Harman Headphone Target Curve

Soundcore Life Q35

I tried to equalize these headphones to the Harman headphone target curve. Does this look correct? Also, is there a Default program that is designed to match the Harman target curve?

Thank you.

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It does not look correct.

So you are doing a custom setting. You know that once you are done with your setting and return to to the equalizers, you can view how that looks like by looking at the custom button.

Example

As you can see how that look. You can just go back and forth to see how it looks.

I would then tweak that for your hearing as that equalizer may not be the best for you.

My app doesn’t show the curve in the custom button.

I am sorry. I did this with Liberty 2 pros. I was assuming it was the same for q35. I let my son take my q35 til his q30s got fixed and assumed it was the same. Sorry about that

So I tried it and here is my attempt at doing it for you

It gives this as the graph based on the liberty 2 pro setting

Not sure how close that is for you but may be a good start

In order to match the headphones to the Harman curve, you have to know what the frequency response is of the headphones you are matching. From there, you can overlay the Harman Curve and calculate the difference between the two.

After that calculation is made, then you adjust your eq to correct the error in the curve. Some headphones are course to that curve already. The Q35s are not course to it at all. I haven’t seen a frequency response graph yet of these, but I’ve been looking for one.

Rtings has this one

And this is of the Galaxy Buds Pro that are close- ish to the Harman target. (I’m not sure what has the exact target in headphones).

Then you adjust for the error at those frequencies. We can’t get close on our app because of the limited bands.

So, for starters, the 100hz band would have to be listed instead of raised.

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Without doing real measuring, this is the closest I could get to Harmon target using the Soundcore app. You would have to use an external eq app to account for all the peaks as well as the almost 10 dB variations.

I would even put 12.8 lower, but there’s no way to tell how much lower from the graph doing at 10k.

Also, that frequency response graph doesn’t say if it’s with ANC on or off (I’m assuming off).

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Actually, I did a comparison between these and the AKG K371 that is reviewed to come with 1 dB of the curve.

https://jazztimes.com/reviews/products-and-gear/audio-files-the-harman-curve/

This rtings chart is a comparison. The dashed lines is the Q35 and the blueish Grey are the K371s.

If that’s the case, an unmeasured eq could like like this

It looks a little more reasonable, but still has to much bass for the Harman Curve. (I still think it sounds petty good, though). I’m no audio expert. But check this setting out with League of Legend “Warriors” and “Show Me” by Alina Baraz to get a good representation of the range of this EQ.

I’m way off, please someone correct me.

NEW INFO! Soundguys just posted this morning!

I feel like I’m spamming. But I keep finding more information. Soundguys.com just released a review with the frequency response and a graph with the frequency response next to their house curve (not Harman, but it’s easier to read from what I posted last night.

They also have a screenshot of their EQ that looks to be suited to match their house curve.

They basically looked at the chart and tuned each band to offset the differences. For example, in the 100hz band, the blueish (Q35) is maybe 8 dB higher than the magenta (curve). So to compensate, they adjusted the 100z slider all the way down. They did that with each curve and produced that EQ. I’d want to do the same thing with a Harman curve and get accurate measurements. If anyone has done that, please let me know because I am also interested in what others have found!

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Thanks for the additional help…

I will day that I do like the Liberty 2 pro and it will show you the wave of your custom equalizer. You think tthat they would do this for the other devices with customization as well. :thinking:

Yeah. It is weird that the representation of the EQ is different for the L2P compared to others. It may be because of the Professional EQ added. I can imagine them wanting to protect the actual EQ settings of the engineers that endorsed them.

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I mean on the custom ones. If you look above I did that custom one from Liberty 2 Pro earbuds but on other devices it does not give you the waves (I think my other test was with the q35 and you did not see that wave when you went view the different setting.

I understand. I had it backwards. That’s a premium feature then :slight_smile:.

Thanks a lot for that information. I had no idea how to approach the EQ with headphones.

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I went to jaakkopasanen’s Harman headphone ranking and chosen HIFIMAN Sundara 2020 to compare with Q35 at rtings.com.

Here is my simulation to the Harman Target Curve:

Piano sounds great at the first glance, especially when listening to pop musics. But in prolonged usage (with ANC on), the Harman fix is much more relaxing. I now switch between these profiles depending on the individual scenario.

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Nice of you to share your settings… seems like this is somewhat of the quest for the holy grail, many come here asking for help to find.

I’ll have to give this a go this week.

Why force urself to listen to that setting? Tune them to what sounds good to you not exactly like the harmen curve.

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I’m with @skidoouky. I just set my EQ to what sounds good to me. After all, I’m the one listening to it.

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Lol I just use flat or acoustic… no eq basically… that way I rely upon what the recording has done.

TL/DR: Some researched EQs show you more than going by perceived sound preference alone. EQs like @idpsystem are worth listening to to experience that research in action.

I think part of the reason I seek Harmon or similar tunings is because I only think I know what I like. Once I tried a more Harmon tuning, I heard things in and that I had never heard before. I’m not sure it’s a “forced” EQ, but one that shows everything that could be heard. I’ll be giving @idpsystem eq a try to see if I can milk even more detail than the one I came up with (there are similarities for sure, but not the same).

I’ve come a long way from what I liked at the beginning of my headphone journey. I used to go for bassy EQs. More bass=good always! But, now, because of Harmon, I hear what accurate bass is supposed to sound like. I also have maxed out my EQs on several Soundcore products because sometimes, I just want fun and dynamic instead of accurate.

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