EQs I particularly like on the Grado SR325x
A few EQ settings I like on the Grado SR325x, documented in case anyone needs them. These profiles tend to go more bright while trying to keep some sub-bass and at least keep it tight enough. I use Radioform to do EQ out of my Mac (10-band EQ)
You like Grados?
Yeah, I do, unfortunately. Crazy that an opinionated person likes opinionated headphones, it’s almost like a match made in heaven or something
Just kidding, they’re pretty good cans and they don’t really sound like other cans on the market, and I’ve been a hater of the V-curve for a while. I want to hear vocals! I don’t need to hear oodles of bass (I also have a bass sensitivity, but not a treble sensitivity, which is the opposite of a lot of people)
A lot of these are AutoEQ settings you must plug in when selecting the Harman over-ear 2018 target. Make sure to NOT forget the preamp setting!! many of these have a max gain of either +8 or +10 dB to prevent clipping
G-pads:
I try to get a bit more bass but make sure the mids/treble aren’t too piercing, because G pads will hurt your ear!
AutoEQ on +6.5 dB bass boost and -3.5 dB treble boost, while tilting either up to 0.4 dB/oct or 0.5 dB/oct is pretty nice, you get a nice bass rolloff but keep the treble alive
Sometimes you can go as high as +7.5 bass and -3.5 treble with a 0.4/0.5 tilt (8 dB gain) but it depends on the song
One profile I like is default AutoEQ settings, +4 dB bass boost, but I lowered the 6.2 kHz slider to +2 dB just to take off some shrill at the high end
If you listen to 2010s EDM, +3.9 dB on a 150 Hz low shelf w/ Q = 0.7, then a -2.0 dB at 3 kHz peaking with Q = 1.4, and another peaking for -1.0 dB at 8 kHz with Q = 1.0 gives you a really solid bass shelf and a very energic treble.
Too much bass? Add a 280 Hz peak at Q 1.0, drop it by -1.5 dB
Can also move the low shelf to 125 Hz
Ghosts ‘n Stuff sounds pretty solid with a +3.0 dB low shelf at 115 Hz, then the previously mentioned peaks at 3/8 kHz at -1.0 dB and -0.9 dB
I have a “basic bitch” preset that does this:
Low Shelf +1 dB at 150 Hz, Q = 0.70
Peak -4.5 dB at 3 kHz, Q = 1.40
Peak -2.0 dB at 8 kHz, Q = 2.00
Which does (sigh) take away a lot of the Grado magic but also makes these headphones listenable for the vast majority of people. Unfortunately I have a problem and I like really bright headphones
F-pads:
Recently I got back into listening on the stock F-pads and if you EQ them right, you can get most of the brightness from the G-pads while not thinning out the bass too much
Harman at +2 dB treble, -0 dB bass sounds really good by itself. Add +0.3 dB/oct tilt to make the sound brighter and it sounds REALLY good.
It depends per song, sometimes +0.3 dB tilt does thin out mids/treble too much and not leave enough bass. I occasionally go back to only +2 dB treble as it keeps a nice bass layer around
I found the +0.4 dB/oct tilt to be too bright but the +0.2 dB/oct tilt to preserve too much bass and just have a thump thump bass even if you didn’t want it
0.3 dB/oct seems to hit the nice middle ground where if the artist intended for the song to be bassy, it will come through, but otherwise it is a very tight bass response
You can also bring up the 2.1 kHz slider from -5 dB to -3 dB and that helps a bit with vocals being more present. It’s nicer on songs where the vocal mix is recessed a bit
And sometimes I just turn off the EQ! The Grado house sound is pretty awesome so you can occasionally switch it off all together.
TV Girl is a particularly tricky band to listen to on Grados and I haven’t found an EQ that works for them. They live in the mids/treble and these EQs just make that much worse, but EQ off also doesn’t sound great so…the quest continues.