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Posted on 08/11/2025 2:51:24 AM PDT by Paul R.
One thing leads to another!
I was trying to find some inexpensive Bluetooth headphones for my daughter, as she wants some for her b'day, but nothing pricey while she's away @ college. She's very sensitive to pressure on her ears, so they need to be completely over the ear headphones. She's also a very keen listener (she got that from me) and picky about sound quality. In some ways she's pickier than I, a lifelong audiophile, am.* This really limits choices!
For example, I'd stumbled onto a set a couple years ago that sound quite good -- when they are not generating weird "chirpy" artifacts, or just simply turning themselves off without warning. They are also more of an "on ear" type, and making connections is sometimes erratic.
Two or three other pairs just have sound quality that stinks.
Then, a few days ago, I found an over-the-ear Bluetooth stereo headphone that doesn't seem to have any awful problems except the top end is slowly rolled off. Hooked direct to my stereo, I can eq. the top octaves up a bit, and the phones sound fairly good. Then the frequency balance is acceptable, the midrange does not sound hollow, and distortion seems acceptable. The fit is ok, says my daughter, and these seem very reliable when it comes to connecting and staying that way when desired.
However, my daughter will be using these quite a bit with her laptop. To do the EQ job, I found a small* program called "Equalizer APO" (Version 1.4.2).
The idea is to NOT get into the complexities of, say, Audacity. KISS.
Well, Equalizer APO is probably a bit more complex than absolutely necessary for THIS job, but, it does have some nice features: One such is an independent volume (gain) control. That is, said gain control is independent of the gain control in the vid you are watching, such as a You Tube video. It is also independent of the Windows speaker volume control. This is quite useful, as sometimes the volume one can get out of the video (You Tube) volume control plus the Widows volume control is quite weak, and Bluetooth headphones usually seem to have weak gain, leading to low sound levels. That's a problem if you want to rock out, and I'm not talking about blowing one's eardrums out. Just provide a couple volts or so at the line level outputs.
So far, so good, right?
*Note: Daughter-san's hearing is surely better than mine, as I'm 70 y/o. OTOH, I have much the greater experience in knowing what to listen for and how to both quantify and qualify it. If something sounds poor, I usually have a pretty good idea what's causing it. Daughter-san, not so much, and she sometimes struggles to give a description that could lead to such analysis. For example, she described one headphone's sound as "crunchy". But, distortion at the levels she was listening at was fairly low.
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It does not provide a sharp low cut filter (sometimes called a subsonic or infrasonic filter), a high cut filter, or, so far as I can determine, parametric equalization. That last is a bit of a disappointment: Parametric eq is definitely the best for a natural sounding result, in many cases.
Now, I may be wrong about that last, as I am new to Equalizer APO. If there is a way to enable parametric eq with this app, please advise!
There is also a sidekick app named "AQUA" that works through(?) Equalizer APO. It may indeed provide true parametric equalization. I have not yet had a chance to download AQUA and try it out, but, I'll add comments here if / when I have done so.
I've also not yet tried Equalizer APO (or, obviously, AQUA) in conjunction with an app like my old fave for "simple", well, fairly simple, recording of audio: Wavosaur.
Knowledgeable persons, please comment or add information.
Thanks in advance!
Disclaimer: I am not connected in any way to the providers of these two programs. I am merely “a user”.
“She’s also a very keen listener (she got that from me) and picky about sound quality. In some ways she’s pickier than I, a lifelong audiophile, am.* This really limits choices!”
Just curious, this can mostly be appreciated so purely with Classical and/or Jazz. I that the case? :)
I asked this question sir because even with an equalizer the frequency response of the drivers/speakers themselves can be optimal or not depending on the music type and ranges. Those that are killer for jazz, classical, or normal rock sometimes can be “crunchy” and distort when listening to super low frequency bass output of Rap and Hip Hop because their range is not low enough for the bass levels. So the frequency rang of the headset is just as important as the equalizer. Frequency ranges have to be matched to the music source type also. I have had to use one set for one genre, and another for a different genre to get proper clean accurate representation...
heilhamradio.com/
Just go with Apple AirPods Pro 2. Large headphones are too big and silly to carry around outside.
She can go down the hole as far as she wants. I am not big into apps and what not, but I found most free EQ programs were lacking, either adding too much distortion, using too many resources or an annoying feature that tries to get money out of you. It's been a few years since I have tried them, so maybe it is different now.
I use the Jabra2 85 headphones. I get all the functionality I need for either music or work. I receive updates to the software and hardware.
I bought a Bluetooth headset for $7 at Five Below. It works great, even better than some of the older, name brand variety which were quirky when you tried to pair them to another Bluetooth device.
bkmk
Say, can you post the brand/model?
I can try my 5 below.
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