Posted on 08/11/2025 2:51:24 AM PDT by Paul R.
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.
Apologies for the delayed replies. I had to go out of town briefly.
My daughter and I both listen to a very wide range of music, including but not limited to classical (and other orchestral music), jazz, “acoustically driven”, and other acoustic (”non-electric”) music. Probably 50% of what I listen to is rock, and of that, much is 70’s style progressive rock, but I go a lot of other places regularly, too. :-)
This does not include that I almost subconsciously for a very long time now, simply listen to vocal characteristics of most unamplified human speech around me.
I would disagree with you slightly about classical and jazz music. IMO, in many ways, the human voice, in various settings all taken, presents the most difficult challenges of all. That’s partially because humans as a species have been so well “trained” to analyze it — (time frame dependent on your opinions about human history.)
Its true that most people don’t use that ability fully. But we all use most of it a lot. It helps us recognize different voices in a crowd, for example. (Funny story about same at the end of this post.) Or, badly altered voices, such as on a telephone.
I can readily build a subwoofer more than sufficient to accurately reproduce (except in large spaces) the biggest challenges classical music (at least before 1900 or so) can throw at it. (An exception being the 1812 Overture, but cannon are not a real “classical instrument” to anyone but Russians, I would argue.) And, granted, you’d have to give up several cubic feet in your listening room and be able to afford a very powerful amplifier. High frequencies are even easier. But, accurately reproducing the human voice naturally to the degree humans can detect flaws (or their absence) is VERY tough. (The then chief engineer at Scan Speak, and I, once upon a time had a great conversation about this, discussing their then premium 6-1/2” “woofer-midrange”.)
All this analysis of music reproduction requires a good listening room, of course. You can’t get there without that. :-)
Now, that all said, my daughter does have education and training and playing experience in a small orchestra, plus we’ve gone to some concerts involving larger, competent orchestras, in good environments. So, she has real musical training in addition to more direct experience with real time classical music than I do. (But perhaps not more as an audience member.) I have more critical analytical listening experience with audio / hi-fi systems. As in: “Hmmm... I think there’s some cone body breakup around 2400 Hz. What’s that waterfall plot look like?” She might say a headphone sounds “crunchy” in the midrange, while I would likely refer to odd order distortion. Given listening in a familiar environment, with known (and wide ranging) quality source material, I can usually estimate the response curve of a loudspeaker system and be pretty close. She can’t do that, except in a very general way. So, we somewhat “don’t connect” sometimes on the tech side of it. She might fit in with some of the old high end reviewers who would come up with terms like “chocolatey” sound. Huh?
Of course, with time, I can gain translation.
A funny story: A former boss of mine once ran a company that produced loudspeaker cones. They had a new material they were excited about, and sampled some cones to Peavey, who had begun (for a few years at that point?) manufacturing some of their drivers, such as the “Black Widow” series. Peavey’s feedback was something to the effect of “good durability, but it’s not gnarly enough.” (”Gnarly” was the Peavey guy’s actual word used.) My boss to be was stumped, as in “Huh?”. How should his company alter the formulation of the cone paper to be “more gnarly”? (Strangely, with more connection to actual musicians, I might have been able to at least point him in a general direction, but whether or not he’d be closer to Peavey’s desire, after several new samplings, is anybody’s guess.)
Ditto for classical. I was once confronted with: It (new driver) sounds really good overall, but, the trombones don’t sound brassy enough. I related this to my boss (an older and “more conventional” engineer who’d become completely busy with management), who paused, and then said (paraphrasal): “Well... Like... What the hell do you do with that?” My reply was “**Stronger expletive** if I know...” (Pause) “Dive deeper into analyzing the old driver, I guess...”. I never figured it out and the prospective customer ran into financial trouble anyway. My best guess(!) B4 I was told our prospective customer was failing (and to desist efforts for them) was cone breakup that triggered some “nice” 2nd - 6th even order harmonic resonances.
FWIW, both of those “incidents” were triggered by the EPA forcing cone manufacturers in the USA to alter how the manufacturers made their cone bodies. :-(
Back to “listening training”: Lifelong experience counts! I have had the blessing (until recently) of always being a member of churches that had exceptionally good acoustics. My first house and “my room” at my parents before that were also unusually good in that regard. (Ok, @ the parents, low bass support was weak, so I built some fairly amazing - and big - transmission line speakers!) However, I’m NOT good at picking voices out of chaotic, loud environments. Riding around in jeepneys in Philippines with my wife, she could understand what the driver, way up front, was calling out. Between the accents and other noise around me, I couldn’t even tell it was the driver calling out the stop! So much for my “great ears”!
I’d note that we might not be on quite the level of, say, J. Gordon Holt* here, for my daughter. Heheh.
*Founder of Stereophile Magazine, for FR readers who don’t go back that far.)
I’d also note that powerful lows below 60 Hz or so are also not a big consideration in this instance. Their absence is acceptable, if the bass from 60 Hz and up is decent. (It is.)
The problem you describe is not really “frequency response”, it is distortion characteristics - a far different matter. However, my daughter generally doesn’t listen at high levels, which reduces most (not all) distortion related problems with headphones. In this case, with these headphones I mentioned as being reliable and acceptable when it comes to the Bluetooth operation itself, and ok over most of the frequency range, below 4kHz or so, they are quite acceptable. “Hollow” sounding resonances (a high sensitivity of mine) are even low enough in level to be acceptable for this use.
Now, it’s POSSIBLE that my daughter is also hearing a distortion not related to frequency response, but, the high frequency rolloff is definite and bothers ME. It also may unmask said distortion for her, while I primarily “tune into” the drooping top end. Different aberrations bother different listeners... differently.
When it comes to headphones and low, powerful bass, my old Sony MDR-V6’s are good enough for me, and any genre I listen too. (I’d swear they got better with years of use, but, maybe that’s just me adjusting to them!) Low bass is primarily felt in the body, anyway. If I want more, I’ll clamp a bass exciter to my chair.
This from a guy who in his younger years used to mess around with subharmonic synthesizers a lot. An interesting form of “nice” distortion, tho’ not truly “fi”.
:-) :-) :-)
I’ll check that out. Thanks.
“Outside” is not a consideration here. Plus she can’t stand the way pods feel. If she wants “over the ear”, she wants over the ear. :-)
I get it... There is actually quite a bit to it all. As a musician I was fortunate to play with it a lot. Lot of recording dynamics, stage set up, and fine tuning.
A lot of what you are going to get as playback all depends on the equipment it was recorded on at the time. So much stuff ignored that would be absolutely incredible on modern systems if it was remastered... :)
Haha! Dat funny! Gotta save that image and send it to some of my “into audio” friends. :-)
APO actually does everything I’d want out of a graphic equalizer app, except band-to-band smoothing (when desired). There are weird artifacts with high gain on the eq bands, but I (and I’m guessing my daughter) would never push them that high anyway. 20 dB of gain @ 8kHz? EEEEYOWWW!
Anyway, yeah, APO certainly doesn’t look to do parametric, at least not on its own.
Of note, messing around with even a paragraphic eq would teach my daughter a lot about identifying frequency response aberrations. :-)
Do you remember the brand name and model?
You are right though - until you get into some pretty pricey stuff, very often cheap and medium price Bluetooth phones are “all over the map”. The pair I use for myself sound pretty good (at least on MY ears - something to keep in mind, as the shape of one’s ears and ear canal has profound effects). But, they are as you describe, quirky about connections and bizarre connection artifacts.
I (or actually my daughter) just needs to get lucky, like you did. She’ll have them in an environment where theft may be an issue too, so, we want to keep cost as low as possible. Lack of a well known brand name would actually be a plus!
See above post. And, WAY out of the price range...
You are damn lucky. I NEVER was able to afford any phones like that, and I was in the audio biz., fairly high end at times. Closest was being able to listen a bit to some top of the line STAX phones at a high end store I worked at for a while. (I thought they were quite good, but over-rated.)
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