So I have an HD 560s, which is my first pair of audiophile headphones, and they sound amazing. But I wanted to EQ them a bit because they are a bit too flat.

Does spotify EQ cause lot of distortion, since there's no preamping happening? Because I tried their inbuilt presets and those are really terrible, as they cause lot of distortion, since the sliders are very aggresively placed.

Since I didnt like their inbuilt presets, I moved the spotify sliders manually just a little bit upwards in the 400-2400Hz range, and now I'm not getting distortion atleast to my noob ears lol. Would love it if you all could share your experiences with spotify EQ and how good/bad it is?

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Tubie34 t1_jd74fi2 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 9:31 AM

Try the r/oratory1990 subreddit, theres a whole rabbit hole of eq options, includng presets specifically tuned for the 560s. Your best bet for eq would be to use APO on your computer and look at the info there.

radrod69 t1_jd80055 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 2:27 PM

Equalizer APO*

Right?

f3llyn t1_jd8dgb8 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 3:54 PM

Yeah, and specifically you want the Peace Ui.

Grand-Function-2081 t1_jdgnj43 wrote on March 24, 2023 at 7:05 AM

Or aqua, outside of the autoeq presets it's just prettier peace ui

ultra_prescriptivist t1_jd76kgb wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:01 AM

Minimal adjustments shouldn't create noticeable distortion, so not sure what's going on there.

That said, it's always advisable to cut rather than boost frequencies when apply EQ. In other words, substract rather than add.

Extrapaj t1_jd7jfrh wrote on March 22, 2023 at 12:22 PM

>should create noticeable distortion

Shouldn't

ultra_prescriptivist t1_jd7kbsr wrote on March 22, 2023 at 12:29 PM

D'oh, thanks.

AkagamiShanks007 OP t1_jd8r4oe wrote on March 22, 2023 at 5:20 PM

So in spotify itself, I should create the same EQ curve by actually redcing the sliders and not increasing them? That sounds like it'll work well

ultra_prescriptivist t1_jd8s2zq wrote on March 22, 2023 at 5:26 PM

Aye, pretty much.

No-Context5479 t1_jd7jpfr wrote on March 22, 2023 at 12:24 PM

u/AkagamiShanks007, what device are you using the Spotify EQ on? A PC or a phone?

AkagamiShanks007 OP t1_jd8qmzd wrote on March 22, 2023 at 5:17 PM

Iphone 14 plus

No-Context5479 t1_jd8ruma wrote on March 22, 2023 at 5:24 PM

Welp... Then you're stuck with the shitty Spotify EQ unless you wanna make the commitment to get the Qudelix 5K Receiver. It has an accompanying app that allows parametric EQ. This means more fine and targeted changes than vague large sweeps like what happens with the Spotify EQ... It's a buy once forget all time fix and it's a little nifty and portable device.

ArlaKoldskaal t1_jda5en5 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:44 PM

Unfortunately, I haven’t heard of a proper parametric EQ for iOS

TagalogON t1_jd772sw wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:08 AM

Click this sentence for IEMs/TWS earbuds and headphones with PC gaming, squig.link, AutoEQ, parametric EQ.

Click this sentence for using squig.link, parametric EQ, etc. to gauge future purchases.

Look into squig.link and use the AutoEQ feature there, you can compare graphs, easily parametric EQ to a specific target, etc.

Here's Super* Review using the new AutoEQ feature of his squig.link site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWzBw3XBn8c&t=332s

Or actually here's Timmy from Gizaudio explaining it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpQalW_bjLQ

Check /r/oratory1990 for the preset parametric EQ list (mainly for headphones but there's some IEMs there): https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

You can do (parametric) EQ with $8 Neutron Music Player or UAPP on Android. If on PC, the free (Peace) Equalizer APO. There are free apps on Android(/Apple) that can also do a good enough job, but most of them have those graphics sliders instead of parametric or just plug the numbers in EQ. EQ can also be used to help with channel or ear imbalances.

There's also the free Wavelet app that has the AutoEQ available now. And other free apps for more simple graphic sliders EQ, etc.

ConsciousNoise5690 t1_jd7ad80 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 10:50 AM

Its a matter of headroom.

The loudest you can play at the digital side is called 0 dBFS. If you exceed this level, you get digital clipping.

Often recordings do have sufficient headroom e.g. 10 dB so you can boost without hitting 0 dBFS. However, there are also recordings with very little or no headroom. This is typical for the loudness war. Even the slightest boost will result in distortion (digital clipping).

As already mentioned by others, a simple strategy is not boosting but lowering. If you want to emphasize 400-2400, leave them at 0 and lower the rest.

Another solution is simply not using the Spotify EQ or the EQ of any other app as you have to tailor each app. Just go system wide. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/eq-software-for-windows-linux-macos-ios-ipados-and-android.18450/

If it comes with a pre-amp, you can boost to your harts content and simply use the pre-amp to compensate for the highest boost. In case of Win you can also avoid distortion caused by resampling signals close to 0 dBFS.

Extrapaj t1_jd7jm21 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 12:23 PM

I have a hard time believing that Spotify wouldn't add negative preamp automatically on their EQ, no?

dongas420 t1_jd9b96g wrote on March 22, 2023 at 7:26 PM

I tested it, and Spotify's EQ causes comically bad clipping at max level.

wagninger t1_jd8o1y2 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 5:00 PM

What you should do to not cause distortion is, think which frequencies you want to boost, and instead lower all the other a bit. The effect of the same, but the overall volume decreases.

wijnandsj t1_jd75yo6 wrote on March 22, 2023 at 9:53 AM

>Does spotify EQ cause lot of distortion, since there's no preamping happening

not so you'd notice