Podcast #16 - Nothing headphone (1) - EQ tweaks (Patreon)

I took another look at the Nothing headphone (1) as I wanted to check out what is possible with the built in EQ. Although it is fully parametric, there are only 8 filters and all filters are fixed to particular frequencies with just a range of +/- 6dB. Despite the limitations I created 2 different EQs for the Nothing headphone (1) which I think sound quite a bit more natural than the stock ones or the "featured" ones created by others.

1st EQ is based on my SpX target, the 2nd one on a kind of diffuse field target which I would like to demonstrate how these sound.

Below you can see the difference between the KH80 playing from front (in blue) measured in 6 different rooms, and (in red) measured from all angles by rotating myself and tilting my head up and down which was done in 4 different rooms for a better average:

You can see that with sound coming from all angles with the same amplitude you will get way more response between 4-10khz.

Below the Nothing headphone (1) with my SpX EQ compared to the frontal speaker spectrum:

And here the Nothing headphone (1) with my diffuse field EQ also compared against the diffuse speaker spectrum:

By bringing the headphone response closer to these natural spectrums, I think also the headphone sounds quite a bit more natural. Although the diffuse field EQ may appear harsher, both sound still quite alike.

Unfortunately my EQs limit the maximum volume of the headphone quite a bit compared to the stock EQs.