is this perfect for desktop/ipod/laptop?

You are kidding, right? If not: this is ridiculous. +9db at 125Hz? In most cases, this just adds mushy bass and kills most mixes. And: equalizing should match speakers. Since everyone uses different ones, no equalizing will be perfect for everyone.

If you are listening to this and think this sounds perfect, you should invest in new speakers or have your ears checked.

Remember that these kinds of settings can overload the input to your amp. I’d suggest being less dramatic and making changes in the +4 to +6dB range. If you really need to do extreme EQ try lowering the overall volume slightly to avoid clipping.

I’m no audio expert but this seems ridiculous? Shouldn’t equalizer settings be based on your actual sound equipment such as amplifiers, speakers, and room acoustics? How can one setting be “perfect” for everything? It’s like saying x mph is the “perfect speed” for a car.

Great tip. Am I missing something, or do your 500 - 2K not match their suggestions?

Perfect? Which band? Which song? Which speakers? Which room? Whose ears? Whose taste????? ;-(

Just re-read my comment; the last sentence sounds really condecending. Sorry, not a native speaker. But actually, I am serious: the older you get, the less responsive your ears are, especially to high frequencies.

So if you need a boost of +11db at 8kHz, which is really a lot, then maybe the old ears aren’t working very well anymore.

Either that, or the speakers are old and can’t reproduce high frequencies very well anymore.

Well if you have REALLY bad MP3 compression, it may help, but it may also make the bad compression even more apparent. Then again, most people can’t notice bad mp3 compression, even down to 128 kbps.

If it sounds better, all the best, but with good compression (at least 192 kbps) and a decent set of speakers, those settings would be extreme.

My audiophile tip — as with all things — would be to choose the settings that work best for you. And to breathe deeply. Always very deeply.

Thanks a bunch! I think it sounds great. It really makes the vocals pop - helps a bunch for these cheap headphones I use at work.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but this is so ridiculous that it’s simply stupid. No EQ setting is “perfect”. It depends on your equipment, your room, and, most of all, your ears.

I marvel sometimes at the anal retentiveness of this site, and the obsessive-compulsive attitudes expressed here, but this one takes the cake. Spend some time thinking rather than just blindly following what others do.

You risk clipping when setting all the equalizer bands to positives. SInce the intent of an equalizer is to adjust the freqency of the sound without affecting the overal levels, I suggest subtracting 7 from each band. That will give you the same equalizer contour but balanced between + and -.

Okay, howzabout this:

Post our own favorite Hamburger Helper settings — either post yr dBs here or link to a screen grab.

What’s your preference?

The most perfect equalizer setting is totally flat. Professional music which most of you listen to is post-produced to sound best on all possible sound systems, so unless you know the flaws of your audio setup that equalizer can correct, leave it off for your own sake.

Following this on OS X (and they have it for windows as well) will yield the closet to recorded reproduction of the sound:

http://extra.benchmarkmedia.com/wiki/index.php/OSXAudioPlayback-SetupGuide

Summary: EQ off, iTunes volume at full, no Sound Check or Sound Enhancer.

I actually kind of like this on my MacBook.

I agree with everyone, this can’t be perfect, except for one install. And I’ve got a few curves of my own for each setting (phones, my laptop speaker (which nothing can really help sound good) and my home stereo).

But here’s a question: every mac laptop of a specific type, every ear bud headphone set, every iMac has a specific set of speakers, specified in the manufacturing documents. Is there any list of “perfect” settings for each of them? There should be!

I’m extremely tempted to spout a lot of vitriol and sarcasm here, but I’ll settle for noting that a) this looks like a horrible equalizer setting and b) the point of an equalizer is to compensate for distortions introduced by the speakers or the room.

Get decent speakers, lower the volume of MP3’s by running MP3Gain on them to avoid clipping (as virtually all the mastering engineers these days should be shot en masse for mixing albums ridiculously loud, thus slaughtering dynamic range) and set the equalizer according to your own preferences, is my advice.

Why all the rage? The equalizer settings don’t work for you? Don’t use them!

Yes, you can make plenty of arguments about clipping, about the advice of recording engineers, or whatever else, but ultimately, isn’t this sort of thing about making you happy? These are personal settings. What settings make you happy? Use those. Ignore everyone else. Make sure you’re not making yourself deaf, of course, but otherwise… listen to what makes you happy.

People are trying too hard to explain why this is one of the worst tips posted here.

If you CANNOT SEE for yourself, without understanding the lightest bit about audio, how HORRIBLY BAD such a fucked up generalization is, then you’re too stupid to be be breathing.

I always wondered if LH readers come in shades of total sheep, but i guess even the posters do. Get a clue.

Oh, and pink shaded, “can’t we all just get along”, “well, that’s just your opinion”, weak willed and weak minded people such as Robb Neumann can suck it and get a clue. Some things might be subjective, but fucking common sense isn’t. And yes, it is my place to be judging you (that’s you Robb), by virtue of being alive and having a fucking brain.

Wow…who could have guessed something as trivial as iTunes Equalizer settings would spout such a vehement flame war?

Perfection is subjective…(although this setting has improved the sound in my headphones)

I agree with cr0ft. Generally, music today is produced with an ever increasing volume level. However, eq levels have been enginerred with a particular sound in mind. Using eq settings (which are volume levels for different frequencies) distorts the way in which the artist wants you to hear the music. If you mess about with the eq too much, you change the music in a way that it doesn’t represent the way in which the artist wanted you to hear it in the first place.

Thanks to everyone for the comments and conversation. Well leave Reef with the last word on this one.

VolumeLogic makes my ears happy since over 3 years. Best $20 I ever spent on software.

Great tip. This actually sounds great on my mac. Everything “pops” nicely.

As it has been mentioned here a few times…get volume logic. Been using it for several years now, and it is the only thing you’ll ever need for iTunes.

This is probably more productive for every one to just use this script i whipped up.

tell application “iTunes” make new EQ preset with properties {name:”Perfect”, band 1:3, band 2:6, band 3:9, band 4:7, band 5:6, band 6:5, band 7:7, band 8:9, band 9:11, band 10:8} set the current EQ preset to EQ preset “Perfect” end tell

I’m sorry, but isn’t this completely relative to the kind of music and kind of speakers you play music with? I mean: a person with a macbook (which has crappy speakers) has different issues than a person with an iMac.

Merlin,

You could not be more wrong. I take all of your settings, lower them by 3dBs and then raise the preamp by 3dBs. It makes all of the difference.

Of course, I ignored it when you posted it to Flickr, but I just had to try it once you posted a blog entry. I couldn’t resist.

Andrew WK sounds so much better now.

John