Wish Headphone-specific EQ

Marco C.

Member
every headphone I used on my fm3 sounds too bright in comparison to any speakers (including frfr) attached to out1. The headphone jack Would greatly benefit from a specific eq to adapt its sound: as it is now I have not been able to enjoy it. Tried in-ear monitors of different brands, headphones from Akg, grado, sennheiser but it Is almost like if the cab sim is off (and it is not).
thank you, all the rest is great for me!!!
 
What kind of tones are you usually using? I have been 95% headphone as of late and could share some preset that I use that work for me. I agree with the extra bright eq in headphones vs frfr or monitors, but that’s not different than what you get with an actual mic’s cabinet. For what it’s worth, nothing on the market can beat the Fractal stuff for headphone enjoyment.
 
What kind of tones are you usually using? I have been 95% headphone as of late and could share some preset that I use that work for me. I agree with the extra bright eq in headphones vs frfr or monitors, but that’s not different than what you get with an actual mic’s cabinet. For what it’s worth, nothing on the market can beat the Fractal stuff for headphone enjoyment.
The extra-brightness is noticeable on every preset, mostly on Fender twin and double and clean presets in general, it is perhaps less of a problem (but far from ideal) in crunch tones while lead tones are again problematic. I solve it by adjusting specifically the eq of output1, but then I need to re-adjust the output1 eq each time I switch from headphone to external monitors. Output 1 and 2 have no channels to store a setting of the eq .....
I pair the FM3 with external near field monitors on out1 L&R, with an frfr cab I am testing in out2 L and with headphones in the headphone plug.
FM3 cleverly turns speakers off when I plug in the headphone, which means it does know headphones are connected: it could then be clever and switch output1 to the headphone eq automatically then ... ... I agree other products are totally unusable (for me) with headphones and FM3 is better, but better does not mean necessarily good enough for everyone. It could be much better with a specific eq.
 
Hmmm. I would say that the headphone sound is most likely more accurate. And your speakers (or more likely your room) have been lying to you??

How loud do you listen to the speakers vs the headphones?
 
Ops ...... no, it does not! When using speakers volume knob on fm3 is at max, while with headphone it is at 1/3 ..... so speakers are so quiet when headphone is on that nobody notices they are also on .... including me! sorry. Then if FM3 does not know what out1 is used solution could be to have 2 eq settings for out1 to be manually selected.
 
Hmmm. I would say that the headphone sound is most likely more accurate. And your speakers (or more likely your room) have been lying to you??

How loud do you listen to the speakers vs the headphones?
I thought this was the case, as I have a pair of very small EVE speakers that are not loud at all, while headphone volumes are higher but I found out - while testing a loud frfr cabinet with 600watts (Jad&Freer Paradigma) connected to out1 - that the sound is really good any volume and far away from the headphone with simitar perceived sound pressure. As the headphone is quite good in any other listening experience (Grado sr325e) and same issue is with the extra-flat Akg 550 or with several different in-ear monitors I tried to work with an eq block before out1 and improved a lot the result. Putting a block in each preset is not practical. Perhaps my problem is that I have never played with in-ear monitors before and when playing with headphones I was only using headphones on that setup, sound was built for it.
 
One thing I learned is that headphone speakers, unlike guitar speaker, sound worse the more you you crank them. I'm very happy with my sound, but if I turn up the volume anywhere near the volume I listen to music to (very loud), my presets go to hell. I use Bowers & Wilkens cans.
 
I use AKG K240's which sound great to me. Not a top shelf set of cans to say the least, but they sound good to me. T+hey sound very similar to my FRFR cab. FWIW, most of my work is on bass, so it may be different for you 6 stringers. As a hack guitarist, the guitar sounds great through my cans.
 
One thing I learned is that headphone speakers, unlike guitar speaker, sound worse the more you you crank them. I'm very happy with my sound, but if I turn up the volume anywhere near the volume I listen to music to (very loud), my presets go to hell. I use Bowers & Wilkens cans.
That might be Fletcher Munson as opposed to the speakers...
 
I think in some cases headphones will sound more to someone's liking than speakers in a room. First off headphones generally do not produce the same bass response as speakers in a room. They tend to sound brighter and have more punch in the mid to high frequencies, almost like there is a compressor in the chain. Full range speakers in a room may have the bottom end but may not be sounding to tight for various reasons incl placement, room acoustics and the speakers themselves. If you listen to the speakers up close you might hear less of a difference. But the drivers in full range speakers are definitely going to react differently to dynamic response vs the headphone drivers. As stated by others, increasing the volume in room speakers could come closer to the headphone experience. However that depends somewhat on your room acoustics, speaker placement and your listening position etc. Then there is the stereo aspect of headphones vs room monitors. Unless you have a fantastic room and speaker arrangement and listen in a precise location you are not going to get the same stereo experience as the headphones. I like and play more or less clean tones (fenderish) sometimes with reverb or delay and it generally sounds better to me in a decent pair of headphones vs my room speakers. But with some careful adjustments in the fractal unit preset(s) and external speaker/room setup I can get a bit closer to the headphone sound.
 
+1

would love a separate eq for headphones
would like the option to mute other outputs when headphones plugged in
 
While I would like that as well, I don't think it's possible to do. Headphones are always hardwired to output 1 so whatever EQ is applied to output one applies to headphones as well.

The real solution is the already suggested presets for output EQ. Then you can have a "monitor EQ", "headphones EQ" etc. I now use the parametric EQ as my monitor EQ and swap to graphic EQ which is setup for headphones.
 
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