for EQ until I got the KSCs. Now it's off and it's great. I've been playing with the settings, and I still can't find an EQ combination that surpasses no EQ with the 75s.

My only problem with the phones are the low DB output. A little too much sound escapes sometimes and I have to turn it up to about 20, sometimes 21 when I'm outside. Inside I'm set around 15-16. It doesn't help that I'm coming off a worse sounding, but definetely louder, Panasonic wraparounds.

But as for normalizing... Is there a program that can do that with my MP3s?

[skippyg]

Originally Posted by JL3001

Exactly. I was using all 7 for EQ until I got the KSCs. Now it's off and it's great. I've been playing with the settings, and I still can't find an EQ combination that surpasses no EQ with the 75s.

My only problem with the phones are the low DB output. A little too much sound escapes sometimes and I have to turn it up to about 20, sometimes 21 when I'm outside. Inside I'm set around 15-16. It doesn't help that I'm coming off a worse sounding, but definetely louder, Panasonic wraparounds.

But as for normalizing... Is there a program that can do that with my MP3s?

Yes mp3gain
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

BTW: with normalized files i use the BB with EP-630's, these phones really lack some bass sometimes,

[Crysisfreak7]

I feel like my music sounds flat ans "flavourless" if i don’t enable at least a little EQ. I am using Banshee media player because I have Ubuntu, and I enabled the live EQ and its my favourite setting, it sounds more rounded and alive.