[leeoniya]

i always wondered, is it possible to take a cheaper mic or iems and "flatten" them via an eq, to perform nearly as well as professional gear that's 3x the price?

i just picked up a pair of KZ AS06 iems [1] and my listening preference is U shaped (which is how these are dialed in out of the box), but i imagine with quality hardware and e.g. 3+ dedicated, drivers it should be possible to flatten them out in an eq.

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/eqpsen/kz_as06_...

[mastax]

Yes, to an extent, and this is frequently done to great effect. However frequency response isn't everything, there's also e.g. group delay, off axis response, and harmonic distortion. In particular, boosting response in areas a speaker is deficient often causes a huge increase in distortion, so you have to balance.

[hug]

Yes, but no, but yes.

AutoEq (https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/) does something like this so... yes?

But targets various HRTF curves which aren't neutral or flat, and they usually aim for a Harman target of sorts, so no...

But there are some neutral-sounding curves that seek to just emulate pinna gain, so they have a ~3KHz peak which is required to 'emulate' the natural resonance of your ear, which you don't get naturally when you jam a driver all the way into it.

There's no AutoEq preset for the AS06s. Here's a representative sample targeting the 2019 Harman in-ear target for the KZ AS10s for funsies though: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/...

[leeoniya]

the AS10 and AS06 curves look quite similar, so might work, thanks!

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/afsro3/review_o...