Not so happy with headphones

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Hi, I'm yet on trial version and I setup the software using the sonarworks measurement microphone in my room, and I have to say that my m-audio nearfield speakers came to life with the flat target freq response applied. Verry happy with that.

I also have KRK 8400 and Senheiser HD599 cans, so I applied their general profile provided from the software, but I have to say that the listening experience doesn't provide the same enhancement in quality that I feel with the speakers. With both the headphones with calibration enabled the sound gets boxier, unpleaseant, with upper mids bump not flat sounding at all. So I pretty much I enjoy them better with bypass calibration! Or at least I can find a good compromise by setting the dry/wet at like 40%.

I know that these are not individally calibrated headphones, so my question is if that behaviour is normal or if there's something I can do to maximize my headphones listening experience.

Thank you.

1 comment

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Hi Paolo,

Thanks for your post!

Great to hear about your experience with calibrating the speakers, thanks for sharing! 

Regarding the headphones, you may want to allow your ears some time to adjust to the calibration if you're not used to working with the average profile yet. I can recommend giving the headphones a few tries with the calibration enabled and listen to some audio, work on your mixes, I'm sure you will become more adjusted to how they sound. In addition, the accuracy for speaker calibration is ±0.9 dB, while the AVG headphone profiles are ±3 dB accurate. The average headphone calibration profiles are average summaries from several different units measured and tested (even the same model headphones will differ pair to pair in frequency response). It is likely that you own a pair that is not so close to the average measurement, but it should still be within our claimed accuracy. For ultimate accuracy, I do recommend considering getting your headphones individually calibrated as the calibration is specifically tailored for your individual pair of headphones (the accuracy for individual calibration is ± 0.9dB).

For the average headphone calibration, as you've already mentioned, you can take advantage of the Dry/Wet setting and adjust it to your preference. Some users may find the transition from uncalibrated to calibrated sound too hard on their ears and adjusting this setting allows you to utilize a gradual adjustment. 


I also wanted to share a headphone review we've done for the KRK 8400 model if you're interested, check it out here: KRK KNS8400 Studio Headphone Review (it covers topics such as comfort, sound, and performance with our calibration).

Let us know how it goes after spending some time with the headphones :) 

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