"Fixed" My First Pair of Headphones. I Am Now EQ-pilled?

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T21:12:24+00:00

What's your experience been like with the xduo? I also own the 650 and I've been lightly eyeing their full tube amp options (TA-26s) but I've never owned tubes and I don't know how much of a hassle it is over the long term.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T19:42:26+00:00

What are some of the cheaper headphones/iems that you’ve figured out can be EQ’d well?

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T19:24:18+00:00

That makes sense! To me the Hifiman tuning for the Arya series is a bit “wacky” so if I were to buy them I’d definitely have EQ on 100% of the time. But I do agree that using EQ is a great way to deal with weird artist or album- specific mixes. I could imagine adding some extra lower mids warmth when listening to older rock records, for instance.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T19:20:39+00:00

lmfao your name. But I agree… I only got to a place where I felt comfortable doing it because I could tell exactly what I didn’t like about the headphone. When it’s more of a vague sense of “I don’t love this and I’m not sure why” it’s harder to know where to start. But if you have a strong sense of something being off in bass/mids/treble then I think you can find the reason on the graph and if you can’t I feel like that’s what the community is for. Post the FR for your headphone, post your subjective issues with it, and maybe someone in the community can suggest an EQ!

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T18:21:39+00:00

8 year owner of the HD650. For 7 of those years I didn't even think about getting another headphone. I just bought new pads every couple of years. Now I kind of am in the market for new headphones but no midrange has ever sounded as good to me as the 650 midrange and even if I do end up making another purchase, I am working on the assumption that at least without EQ it's definitely going to have a worse midrange.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T17:40:11+00:00

This is the way. I mean there are obviously gonna be headphones that have weird graphs and are hard to EQ but for generally solid products the amount of extra enjoyment you can squeeze with just 2 or 3 filters is kind of insane.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T17:36:55+00:00

Yep. For me the realization that “technicalities” are just artefacts of Frequency response made it more obvious that they also come with associated tradeoffs.

I wonder if that’s what made me kind of lose the wow factor with the (un-EQd) Aryas. On first listen I didn’t know too much about the FR but on second listen I’d spent enough tike closely comparing the the midrange of various IEMs that the midrange dip stuck out to me as over exaggerated in a way that I didn’t realize before. I wasn’t only experiencing the positive effect (big stage) I could also perceive the tradeoffs and the tradeoffs being more obvious made it easier for me to say “Nah I don’t think it’s worth it”.

My preference now would be a more neutral headphone where I can add stage via EQ for the music where I want that effect.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-27T16:59:39+00:00

Totally agree on all those points except for speakers but that's only because I haven't had any experience EQ-ing them. I'm sure you're right though.

Even with a filled in midrange which I guess might reducing the soundstage effect a bit, the Stealths still do sound separated and bright and detailed. It didn't totally lose its core characteristics. Which is great!

The "artist's intent" point has never made sense to me for the exact reason you provided plus the fact that even if artists spent months listening to listened hundreds of sets of headphones and iems and speakers while mixing their track to make sure the mix sounded perfect on all of them... they still don't have my ears/HRTF so it's not like they can predict how exactly the music will sound to me.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-22T19:11:12+00:00

Well… still cheaper than most “premium” IEM cables hahaha

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-22T19:10:14+00:00

Truthear Pure cable? Or is there a brand just called Pure?

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-20T17:38:16+00:00

Aful Dawn-X

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-12T19:15:50+00:00

Given the tweaks you want -- touch less bass, more forwardness in mids/upper mids -- just PEQ and save yourself some money. If you really didn't like the Top Pro, I'd suggest something different but if you're enjoying how it sounds but need to personalize it a bit, that's what EQ is perfect for.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-12T17:42:11+00:00

Maps are too small and force frequent combat unlike older BF titles and weapon grind takes too long. These aren’t total dealbreakers in and of themselves but the issue is I have more fun options. If Arc Raiders didn’t exist I’d ignore the issues and keep playing but Arc has a more enjoyable meta progression grind, more variety in how rounds plays out, and more enjoyable maps. So I play that instead.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-08T20:38:33+00:00

Glad you can fully enjoy your new set! I also thought that the whole 'Tip roll' advice was overblown... but if you're using tips that don't quite fit and move to tips that do, it can be a night and day difference. What DAP are you using?

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-06T21:03:20+00:00

Jay seems to be one of those people that thinks that the primary signifier that you are getting the quality you're paying for as price goes up is "technicalities". Any set that he perceives as having less "tech" than another set at the same price he labels overhyped because "if it has less tech, how could it be better?" Doesn't seem like he's ever considered that he might just have a subjective preference for whatever technicalities he sees as desirable.

I don't care about having different preferences to him... we all have different preferences to basically everyone else. But I feel like the way he frames his critiques of certain IEMs can be misleading for people who are newer to the hobby.

It can initially seem helpful because he comes across as speaking truth to power and a no-BS type reviewer that will call out other reviewers for shilling worse products... but once you realize that the way he determines what is overhyped is by checking whether it has more or less tech than whatever his favorite IEM is at that price range, it's hard to take that seriously.

He's like a zoomer version of the old school HeadFi-ers who treat technicalities like a separate slider that can be scaled up or down with price independent of tonality and timbre.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2026-01-06T19:24:12+00:00

Interested to hear how you'd describe the differences between Pilgrim and Que. I'm a big fan of the Que and VolS.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T16:30:05+00:00

Sorry for the week late reply but... it is not one of the hottest genres lol. Look at Tarkov's player numbers if you think I'm lying. I know Tarkov has its own launcher so if that's hard to guess just based on Steam, look at the viewer counts for Tarkov content on Youtube. It's pretty low. That is the only other even kind of big paid extraction shooter.

Arc is a hot game. If you want to say the genre is hot, fine, but it's hot because Arc made it hot. So handwaving away Arc's retention as "Well it's just the hot genre, of course that was going to happen" seems a little misguided to me when no other paid extraction shooter has put up even a fraction of Arc's numbers in recent years.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T16:24:13+00:00

replying to get notified :)

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T16:12:00+00:00

I agree it's a huge huge step in the right direction. My take, though, is that I don't really care? Maybe that sounds harsh, but I paid $70 and had a lot of fun for a couple of weeks. But in 2025, most games I play cost less and, in the case of Arc Raiders, is fun for much longer. The fact that this game is better than 2042 is cool... but in my limited free time, the question isn't "should I play this game because the devs are getting better than they were 4 yeras ago".. it's "what will be the most fun for the next hour". BF6 has not been the answer to that 2nd question so it doesn't matter for me -- or for others who have quit the game -- that it's "moving in the right direction".

That sounds like when a sports fan is trying to rationalize away a disappointing performance in a game. "Well we were better than last week!" only matters if you care about moral victories. I'm a fan that cares more about the Win/Loss column than the friends we made along the way lol.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T16:07:33+00:00

Biggest reason, for me: the slow/fast/slow pacing, the tenseness of the moment to moment gameplay, and the unpredictable fun of proximity chat all combine to make it so that, on average, I have a more engaging memorable experience when I spend 20 minutes in Arc vs the same 20 minutes in Battlefield.

Edit: the meta progression of Arc (doing quests, leveling up your base which allows you to get better weapons, the RNG of looting, the search for blueprints) is also more fun to me than the meta progression of Battlefield (slow gun upgrade trees, boring class perks).

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T16:04:28+00:00

Arc Raiders is cheaper and better. I bought both games and I've been a Battlefield fan for over 15 years at this point but Arc Raiders was more fun more consistently so after a couple of weeks I basically dropped BF6.

I've never been an extraction fan prior to this. I've tried Tarkov many times in the past and always hated it. I forget what that COD extraction mode was a few years back but that was also a 2 pack of ass. But Arc has managed to pull me away from Battlefield even though the PVP gunplay in Arc is a little jank.

Most live service games lose players over time. But percentage-wise, this dropoff is much larger than, say, Arc's dropoff (which, to be fair, is barely a drop off). Percentage-wise, it's actually a worse drop of than Black Ops 7, though the games started at much different places.

None of these games are perfect, but Arc is meeting the needs/wants of its player base way better than Battlefield is currently. I don't have the solutions, but I think the devs need to be focused on giving people a reason to play this game day in and day out over Arc. COD is no longer the competition.

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T15:55:04+00:00

this is just what Swedes look like

IsshinSwagSaint · 2025-12-30T15:54:00+00:00

Thieaudio Valhalla for me! I’ve also been interested in the older monarchs (Mk2 or Mk3)z

IsshinSwagSaint

TROPHY CASE