My Daybreak EQ for the "speakerlike" experience
Hello,
I am not really a veteran when it comes to IEMs, but pretty experienced with getting good sound out of speakers. I decided to finally get some IEMs because the marketing for the "new meta" promised kind of what I like in my speakersetups and if they would deliver on that I could listen to music on a similar level of quality when I am not at home or late at night when I wouldn't wanna bother my neighbours.
What I mean regarding my preference in speakersound is "kinda neutral sound, but not lifeless and analytical like studio monitors. Bass is impactful enough to trigger emotional responses but is still well controlled, mids feel clear and present but natural in timbre, treble gives as much details as possible but without any artificial sparkle". So I ended up with the Daybreak as a baseline.
I was pretty impressed with stock-tuning already. Precision is pretty obviously higher compared to what speakers can physically deliver outside of nearfield monitor setups, because there is no room influence.
However compared to what I am used to with my speakers it lacks just a little bit of "noteweight" or impact to get me really emotionally involved. I am talking about kickdrums that feel too thin like paper etc. Not that much power for genre like metal. Also some higher sounds just explode with energy and can hurt a little especially when listening at a higher volume. That is especially apparent with electronic snares, claps, clicks, splashy cymbals and screamed vocals. Maybe that is the mPTs going overboard or I am just sensitive in that area idk, because on the fr-graph it doesn't even look too bad. Or maybe it's the big energyzone between 13 and 17 kHz adding up and emphasizing these sounds.
So I spent some weeks finding the areas that need to be pushed or tamed just a little to get what I want. After that I started to create a new balance around that soundsignature with some further finetuning. I gotta say the result is really impressive to me. Not only did the EQ fix the small criticisms I had with the soundsignature, it even makes the sound feel sort of more threedimensional and the timbre more natural to me, as if it were truly speakers in a room, but without losing the extra precision that IEMs are naturally capable of.
So I wanted to share my EQ for all the people here that might have similar preferences in sound:
And just a small sidenote because that can impact the trebleresponse: I use AZLA Xelastec II eartips, because I have dry skin in my ears and they garantee a good seal.
Hope somebody here will enjoy it :)