I just noticed that my (free) Onkyo HF Player app for Android has an 11-band EQ.

You'll get far more audible improvement by upgrading the headphones than by upgrading the source. The R9 seems to be around $1500--you could get some spectacular headphones with that budget.

I just looked at Ali again. If you put your cursor on the store name, ratings pop up -- and also when the store was opened. Choose a store that's been around for awhile that has ratings very near 5.0. No one's going to get a perfect score, but it's harder to gimmick the ratings on longtime...

I've gotten a lot of IEMs from AliExpress with no problems. The only counterfeit one was a Sony MH755 -- but it was $5 and they are widely known to be counterfeited, so I should have known better. Counterfeits tend to be big-name brands, to make it worth the trouble. Yanyin is pretty niche so...

Alas, I'm in the minority that can't get a good fit on the much-praised 7Hz Zero 2. Arrived today, tried all my eartips, no seal. They are definitely working, though. So here they are at just half the Ali price, shipped to USA. In the original box and outer sleeve, just unwrapped today, with...

Unfortunately that has been my experience. Dozens of tips -- foam, silicone, double-flange, triple-flange, bullet-shaped, igloo-shaped, conical -- and I can only get a good seal in one ear. I usually have to do a little tip-rolling and I have years of assorted tips, but this is the very first...

After reading all the hype here about the Zero:2, I got a pair when they dropped under $20 -- my first budget hype train in a while. Turns out they are not for everybody. For me it seems that the short nozzle makes it almost impossible to get a good seal -- and I tried dozens of tips: silicone...

What are your priorities? Comfort, dialogue clarity, action-film rumble, spatial effects? Do you need closed back for isolation? Also, what's your prospective budget?

There are diminishing returns as prices go up. A $1000 headphone will not sound 3X better than a $300 headphone -- probably more like 20%, if that. Some people are sensitive enough to nuances that the steep prices are worth it for them. But it's worth exploring what is sometimes condescendingly...

Curious about what kind of PC you are using. If it is a recent MacBook Air it not only has a very good DAC but also senses headphone impedance and may not even need an amp. https://support.apple.com/en-us/108351 Don't go crazy on the DAC/Amp spending front. Get something like the Megatron or...

OP is in Australia, which might make US companies like Schiit and JDS overpriced with shipping. Also look at companies like Topping, FiiO and SMSL. For bare-bones excellence, the VE Megatron is a DAC/Amp from China that's all of $56 shipped to USA, might be even less in Australia. It doesn't...

I'd enter if the Terms and Conditions didn't give rights forever (in perpetuity) to use my name, likeness, image, biography, etc. The below is just plain creepy -- even if it's copypasta that Bloom got elsewhere. You understand and agree that the Sponsor and anyone acting on behalf of the...

Yes. The higher the decibels, the more bass (or treble or midrange).

Bassier means more bass. So it should be "the higher the measured response goes down toward the 20K region." Crinacle's graph database lets you overlay two curves on each other (or more if you become a paid supporter)...

You could go portable and ultra-budget ($56 shipped to US) with VE Megatron, which has 3.5mm SE and 4.4mm balanced jacks and will play headphones from both simultaneously. It is USB-powered (no battery) and has no volume control, but lots of power. Not recommended for sensitive IEMs. You can...

You can do a rough hearing test online to see what highs you can actually hear. https://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php https://hearingtest.online/ 22,000 Hz vs. 20,000 Hz might sound like a lot -- another 10 percent, right? Not really. Every doubling of frequencies is...

As an owner of the 470 ohm ATH-R70X, I'm perfectly happy with an amp that's <$100. (Monolith Liquid Spark at the moment, also have used Schiit Magni 3 and VE Megatron.) Your current amp looks pretty stellar -- plenty of power, excellent measurements. Don't succumb to upgrade-itis.

What headphones are you planning to use with the amp? Also, desktop (plugged in) or portable (battery- or USP-powered)?

When someone is very used to a particular sound signature -- and loyal to it as a matter of identity -- any change, anything different, may well sound "worse." So unless you're ready to keep that $500 set for yourself after the experiment, you might want to leave the status quo undisturbed...

And yet you have your own measuring rig and graph database. So while they are not the whole story, there must be something to be gleaned from graphs.

Graphs: https://crinacle.com/graphs/headphones/ https://squig.link/ Both have info on interpreting graphs.

The Artti R1 has big bass and non-piercing treble. Three dynamic drivers. They are heavy in the hand and they look ungainly in photos, but they turned out to be very comfortable in use. Also, if you want some real bass-happy beaters, you could get the Sony MH750 from Spassear on Ebay, who...

Maybe you've just been unlucky with Chi-fi quality control. I've gotten some crappy ultra-cheap KBear cables that were wired out of phase. But otherwise even very budget cables like TRN T2 have been fine. If you're doing a lot of cable swapping maybe the connectors in the IEMs are wearing out?

You're sending a source -- a DAP? a computer? a phone? -- into a DAC/Amp. Doesn't your source have a headphone jack?

With sensitive IEMs you could also skip the DAC/Amp and plug into the headphone jack....just saying...