TL;DR If you are here just looking to make your headphones sound better, find your headphone model in results folder's recommended headphones list and follow instructions in Usage section.
AutoEQ is a project for equalizing headphone frequency responses automatically and it achieves this by parsing frequency response measurements and producing a equalization settings which correct the headphone to a neutral sound. This project currently has 1000+ headphones covered in the results folder. See Usage for instructions how to use the results with EqualizerAPO and Results section for details about parameters and how the results were obtained.
AutoEQ is not just a collection of automatically produced headphone equalization settings but also a tool for equalizing
headphones for yourself. frequency_response.py provides methods for reading data, equalizing it to a given target
response and saving the results for usage with EqualizerAPO. It's possible to use different compensation (target)
curves, apply tilt for making the headphones brighter/darker and adding a bass boost. It's even possible to make one
headphone sound (roughly) like another headphone. For more info about equalizing see
Equalizing
Third major contribution of this project is the measurement data and compensation curves all in a numerical format. Everything is stored as CSV files so they are easy to process with any programming language or even Microsoft Excel. See Data Processing for more technical description about how things were obtained and processed.
Sennheiser HD 650 equalization results plotted
Equalization settings produced by AutoEQ are EqualizerAPO GraphicEQ configuration lines and parametric equalizer peaking filters, one for each headphone processed. GraphicEQ settings look like this:
GraphicEQ: 20 0.0; 22 6.0; 23 6.0; 25 6.0; 26 5.9; 28 5.6; 30 5.3; 32 4.8; 35 4.3; 37 3.9; 40 3.5; 42 3.3; 45 3.0; 49 2.7; 52 2.6; 56 2.5; 59 2.1; 64 1.8; 68 1.9; 73 2.2; 78 1.7; 83 0.9; 89 0.3; 95 -0.2; 102 -0.7; 109 -1.1; 117 -1.5; 125 -1.9; 134 -2.2; 143 -2.5; 153 -2.6; 164 -2.5; 175 -2.5; 188 -2.6; 201 -2.7; 215 -2.5; 230 -2.4; 246 -2.3; 263 -2.2; 282 -2.0; 301 -1.9; 323 -1.8; 345 -1.5; 369 -1.5; 395 -1.4; 423 -1.2; 452 -1.0; 484 -1.0; 518 -1.0; 554 -0.8; 593 -0.5; 635 -0.4; 679 -0.5; 726 -0.3; 777 -0.2; 832 -0.4; 890 -0.6; 952 -0.4; 1019 -0.1; 1090 -0.5; 1167 -0.8; 1248 -1.0; 1336 -1.1; 1429 -1.3; 1529 -1.3; 1636 -1.6; 1751 -1.6; 1873 -1.4; 2004 -0.9; 2145 -0.7; 2295 -0.5; 2455 -0.2; 2627 0.1; 2811 -0.1; 3008 -0.6; 3219 -1.1; 3444 -1.0; 3685 -0.6; 3943 0.0; 4219 -0.0; 4514 -0.1; 4830 0.9; 5168 3.8; 5530 5.9; 5917 5.2; 6331 4.4; 6775 3.9; 7249 1.3; 7756 0.3; 8299 0.0; 8880 0.0; 9502 0.0; 10167 0.0; 10879 0.0; 11640 0.0; 12455 0.0; 13327 0.0; 14260 0.0; 15258 0.0; 16326 0.0; 17469 0.0; 18692 0.0; 20000 0.0
Parametric eq settings can be used with Peace or any other parametric eq which has at least 5 bands available. Even fewer bands is possible but pre-computed results require to use minimum five first of the filters.
Easiest way is to install HeSuVi and select correct headphone model from the Equalizer tab. There is no need to download results from the results folder because HeSuVi ships with all of the recommended results. Please note that after installing HeSuVi will have surround virtualization on and if you don't want to use it you can select none.wav from the left side list on the Virtualization tab.
HeSuVi is GUI for EqualizerAPO which has almost all headphone surround virtualizations available. HeSuVi also provides a convenient graphical user interface for adjusting the equalizer, toggling eq on and off, adjusting preamp and saving and restoring multiple different configurations making it very easy to compare different eq settings.
If some reason HeSuVi doesn't include a headphone available in this project or if you wish to try out some other than
the recommended result the file can be added manually. To add a preset into HeSuVi add the GraphicEq file into
C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\config\HeSuVi\eq\custom.
Then restart HeSuVi, select the new preset from the custom group in Equalizer tab and set volume attenuation for
both channels to the highest positive gain value in preset.
HeSuVi GUI for EqualizerAPO
Peace is a GUI for manipulating parametric eq filters with EqualizerAPO. Peace also has visualization for the end result equalization frequency response, profile manager for multiple different eq settings and a switch for disabling everything among other features. Load eq settings into Peace by clicking Import button and select the ParametricEQ.txt file.
To load an eq into a some other graphic equalizer you'll have to adjust preamp and build the filters manually because the configuration file produced is only compatible with EqualizerAPO.
Keep in mind that parametric eq produced is not as accurate as graphic eq because there is limited number of filters. This might not have any significant difference in practice though.
Peace with full GUI for EqualizerAPO
It's possible to use plain EqualizerAPO and edit configuration file in
C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\config\config.txt. Disable Include: example.txt, replace GraphicEQ: ... line with
the one found in results and set Preamp: .... Using
Sennheiser HD 650
would make config file look like this:
Preamp: -6 dB
# Include: example.txt
GraphicEQ: 20 0.0; 22 6.0; 23 6.0; 25 6.0; 26 5.9; 28 5.6; 30 5.3; 32 4.8; 35 4.3; 37 3.9; 40 3.5; 42 3.3; 45 3.0; 49 2.7; 52 2.6; 56 2.5; 59 2.1; 64 1.8; 68 1.9; 73 2.2; 78 1.7; 83 0.9; 89 0.3; 95 -0.2; 102 -0.7; 109 -1.1; 117 -1.5; 125 -1.9; 134 -2.2; 143 -2.5; 153 -2.6; 164 -2.5; 175 -2.5; 188 -2.6; 201 -2.7; 215 -2.5; 230 -2.4; 246 -2.3; 263 -2.2; 282 -2.0; 301 -1.9; 323 -1.8; 345 -1.5; 369 -1.5; 395 -1.4; 423 -1.2; 452 -1.0; 484 -1.0; 518 -1.0; 554 -0.8; 593 -0.5; 635 -0.4; 679 -0.5; 726 -0.3; 777 -0.2; 832 -0.4; 890 -0.6; 952 -0.4; 1019 -0.1; 1090 -0.5; 1167 -0.8; 1248 -1.0; 1336 -1.1; 1429 -1.3; 1529 -1.3; 1636 -1.6; 1751 -1.6; 1873 -1.4; 2004 -0.9; 2145 -0.7; 2295 -0.5; 2455 -0.2; 2627 0.1; 2811 -0.1; 3008 -0.6; 3219 -1.1; 3444 -1.0; 3685 -0.6; 3943 0.0; 4219 -0.0; 4514 -0.1; 4830 0.9; 5168 3.8; 5530 5.9; 5917 5.2; 6331 4.4; 6775 3.9; 7249 1.3; 7756 0.3; 8299 0.0; 8880 0.0; 9502 0.0; 10167 0.0; 10879 0.0; 11640 0.0; 12455 0.0; 13327 0.0; 14260 0.0; 15258 0.0; 16326 0.0; 17469 0.0; 18692 0.0; 20000 0.0
EqualizerAPO has a graphical user interface for adjusting configurations. Launch the editor from
C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\Editor.exe.
EqualizerAPO Editor GUI
The main principle used by AutoEQ for producing the equalization function is to invert error curve. Error is the difference between raw microphone data and the compensation (target) curve. If headphone's frequency response is 4 dB below the target at 20 Hz equalization function will have +4 dB boost at 20 Hz. In reality simply inverting the error is not sufficient since measurements and equalization have several problems that need to be addressed, see Technical Challenges for more details.
Results provided in this project currently have all the headphone measurements from
Innerfidelity, Headphone.com,
oratory1990 and Rtings.
Results are organized by source/target/headphone so a Sennheiser HD 650 measured by Innerfidelity and tuned to a
target by SBAF-Serious
would be found in
innerfidelity/sbaf-serious/Sennheiser HD 650.
Multiple measurements of a same heaphone by a same measurement entity are averaged. All different measurements for
averaging have been renamed with snXXX (serial number) or sample X in the end of the name to distinguish from the
averaged data which has no suffixes in the name.
oratory1990 measurements have been done on Gras 43AG and 43AC couples, the same which were used to develop Harman target
responses by Olive et al. and therefore use Harman target responses for the equalization targets. These results are
recommended over all other measurements because of this reason. Harman target data is in the compensation folder.
Innerfidelity and Headphone.com measured headphones have
SBAF-Serious target
only. This is a modified version of Innerfidelity target curve produced by Serious user on Super Best Audio Friends
forum. This curve doesn't have any glaring problems and is quite well balanced overall. Curve was turned into a
compensation for raw microphone data and tilted 0.2 dB / octave brighter. Innerfidelity measurements are recommended
over Headphone.com measurements because SBAF-Serious target was developed for Innerfidelity. SBAF-Serious curve was
modified to be suitable for Headphone.com measurements by
calibrating it. CSV data files for Innerfidelity and
Headphone.com are at innerfidelity/resources/innerfidelity_compensation_sbaf-serious.csv and
headphonecom/resources/headphonecom_compensation_sbaf-serious.csv, respectively.
Rtings measured headphones have frequency response made for this project. This treble average target is using an average of frequency responses of all Rtings measured headphones in the treble range and the Rtings native response below 2500 Hz without bass boost. Three different targets were compared in listening tests and the treble average target was found to sound the best. Other two were the Rtings native target curve and calibrated and uncalibrated versions of SBAF Serious target curve. Rtings uses the same measurement system as Innerfidelity uses so in theory the uncalibrated SBAF Serious target should work similarly with Rtings but listening tests found the treble average target to be slightly better. Rtings have a very informative video about how they are doing the measurements and how did they came up with the target they use.
Innerfidelity 2017 compensation curve is the result of Tyll Hertsens calibrating his measurement head on the Harman
reference listening room and is a significant improvement over the old compensation curve used in PDFs. However 2017
curve seems to underestimate 2 to 5 kHZ region by several dB leading the equalization to boost those frequencies too
much. See the original post
and the sequel
on Innerfidelity for more details. Data can be found in innerfidelity/resources/innerfidelity_compensation_2017.csv
Headphone.com compensation curve is used by Headphone.com with their Frequency Response graphs but this seems to
underestimate treble even more than the 2017 Innerfidelity curve leading to even brighter equalization. Data location:
headphonecom/resources/headphonecom_compensation.csv
None of these targets have bass boost seen in Harman target responses and therefore a +4dB boost was applied for all on-ear headphones, +6dB for in-ear headphones and no boost for earbuds. Harman targets actually ask for about +6dB for on-ears and +10dB for in-ears but since most headphones cannot achieve this with positive gain limited to +6dB a smaller boost was selected. Above 6 to 8kHz data is filtered more heavily to avoid measurement artifacts and no positive gain (boost) is applied. In the upper treble measurements are less reliable and boosting them too much will cause serious problems while having some narrow dips is not a problem at all.
frequency_response.py is the tool used to produce the equalization results from measurement data. There is no
fancy graphical user interface but instead it is used from command line.
- Download AutoEQ zip and exctract to a convenient location. Or just git clone if you know what that means.
- Download and install Python3.6. Python 3.7 is not supported yet. Make sure to check Install Python3 to PATH
- Install virtualenv. Run this on command prompt. Search
cmdin Windows start menu.
pip install virtualenv
- Go to AutoEQ location
cd C:\path\to\AutoEq-master
- Create virtual environment
virtualenv venv
- Activate virtualenv
venv\Scripts\activate
- Install required packages
pip install -r requirements.txt
- Verify installation
python frequency_response.py -H
When coming back at a later time you'll only need to activate virtual environment again
cd C:\path\to\AutoEq-master
venv\Scripts\activate
usage: frequency_response.py [-h] --input_dir INPUT_DIR
[--output_dir OUTPUT_DIR]
[--calibration CALIBRATION]
[--compensation COMPENSATION] [--equalize]
[--parametric_eq] [--max_filters MAX_FILTERS]
[--bass_boost BASS_BOOST]
[--iem_bass_boost IEM_BASS_BOOST] [--tilt TILT]
[--max_gain MAX_GAIN]
[--treble_f_lower TREBLE_F_LOWER]
[--treble_f_upper TREBLE_F_UPPER]
[--treble_max_gain TREBLE_MAX_GAIN]
[--treble_gain_k TREBLE_GAIN_K] [--show_plot]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--input_dir INPUT_DIR
Path to input data directory. Will look for CSV files
in the data directory and recursively in sub-
directories.
--output_dir OUTPUT_DIR
Path to results directory. Will keep the same relative
paths for files foundin input_dir.
--calibration CALIBRATION
File path to CSV containing calibration data. Needed
when using target responsesnot developed for the
source measurement system. See `calibration`
directory.
--compensation COMPENSATION
File path to CSV containing compensation (target)
curve. Compensation is necessary when equalizing
because all input data is raw microphone data. See
"compensation", "innerfidelity/resources" and
"headphonecom/resources".
--equalize Will run equalization if this parameter exists, no
value needed.
--parametric_eq Will produce parametric eq settings if this parameter
exists, no value needed.
--max_filters MAX_FILTERS
Maximum number of filters for parametric EQ. Multiple
cumulative optimization runscan be done by giving
multiple filter counts separated by "+". "5+5" would
create10 filters where the first 5 are usable
independently from the rest 5 and the last5 can only
be used with the first 5. This allows to have muliple
configurationsfor equalizers with different number of
bands available. Not limited by default.
--bass_boost BASS_BOOST
Target gain for sub-bass in dB. Has sigmoid slope down
from 35 Hz to 280 Hz. "--bass_boost" is mutually
exclusive with "--iem_bass_boost".
--iem_bass_boost IEM_BASS_BOOST
Target gain for sub-bass in dB. Has sigmoid slope down
from 25 Hz to 350 Hz. "--iem_bass_boost" is mutually
exclusive with "--bass_boost".
--tilt TILT Target tilt in dB/octave. Positive value (upwards
slope) will result in brighter frequency response and
negative value (downwards slope) will result in darker
frequency response. 1 dB/octave will produce nearly 10
dB difference in desired value between 20 Hz and 20
kHz. Tilt is applied with bass boost and both will
affect the bass gain.
--max_gain MAX_GAIN Maximum positive gain in equalization. Higher max gain
allows to equalize deeper dips in frequency response
but will limit output volume if no analog gain is
available because positive gain requires negative
digital preamp equal to maximum positive gain.
Defaults to 6.0.
--treble_f_lower TREBLE_F_LOWER
Lower bound for transition region between normal and
treble frequencies. Treble frequencies can have
different smoothing, max gain and gain K. Defaults to
6000.0.
--treble_f_upper TREBLE_F_UPPER
Upper bound for transition region between normal and
treble frequencies. Treble frequencies can have
different smoothing, max gain and gain K. Defaults to
8000.0.
--treble_max_gain TREBLE_MAX_GAIN
Maximum positive gain for equalization in treble
region. Defaults to 0.0.
--treble_gain_k TREBLE_GAIN_K
Coefficient for treble gain, affects both positive and
negative gain. Useful for disabling or reducing
equalization power in treble region. Defaults to 1.0.
--show_plot Plot will be shown if this parameter exists, no value
needed.
Equalizing Sennheiser HD 650 and saving results to myresults/HD650:
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="innerfidelity\data\onear\Sennheiser HD 650" --output_dir="myresults\HD650" --compensation="innerfidelity\resources\innerfidelity_compensation_sbaf-serious.csv" --equalize --bass_boost=4 --show_plot
Equalizing Beyerdynamic DT990 without saving results
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="headphonecom\data\onear\Beyerdynamic DT990" --compensation="headphonecom\resources\headphonecom_compensation.csv" --equalize --bass_boost=4 --show_plot
Equalizing Beyerdynamic DT990 to SBAF-Serious target
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="headphonecom\data\onear\Beyerdynamic DT990" --compensation="headphonecom\resources\headphonecom_compensation_sbaf-serious-brighter.csv" --equalize --bass_boost=4 --show_plot
Equalizing all Headphone.com on-ear headphones and saving results to results\onear\sbaf-serious\headphonecom.
There is a lot of headphones and we don't want to inspect all visually so we'll omit --show_plot
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="headphonecom\data\onear" --output_dir="results\headphonecom\sbaf-serious" --compensation="innerfidelity\resources\innerfidelity_compensation_sbaf-serious.csv" --equalize --bass_boost=4
Equalizing Beyerdynamic DT 770 to sound like HiFiMAN HE400S. 80ohm version of DT 770 is only available in Headphone.com measurements and HE400S only in Innerfidelity measurements so we'll use calibration. To make the bass sound the same we'll omit bass boost.
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="headphonecom\data\onear\Beyerdynamic DT770" --output_dir="myresults\Beyerdynamic DT770" --compensation="innerfidelity\data\onear\HiFiMAN HE400S\HiFiMAN HE400S.csv" --calibration="calibration\headphonecom_raw_to_innerfidelity_raw.csv" --equalize --show_plot
Viewing HiFiMAN HE400S raw microphone data
python frequency_response.py --input_dir="innerfidelity\data\onear\HiFiMAN HE400S" --show_plot
Feel free to experiment more.
If data for you headphone cannot be found in this project but you have an image of the frequency response you might be
able to use https://apps.automeris.io/wpd/ to parse the image. You'll have to add
header row to the CSV file. Header row is the first line of the file and must be exactly frequency,raw. The produced
CSV file is the input data not the actual result. Save the file to an empty folder in a convenient location and point
--input_dir to the folder path when running frequency_response.py. For more instructions on the usage of
WebPlotDigitizer see the tutorial video.
AutoEQ has a HTTP server for clients such as graphical user interfaces or web apps. This is the API documentation. Currently only one route /process exists.
Request
JSON request with MIME-type of application/json and data:
- calibration
[float]|strCalibration data. Either name of the calibration curve as string (see below for supported curve names) or list of floats matching frequency data. - compensation
[float]|strCompensation data. Either name of the compensation curve as string (see below for supported curve names) or list of floats matching frequency data. - equalize
boolRun equalization? - parametric_eq
boolOptimize peaking filters for parametric eq? - max_filters
int|[int]Maximum number of peaking filters for filter optimization run. Can be omitted for automatic selection. Can also be a list in which case there will be multiple runs, each building on top of the previous filters. - bass_boost
floatBass boost amount in dB for over-ear headphones. Mutually exclusive withiem_bass_boost. - iem_bass_boost
floatBass boost amount in dB for in-ear headphones. Mutually exclusive withbass_boost. - tilt
floatTarget frequency response tilt in db / octave. - max_gain
floatMaximum positive gain in dB. Higher equalization values will be clipped. - treble_f_lower
floatLower bound for treble transition region. - treble_f_upper
floatUpper boud for treble transition region. - treble_max_gain
floatMaximum gain in treble region. - treble_gain_k
floatGain coefficient in treble region.
Response
JSON response with data:
- equalization
[float]Equalization curve. - equalized_raw
[float]Raw frequency response after equalization. - equalized_smoothed
[float]Smoothed frequency response after equalization. - error
[float]Error curve. - error_smoothed
[float]Smoothed error curve. - filters
[[float]]List of parametric eq peaking filters. Each item contains center frequency (Fc), quality (Q) and gain. - frequency
[float]Frequency data. - max_gains
[float]List of maximum gains for each parametric eq filter group frequency response. - n_filters
[float]List of number of filters in each parametric eq filter group - raw
[float]Raw frequency response. - smoothed
[float]Smoothed frequency response. - target
[float]Target frequency response.
Innerfidelity and Headphone.com have different kind of measurement systems and since there is no any kind of standard calibration for headphone frequency response measurements the data produced by these systems are not directly compatible with each other. Same individual headphone will measure differently in the two systems. This actually applies for all of the existing measurement systems.
To have comparable equalization results and to be able to use all compensation curves for both measurements a calibration was done. Calibration made is not as reliable as a real calibration where a set of reference headphones are measured on both systems and outputs compared but instead a same headphone models but different individual units were used. All headphones with same name were selected from Headphone.com measurement database and Innerfidelity measurement database and results were compared model-wise. Final calibration curve was produced by averaging all the measurement pairs and smoothing the averaged curve. This method is problematic because there are large differences between individual headphones due to manufacturing and placement on the measurement head. Standard deviation is quite high about 5dB at 20Hz but still it's probably closer to truth than not using any calibration at all.
Pictured data is for calibrating Headphone.com measurement to Innerfidelity measurement or in other words estimating how an individual headphone measured by Headphone.com would look like if it was measured by Innerfidelity.
Calibration data is not used as is in the results but instead Innerfidelity SBAF-Serious compensation curve was calibrated to be suitable for Headphone.com measurements. Calibration can be used between Innerfidelity and Headphone.com mainly to make headphones sound like other headphones when both models are from different sources.
Same calibration procedure was done for Innerfidelity and Rtings measurements.
Simply inverting headphone frequency response deviation from target response does not usually produce sufficient results. Some problems are caused by imperfections in measurements, some are reliability issues and some are practical end-user problems. Rtings has a good video on Youtube about measurement system challenges and solutions which is definitely worth checking out. Innerfidelity also has a very educational video on Youtube about measurments and what constitutes as a neutral sound. Main takeoffs are that bass and treble measurements are very inconsistent, neutral sound is not very well defined yet and on-ear headphones have big reliability problems in 8 to 9kHz range due to resonances which move when headphone placement is changed. Harman international has done some solid research into preferred headphone frequency response but since that research was done on a different measurement system the target does not apply directly to Innerfidelity (Summer 2018) and Headphone.com measurements.
There is very little that can be done for fighting bass inconsistencies because the same problems will be there whether equalization is used or not. Headphones simply have different bass responses on different listeners (heads). Therefore bass is taken as is in AutoEQ and equalized as if there was nothing wrong with it. You're mileage may wary. Luckily bass has smaller impact on music and having too much bass (especially sub-bass) doesn't create problems of the same magnitude as having too much treble.
Moving resonances around 8 to 9kHz may cause big problems if not taken into account. Spikes and dips in this range are of great amplitude and very narrow. If one equalizes these spikes and dips according to frequency response measurement in worst case scenario a spike will move in a place of dip when headphone is moved and therefore the spike is amplified significantly leading to very sharp and piercing sound signature. To counter these problems by default AutoEQ uses heavy smoothing and limited positive gain above 6 to 8kHz. This way the equalization will follow a broader trend of the region and will not care so much about narrow spikes and dips. Also positive gain is limited to 0dB as an extra safety measure against amplifying moved spike. Suppressing a narrow dip even further is not an optimal thing to do but in practice has little negative effect on the sound. Both of these measures will also alleviate upper treble measurement inconsistencies above 11 to 12 kHz.
A practical end-user problem is if too high positive gain is allowed which asks for equal amount of negative digital
pre-amp to prevent clipping. This negative preamp will limit maximum volume produced by the system if there is no analog
gain available. If a dedicated headphone amplifier is available or if the motherboard/soundcard can drive the headphones
loud enough even when using high negative preamp larger --max_gain values can be uses. By default --max_gain is set
to +6dB to not to cripple user's volume too much. Max gain will clip the equalization curve which produces sharp kinks
in it. Sharp changes in equalization may produce unwanted equalization artifacts. To counter this AutoEQ rounds the
corners whenever max gain clips the curve.
AutoEQ has an optimizer to fit several peaking filters to the desired equalization curve. Optimization is part heuristic initialization and part mathematical optimization.
In the initialization phase peaks are detected from the target curve and a peaking filter is created to match the peak's height (gain) and location (frequency). This way the optimizer finds suitable number of filters to optimize. If bass region has no peaks and therefore is missing filters entirely, maximum of two filters will be added at 20 Hz and 60 Hz.
A way to limit the number of filters used is provided with max_filters parameter. If there are too many filters after
initialization, some filters are removed. First filters with small gain (< 0.2 dB and < 0.33 dB) are removed. If there are too
many filters after reduction of small gain filters, nearby filters are attempted to merge. Merged filter will be in the
mid point of the merged filters. If merging filters did not reduce the count enough, smallest filters are removed until
count matches maximum allowed number of filters. Image below shows initialization for 1More MK801 headphone. Red dots
are the peaks of filters before reduction and green dots are the peaks after reduction.
Equalization target and initial peak filters for optimization before and after filter number limitation
After suitable number of filters have been achieved and filter center frequencies and gains have been set to appropriate values a mathematical optimization is performed to fit sum frequency response of all filters to match as close as possible the desired curve. Optimization is based on gradient descent and will attempt to minimize mean squared error between the sum frequency response of the filters and the target. When improvements in the error are getting too small to make a practical difference the optimization is stopped. Animation below shows progress from the initialization to a close finished curve.
Optimization of parametric eq filters (click to play)
Below is the end result of optimizing only 5 peaking filters to equalization curve of 1More MK801 headphone. Parametric eq curve deviates from the fine equalization curve in some points but all in all follows the target surprisingly well. The two equalization curves have hardly audible difference. Some headphones are not as easy to equalize properly with limited number of bands because highly erratic curves are impossible to be estimated with only a few peaking filters.
1More MK801 with parametric equalization
Measurement data for this project was obtained by crawling Innerfidelity, Headphone.com, oratory1990 and Rtings
databases. For Innerfidelity
that means downloading all PDFs, turning them into images with Ghostscript, parsing images with Python PIL package and
saving the numerical data. Numerical data obtained this way is an average of the blue and red curves in the frequency
response. These curves have been compensated with the old compensation curve which does not match human perception at
all. The old compensation curve was then applied in inverse to turn the compensated data into raw microphone data. This
raw microphone data is stored in innerfidelity/data. On-ear, in-ear and ear-bud data is separated because they ask for
different AutoEQ parameters.
Headphone.com measurements were downloaded as images, both raw and compensated data. Images were parsed into numerical
format and raw data saved to headphonecom/data. Both datas were used to obtain Headphone.com compensation curve by
calculating differences between raw and compensated data.
oratory1990 data processing is similar to Innerfidelity because oratory1990 measurements are distributed as PDFs. Compensation curves used for oratory1990 measurements are the Harman target curves.
Rtings measurements were obtained in a similar fashion as the Headphone.com measurements were. Two new compensation curves were developed in addition to the native curve used by Rtings in their measurement reports.
Data processing tools are not meant as a user friendly and robust software but instead to be able to be ran once to obtain the raw data.
Contributions are more than welcome.
- New oratory1990 measurements
- Crinacle measurements for IEMs
- Target response for old measurements
- Full pipeline for new measurements
- Impulse responses
- Usound target
- Rtings in server.py
- Calibrations to Headphone.com
- Compensation functions
- Head-fi measurements
- Full pipeline
- Reference audio analyzer measurements
- Use compensated data directly
- Full pipeline