Audeze LCD-X (2021) with or without EQ?

[ore_terra]

I'm no specialist but I'd say extremely low distortion, good bass extension, detailed mids and highs (other than the response being flat-ish or at least flatter than the average)

and, being planar, low impedance which makes them very easy to drive (you don't need a powerful headphone amp)

The benefit of using EQ for me is that there is much less tonal difference between phones and speakers, and also that recorded instruments do sound, to me, more like the real thing with EQ than without.

This is why I use Sonarworks on my headphones.

Since I'm 90% on headphones now, I ended up doing the opposite: using Sound ID to make my monitors sound closer to my headphones

[Guitarking]

Why LCD-X is good for mixing: could it have to do something with that it's tuned according to the Fletcher-Munson curve? And maybe the fact that some people miss the fun factor has something to do with it no being tuned according to the Harman curve?

Would the Reveal+ eq curve introduce a more Harman like eq-curve?

[ore_terra]

What’s that reveal+ thing?

[Guitarking]

It is Audezes own eq correction curve

[Wonks]

Why LCD-X is good for mixing: could it have to do something with that it's tuned according to the Fletcher-Munson curve? And maybe the fact that some people miss the fun factor has something to do with it no being tuned according to the Harman curve?

Would the Reveal+ eq curve introduce a more Harman like eq-curve?

You don't tune headphones for Fletcher-Munson curves, at least not foe mixing on or accurate listening. If you did that, you end up with a big smile curve EQ, which means your mixes would then end up bass and treble heavy.

Maybe you've read something like this review with frequency response measurements. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/foru ... one.25271/

If those measurements are anything near accurate (there is no common/standard test method for headphones), then they are definitely not flat. In fact they don't look very good at all to me!

But that's an audiophile web site, where science and logic goes out the window. You do not ever want a Fletcher-Munson style curve for the frequency response if you want to hear sounds accurately. It might be nice for listening (though I wouldn't like it as it would be too exaggerated for me) and I think the reviewer has totally misunderstood the whole F-M curve thing.

You don't listen to a piano or an orchestra or a band with a F-M curve matching EQ somehow superimposed on your ears. You hear it flat. It's how we are used to listening to things and our brain compensates.

The only time you might want to invoke equal-loudness EQ contours for hearing is if listening at very low volume, when you might want to use the difference between say the 50dB SPL line and the 80dB SPL line to construct a corrective curve to get the response that we hear at louder volumes (basically the loudness button on some hi-fi amps).

[tea for two]

Thanks everyone.
I was thinking. How about using no eq when mixing? And how about using some eq when using them for fun listening. Like having 2 headphones. Or would that not give me the opportunity to get to know them?

For me, as long as you mix master on LCD-X without EQ, becoming used to its sound characteristics, thereafter it should be fine to listen back to your mix mastered completed pieces on same LCD-X EQed to sound similar as somewhat hyped Hifi sound of Audeze EL8 open back.

My own stuff I've mixed on K712 sounded a bit wow on Audeze EL8 open back due to EL8 open back being a somewhat hyped Hifi sound to my ears.

[James Perrett]

One of the reasons I like the HD600s is that they sound like my monitors with no additional eq.