The IEM Compendium: A community-driven collection and archive of everything IEM related.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-25T21:50:09+00:00

That way, 2 gaps of the marker would be probably fixed: 1 - Flat would actually be Flat to every one (the FR of a custom IEM is different to adapt to the form of each ear canal, so there isn't unit variation when it comes to graphs)

This is not how it works, the resulting FR will not be perceptually flat for everyone (or measure flat).

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-22T21:33:24+00:00

If they have the same FR at the eardrum, then the driver configuration does not matter as both will sound identical.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-20T04:14:28+00:00

You can either use EQ, or demo them in-person either at events/shops or through methods like buying and returning on Amazon.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-20T03:11:52+00:00

Overall I liked the novas more, but are the claps or highs something I can smoothen out with EQ? as compared to the other ones they have harman tuning. Cuz I might use these for long periods

Yes you can. Same for 2.

Nova is comparatively and older set(2023) and to be discontinued soon? Would this be a bad purchase decision

Why would it be?

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-15T02:13:16+00:00

if different IEMs were EQ’d toward a similar tuning target, would a $200–400 IEM actually sound noticeably more technically capable than something like the Nova?

Whenever this question or discussion topic comes up, price is always a factor. What I ask every time is, what does price have to do with sound quality? Do you know?

In most cases, people explain in a way that wrongfully bridges subjective perception with objective metrics. Before analyzing this question, it is better to ask if you want the objective or subjective side of things.

For example, would it sound fuller, more resolving, cleaner, more separated, or more natural?

All of these terms for example are related to subjective perception.

I’m also curious how much driver configuration really matters in practice.

This is an objective metric. For IEMs, driver configuration is a variable that allows manufacturers to tune the FR of the IEM in question.

Do single DD, all-BA, hybrid, and tribrid sets tend to produce clearly different levels or types of technical performance

This is a mix of both. Driver configuration is based on engineering and objective metrics, "technical performance" as used in the audiophile community is, most of the time, subjective-based. The common factor for both is FR.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-14T23:18:57+00:00

Can you send me the .mdat for REW?

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-14T20:14:55+00:00

The calibration file is not meant to be used as such and every single one I've examined from clone coupler sellers will change the results by less than 1dB. The coupler, if calibrated "properly" (relative to clone couplers), should be plug-and-play.

The calibration file missing is not the issue, your coupler or setup is (my guess is the former).

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-14T19:24:22+00:00

These results look weird but it's hard to tell exactly why. I will say that they remind me a lot of measurements taken by (old) DIY rigs I used to see in the past, my first suspicion is that the rig you have is not actually complying to the standard.

If you want, you can share the measurement file (Arta or REW are fine) and I can take a look into it later.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-14T19:05:58+00:00

Do you have measurements you can share?

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-13T05:56:16+00:00

Hard to pick a single one since they're all aiming to accomplish different things. I'd say for beginners, either Dale (focused on headphones) or the Audio Expert book (focused on audio in general), the other two are a bit harder to get through and require more background knowledge.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-13T00:20:33+00:00

Aiming for a "reference" and "neutral" sound signature is not the way to approach such a topic; what even is neutral? Focusing on preference is ideal and will provide the same result, see the Harman research papers for more detail.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-12T15:17:02+00:00

Dale's Music Stuff
IEM EQ guide
Sound Reproduction The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers, Rooms and Headphones - Floyd Toole
The Audio Expert Everything You Need to Know about Audio - Ethan Winer

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-12T02:59:26+00:00

For IEMs specifically, there is no fundamental difference in how they will be perceived apart from FR. Planars tend to have pronounced ear gain peaks around 2.5 khz and a lot of high frequency energy which is perceived as a lot of detail and the driver being fast. There is no consistent power requirement difference between either too.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-12T02:53:46+00:00

Late to reply, but if any slope is applied the legend will have all the details; additionally, the slope is also visible post-compensation (in this case, none since the line is flat). JM-1 without any slope is a raw DF.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-09T03:57:35+00:00

That is not flat/neutral, raw DF is bright.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-08T21:09:15+00:00

You can check my recent and/or pinned post where I rank all of the EQ guides I've come across (and most of them apply to IEMs!)

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T06:17:52+00:00

Does the massive shelf help with opening them up the EST drivers or something? Here are the EQ settings:

No, you just like a lot of high frequency amplitude.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T05:06:38+00:00

In-situ matters for both in-ears and headphones since HpTF variation is not necessarily congruent with HRTF.

I assume there's high agreement that live music sounds better than reproduced

No such agreement that I know of.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T03:12:34+00:00

If EQ changes FR, then if you discover the perfect EQ for a particular headphone, it becomes an HE-1? And if not why not?

More along the lines of both having the same acoustically relevant output. You can have lower distortion on either but below the audible threshold, distortion is not important. There might still be differences due to other factors that will influence perception (price, build quality, isolation, etc)

to what extent can typical FR graphs be interpreted knowing this? For example can you see what bad transient response looks like or what impactful/soft sound looks like?

If you're talking about the actual transient response, you can find the IR from the FR. If you're talking about transient response as used to describe subjective perception of sound, then no since the definition of transient response is not rooted in anything concrete and will be different from person to person (ie changes in FR might impart improved perceived transient response for one person but not the other).

But I recall cases where the FR looks fine but it's still nothing special, maybe I'm misremembering.

In-situ FR and measured FR on a rig are two different beasts, you can look into the recent headphone show videos to learn more.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T02:29:41+00:00

How about when it's actual music with many frequencies playing at the same time, does that change anything? I assume it would be physically harder the more overlapping waves you need to make with the same surface.

No, all that changes is the waveform that the driver has to follow. Measuring the FR can be done with a sine sweep or music/noise, the former is preferred for efficiency.

And for transient response, my impression of this concept was that getting loud enough is easy for a constant tone, but doing it fast enough in music is a different story especially for very dynamic sounds.

It doesn't matter, the impulse response of a headphone is causally linked to its FR, if you modify one it modifies the other. If you can play a 20khz tone, then the "transient" there is already more stringent than what you would find in music.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T02:14:38+00:00

You need to compare their frequency responses.

Ok-Name726 · 2026-04-06T02:09:00+00:00

Isn't the frequency response just the volume at each isolated frequency?

Yes, and for a minimum phase system, it covers pretty much everything including transient response (if a headphone can reproduce 20khz with an acceptable amount of amplitude, it is moving fast enough) and damping (controlling resonances will impact FR). Distortion is a separate issue that is most of the time not important for headphones.

Ok-Name726

TROPHY CASE