My Best EQ Settings for Music

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Leg Warmers Playlist

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Recommended Amp List

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Subs

[Rod]

Finally someone speaks about EQ with examples of what you're actually doing to the sound

[JohnScheppler]

That Realistic EQ brings back great memories and agree someone needs to bring back an equalizer with fancy lights and meters. I had an equalizer on everything from my car stereo to my house stereo, cheap way to add your own flavor into the music.

[bamthwackerson]

Been doing the eq thing for a few weeks now & really enjoying it. Wasn't sure how to do it & so I ask Grok & let him know the music & the setup I'm working with. Been using the eq on the different android phones that I have & regardless of how many bands that I'm working with it's great. This was very informative.

[Brian_Romska]

I eq the crap out of everything I can, whether it needs it or not, it's just fun, especially with a real time spectrum analyzer (bouncy lights). I do return everything to flat eventually for all of my audiophile critical listening with the usual assortment of sith audio equipment to make it sound as the artist intended, ha!

[RdandTrk]

Awesome, I always set my eq like this as well. I've heard it described a an upside down seagull. Like the way kids draw birds, but upside down.

[moonytheloony]

This video has literally taken me back to 1990 when I bought my first serious HiFi stereo rack system which was a Kenwood (Spectrum 890?) it was their flagship rack system at that time. It cost roughly $1, 650 which was a lot of money in 1990 and especially if you're 21 years old.

I had a friend of mine who was very stereo savvy help me set it up and he dialed in my 10 or 12-band EQ (with the always awesome visual spectrum display) with that same "W" curve only I didn't know it was called that then or now (I just called it 'the curve') but it's the same curve I use today for everything.

[dougg]

Thanks for your service. I too have some high frequency lost in my right ear. Sounds even to me when I have headphones on. Says a lot about how our brains adjust how we perceive sound

[JTB--]

I'm a fan of the Lokius and physical EQ just tweaking knobs until a song is pleasing to my ears.

[janetandtiff]

Flashback to my love of Winamp, with it's built in EQ, and Visualization plug-ins. Fun stuff for playing the old MP3's.

[jimhoover]

Bravo, CAM! Standing ovation! Not only helping your listeners get more enjoyment from their existing audio gear cheaply or for FREE, but discussing hearing loss and age-related hearing impairment among audio enthusiasts (and using tone controls to improve an affected listener's experience)
nobody (well, hardly) is addressing this.
Thank you Randy!!

[Felicianov]

The Wiim is a beast. Love mine as I stream Amazon music to my stereo via app or by giving my Amazon Echo commands to control music.

[bradbates]

This is one of the best and most informative Youtube hi-fi videos I have ever seen. I've been looking for EQ guidance like this for a long time. Thanks so much and please keep up the good work. Kudos!

[christianrenner]

One of the main reasons I boughtt the Soundcore Liberty 3 wireless in ear headphones was it gives you a hearing test during setup and then sets up a EQ setting based on your hearing level. Great starting point and then you can adjust from there based on personal taste.

[gregszful]

Before doing any EQ if you don't know what pink noise is supposed to sound like, Learn. If not, use a spectrum analyzer. Use your smart phone if you don't have hardware. After that you can experiment. Yes! 2 KHz is the main irritant of speakers, and no sane company will produce a speaker with a 2 kHz peak, unless its a Yamaha NS10. EQ device should be zero net gain, and sliders should equal up and down. Cut first. More slider gain decreases bandwidth, and yes one slider affects sliders next to them.. Generally, the more controls you have, the higher chance to F*&K it all up.

[brucesamuelson]

I have a vintage 27 band parametric eq that brings out the clarity and brilliance toned down in the final mix to sound good on the average stereo equipment

[jesusgonzales]

Long May you rock, Randy. You know what first got me hooked on audio equipment? A little boom-box cassette player with 5-band EQ that I got when I was a like 12 or 13 years old. It was personal. Those were my settings that I put time into figuring out. Measurements can get us in the ballpark of what we like, but short of having the time and budget to constantly chase after “matching equipment, ” we can just use EQ to lock it into place.. Why deny myself the pleasure? Chasing matching equipment is great, but it’s too rich for my blood. Long live EQ. Also: I use Dirac to EQ.

[tedlevin]

Part Two:

All radio stations sound different one to another. Adjustable Eq is part of the many different kinds of audio processors, along with other controls on these processors, that add or detract bass, mirange and treble, as well dynamics across the audio spectrum, on almost every station on the air which in the USA is over 15, 000. Some engineers settle for a factory preset that rarely sounds as good as what a smart, experienced, music and audio lover, radio broadcast audio and RF engineer, can obtain with carefull shorterm and sometimes long-term adjustments.

When I worked at the legendary Live 105 and KSFO and KYA in San Francisco in the eighties, I had the oportunity of working with the best broadcast audio equipment money can buy as well as with great equipment during my time with the Old Clear Channel, now I-Heart groups in the eighties through 2010, as well as other lessor quality pieces at various other AM and FM stations from 1975 to 2016, when I retired from full-time engineering. I also had the opportunity to work with the two biggest designers of Broadcast Audio Processosr Equipment Companies in the USA. One of them have more stations worldwide that use their products on air every day than any other manufacurer anywhere. I also beta tested several of their new products. They would put their units on the air, adjust them over a few weeks, then take them back and tweak the design of the units, come back and try again, and I also created presets that I thought sounded full, clean, and loud on the air.

With the great experience I gained from these designers and great sounding San Francisco Bay Area Stations to compete with, with some of the smartest engineers in the industry, it was a tremendous experience for me. Also I spent alot of time at many very high end Audio Stores strewn all over the San Francisco Bay area which helped me learn how good reproduced sound can be. My teen years experience playing the Clainet in small groups to a couple of full sized orchestras helped me learn the sound of accoustic orchestral instruments. I have also done alot of multi-track recording at radio stations that would have artists, ( some very famous ones, popular today and years gone by ) come in to play live on air, or in a studio filled with listeners.

So with all that said, what did I do with that knowledge regarding creating great sounding radio stations.

Well I learned that i could change and improve the sound of hundreds of thousands of radios over my career.
My most used trick is creating an eq curve that is a bit dished out in the midrange, like a subtle loudness curve, boosting bass and treble. This made so many of these cheap portable boom boxes, clock, and table radios that deliver mostly midrange, sound fuller, sometimes dramatically so. And on modest to above average sounding car and home audio systems, when i would switch those curves in, it would sound like the listener just got a new pair of better speakers. I still use that trick today.

These adjustments make my stations sound fuller than the competition. When you listen to many of them, I daresay most of them, they sound usually way to midrangy and dense or too midbass heavy, blocking out midrange and treble, and/or with ruthlessly squashed, smashed dynamics, especially in the midrange as well as the bass and treble, then you tune over to mine and they are punchy, with fuller deeper bass, smoother midrange, and sparkly treble, and as loud on loud parts and almost as loud on softer parts as the smashers. The dished out eq also helps the sound of many of these hit, pop, country or hip hop recordings these stations play, that lack full bass, treble and suffer from restricted dynamics in the recording process which is done at the recording session supposedly to help the songs "jump out of the radio which is not true". In fact many over process so extremely that the soft and loud parts are almost identical in loudness, with only one or two db of dynamics left. Many carry it so far in order to squeek out every last bit of apparent loudness that they push the processors to hard, out of their sweet spots which causes the loud parts to sound softer than the soft parts of the recording when broadcast. I hate that!! Another benefit of a somewhat dished eq radio sound is that many stations in the same listening market play the same or mostly the same songs as their competitors and sometimes they come up at the same time another station or stations are playing the same song.
So wouldn't you rather listen to that song on the sation that sounds fuller, more dynamic and clearer. I would. And then after that song you may stay and listen to the next song or the one after that, because you like the songs and they sound better than the competition, which may be your favorite station. Station owners, general managers, program directors, and ad executives love that. It's called increased time spent listening.

So check it out for yourself and even call the station engineer if you don't like their sound. Some may appreciate it, some may not, but if they do sound bad, after your call they may try to inprove it.

FM radio can sound very good, even excellent, even better than streaming and many do, when up well, and most use CD's or .wav files on their music playback systems which sounds better than streaming of the same songs out of the gate. Believe me they can, and many do sound cleaner smoother and more extended especially in the highs than any music streaming service. However more and more stations are using MPs's that they purchase or acquire from Record Companies and that really hurts their sound . So those stations sometimes are not as not as dynamic or clean as hi res streaming. But many do sound better.

By the way my favorite and best sounding streaming is noticably Qobuz.

Happy tuning.

[vansonmafeet]

Perfect. I've always enjoyed the sound using the "w" curve settings on my EQ. Everything just seemed to sound clearer and more open to me. Now I feel justified in using that setting but will try the other ones just to hear the difference. Thanks for the video.

[jyharris]

Thank you very much for this video Randy. Very informative. I too miss the old lights. I've been thinking about an EQ for a very long time, but didn't trust myself to make the settings valuable. With the knowledge you've given me, I'm most likely going to pull the trigger on a Lokius. You've cost me a lot of money, but given me so much musical enjoyment with your videos!! 🤣

[edverbeek]

Wonderful. You know what you’re talking about just by using your ears. That is also all we need.