rhalf t1_isu77kf wrote on October 18, 2022 at 7:00 PM

Yes, EQ can affect the dynamic range. Quite typical, especially for weaklings like single BA IEMS. It's generally adviced to be delicate with it. If you add 10dB of bass boost, then don't expect to come out of it without significant tradeoff. There is a reason headphones and speakers are tuned to roll off down low.

I think you need a perspective.
Headphone FRs vary *wildly*. The question that I'd ask you is how much influence do you think the engineer has over driver tuning? I can tell you, not much. Harman Target headphones are rare because it's not an easy target to reach. Earphones and headphones are quite sensitive to tiny changes in acoustic impedance. With loudspeakers it's easier because you have all the space and mass in the world to do it. You can use multiple drivers and strap even the wildest crossover to them, with a notch filter on every peak. Now go see how you do it with a tiny headphone driver. Not to mention taking measurements of speakers is a breeze compared to headphones.
Unsurprisingly many classic headphones that are sometimes still in production predate the Harman Target and so were intended to hit diffuse field tuning (like a loudspeaker).

Meanwhile the differences between human anatomies are generally subtle.

goldfish_memories t1_isxalcr wrote on October 19, 2022 at 11:42 AM

If you apply a EQ filter of 10db gain, then you should set a pre amp of -10db to avoid clipping. But then you'll obviously need to boost the volume to achieve the same perceived loudness, which might cause increased distortion or you amp not having enough power for the whole dynamic range. Though I doubt one can accurately quantify "macrodynamics" claimed by you/OP

rhalf t1_isxcb8s wrote on October 19, 2022 at 11:59 AM

I didn't claim "macrodynamics", but dynamic range and of course I need to add increase of compression, which is inevitable if you force any transducer into more excursion. Since the driver is operating outside of it's optimal range, you may notice loss in accuracy. This has always been a problem with headphones. They use single drivers, which means that if you mess with the bass, you decrease fidelity in the upper range. There's no way around it. You will loose macrodynamics, as you called it, because every driver compresses the more, the further away it's pushed outside of it's mechanical center.

So to sum up, increase in nonlinearities from using EQ is inevitable, especially with boosting bass. This is especially propnounced in single driver headphones, because it affects broader range, including the region of highest hearing sensitivity. So using EQ is always a matter of tradeoffs and weighing desired and undesired audible outcome.I personally listen at low volume so I like EQ, any compression from it is not noticeable in regular use, but I can see how people can have issues with their equipment.