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Welcome to the AutoEq wiki! Here you'll find answers to questions like how does AutoEq work, which equalizer should I use and the ones below.
AutoEq works based on headphone measurements but the measurements come from other people. So if none of the supported sources include measurements for the headphone model, it can't be added to AutoEq. Sometimes a headphone has been measured already but hasn't been added to AutoEq yet. In this case open a new issue and provide a link to the measurement in the source site (Crinacle, oratory1990, Rtings, ...).
It might still be possible for you to use AutoEq with your headphones if you manage to find a frequency resonse graph for them. You can use WebPlotDigitizer to digitize the image to a CSV file which you can then import to AutoEq. See the guide for more detailed instructions.
Some headphones can be "tuned" by the user either by a physical switch, slider or filter or by selecting a different profile the headphone's companion mobile app. Often the mode is mentioned in parenthesis in the headphone name but not always. If it's not clear which one was used, it's not mentioned in the headphone name in the source site and you should go look for an answer in the site itself. Checking all headphone measurements manually is unfortunately not possible for this project.
Yes, absolutely! This is easiest in the web app:
- Select the headphone you wish to simulate
- Click 🎧 button in the sound signature box (click "show advanced"). This copies the current error curve as sound signature, which is added to target curve.
- Select the headphone you're going to use
That's it. It's really that easy. Perhaps the headphone you're simulating doesn't have enough bass but this part you wouldn't like to simulate, in this case lower the bass boost after step 2 and dial in the desired bass boost after step 3.
This simulation is based on the idea that headphone's "sound" is it's deviation from neutral target. AutoEq web app switches the targets automatically when selecting measurements for different types of headphones or from different sources so the "neutral" is always kept as an anchoring point.
Once upon a time the only way to use AutoEq was with it's command line interface where you had to dial in all the parameter values manually and knowing which values were used for the precomputed results was only for people who knew which Python file to look in.
Nowadays things are simpler with the web app. The (mostly) same parameters are automatically selected in the web app as what are used for the pre-computed results in the Github repository. Previously pre-computed results included less bass boost than what Harman targets ask for but this was also changed recently. The main difference with parameters is that pre-computed results use 6 dB for the max gain while the web app has 12 dB.
The current up to date parameters for the results hosted in Github can be deciphered from the Update Results section of db.ipynb.
AutoEq uses measurements done by oratory1990 but not the equalizer profiles. The equalizer profiles in AutoEq are created automatically by the AutoEq algorithms while oratory1990 tunes the profiles by ear.
Why are the profiles different on autoeq.app than in Github?
The profiles in the Github repository have been tailored to serve as many users using as many different eq apps and devices as possible. The maximum gain has been limited in the Github's profiles to +6dB, because some user's might not have enough gain in their amplifier to compensate for more. The Github's profiles also have parameteric equalizer split into two filter sets. The first five filters are usable independently. The default values for the eq optimizer on autoeq.app are a bit different because the user is able to change them. The default max gain is at +12dB and the parametric equalizer filter configuration depends on the selected eq app.
autoeq.app has a fairly extensive list of eq apps covered, but definitely not all. It is in fact not the goal of this project to provide a custom eq app configs for every existing eq app, but rather the aim is to have a good coverage of the market share while keeping the number of eq app limited for simplicity's sake.
If your favorite eq app is missing, you can still create equalizer profiles for your headphones and the eq app. Easiest approach is to select an equivalent eq app and see if that produces results that are compatible with your app. For example
10-band Graphic Eq and 31-band Graphic Eq are generic graphic (fixed frequency slider) equalizer apps with standard frequencies. If you're using a graphic equalizer, you'll find suitable options in either of these. In case your app doesn't have big enough gain range (you can't set the slider high or low enough), simply use the maximum of minimum value you can.
EqualizerAPO Parametric Eq is a very standard parametric eq. Most parameteric equalizer as more or less similar in terms of how the filters can be configured and so the chances are very high that if you select this option, the profile can be configured in your eq app.
Convolution Eq is a generic option for producing FIR filters for any convolution based eq app. If your app is a convolution engine, you'll be able to use this one.
And if none of those work for you, it's possible to create a Custom Parametric Eq, which also covers Custom Graphic Equalizers.