iTunes Tip: The "Perfect" equalizer setting

Whatever +3 or +11 means, I get a good sound from imitating the shown screenshot. (What do you mean by +11 ? There are only 9 lines in the iTunes EQ...).

I just hope I won't blow my fine Harman/Kardon speakers right out of my Laptop ;-)

Thanks! The sound is much improved indeed.

At first I was making a different eq setting for every song in my itunes, but I realized that alot of them were exactly the same, but now I have like 25 different custom eq settings, I'd try this, but I think my system works just fine :)

From 0 to +12 there are 4 lines. If you divide each 12/4 = 3, therefore each space accounts for 3 dBs.

I've tried a lot of different EQ setups in WinAmp and found one that makes literally ALL of my music sound better (and this is over 2 sets of speakers and severl headphones from crapy to medium grade): Rock. The rock preset always makes everything sound better, no matter what. Maybe it's just my ears, but it does it for me on my MP3 player as well.

We need someone to do the same research for Winamp.

PS - My best preset EQ is Laptop/Headphones, which is what I'm using. The rock setting has too much bass for these lappy speakers.

Hip-hop on iPod headphones with iPod = best for any genre i've found.

Not too bassy to fuzz and not too high to crackle, yet clear and perfect when loud.

This one definitely made my el-cheapo Boston Acoustics sound better.

the one at the top of this page is definately closer to rock than hiphop

and it shouldnt matter if u using winamp, although i like a more curved setup, so the middle doesnt lose out too much

OK, I am a Audio Recording Engineer ( 17 years in business ) and I would like to take a few minutes of your time to explain what is happening in this "Perfect EQ"

First, an equalizer used for playback is designed for 2 things.

Primarily it was designed to compensate for the inadequacies of the playback speakers and also the problems with the acoustics of the physical room those speakers are in. Knowing that, an equalizer setup that propperly calibrates your speakers to your room would only need to be changed when either the speakers or room changed, not when the song changes.

With that being said... most hardware equalizers are sold to people who like lights and buttons and knobs and enjoy fiddling with music, which adds interactivity. That is the EQ's second function, I call it the WOW factor, whether used propperly to calibrate a room or not, people DO ENJOY INTRACTING with MUSIC via the eq.

Now, a professional opinion of the actual EQ setting published above.

I notice one glarring problem, all of the frequency faders / sliders are set to boost a given frequency. This, in the long run, is simply turning up the volume. And alot of your positive feedback is a direct result of the positive jump in vloume. The best way to test a EQ curve would be to compensate for this level boost by having a master output gain at the end of the EQ chain, which ITunes does not have.

A propper EQ setup will have primarily cuts to correct for problems for 2 reasons.

First, our ears are used to hearing frequencies cut ( wether it is caused by our head turning away from a audio source or as simple as a door closing ) even when we have a stocking cap on in the winter, our brains compensate for the loss of high frequencies and the human voice or other audio is still recognized as it should be.

Second, when you go into boost mode, you have a bigger likelyhood of introducing distortion. In the digital world, you have a maximum operating level of 0db, once that level is eclipsed, you get a distortion known as clipping. Modern Pop, Rock and Country Music is espescially a problem, since most of the recordings have very little headroom ( decibels remaining before clipping digital zero ). Thus, any boost EQ is going to start clipping almost imediately. Analog EQ sets up a whole new set of distortion problems when in boost mode, but since we are talking ITunes, I will not bother with the details.

This same EQ could sound even better if the entire curve moved down the scale to include some boost and cut. Mathematically, you would need to move all sliders - 7db from the original EQ curve. Therefore the new numbers would be
-4 , -1 , +2 , 0 , -1 , -2 , 0 , +2 , +4
The only thing I notice is that most cheapy PC speakers need a bit of help with bass. If necessary, try moving the 64Hz fader to zero or +1 or +2.
Most PC speakers arent going to do much of anything with 32Hz, so leave it alone.

Now, with all of the above known as facts, you can toss most of it away knowing that HUNDREDS of very creative and succesful records have been produced that ignore plenty of what is known about the human ear, distortion and perception of sound.

Bottom line - If it sounds good and makes you feel good, it is good ! If it doesent sound good, season to taste.

Just one thing to make absolute sure of. Please be aware of listening to loud for too long!

You wouldnt want to loose the one thing on your body that provides you with AURAL PLEASURE !

Kyle

I can't even seem to FIND the EQ settings in iTunes 5.0 (WIN).

And I had a good laugh after reading the first reader comment...the question about how it could go to 11 made me think of Spinal Tap :-)

Talk about seeing the forest for the trees...really should have noticed the equalizer button on a rather stark interface..duh. Maybe it's just that I'm in the same school with regard to EQ's...pretty play things. Thanks.