Flat response is good when mixing is a myth, in nature there is no flat response, even human ears have a complex frequency curve.

Headphone frequency response is the result of its components design, if it sounds better for you with a correction EQ then changing headphone is the best solution.

I'm just surprised that BS marketing stuff coming from Beyerdynamic made in the great Germany, is something going wrong there? Angela Dorothea where are you?

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2026 at 4:10 PM

I know. Neither flat headphones nor headphones at all exist in nature.

I feel as if I need the great equalizer...something to compensate for my hearing loss to enable me to make better decisions when mixing my music.

 

I use FabFilter Pro Q 3 to cut some synthesizers that are too bright and almost painful to listen to by 3 dB in the upper range. I'm missing 30% of the high frequencies—I also have two hearing aids that I never wear. They amplify things I can barely hear anymore, like rustling leaves, taps, some sibilant sounds on TV, etc.

 

the simplest and most effective solution i found for years is Redline Monitor
Enough settings to make it comfortable.
And the final stereo stage is done on speakers anyway ...


PS : just tested ... so flat it is killing my DT770 PRO 250
I don't see the point of "flat" headphone response, whatever ppl say about this point.
Especially on headphones, over compensated by nature (especially on bass).

i was a believer years ago, before testing all those crap pretending to make my mixes "flatter / better"
Find your favorites headphones, compare A/B mixes, it will work better than anything pretending to "be flat, and so perfect".

I love my DT700 PRO 250, and a simple crossover is enough for my "pre final mix" comfort (because i know them).

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2026 at 10:02 PM

So all these professional mixing and mastering engineers working in treated rooms are bullshit? Maybe somebody should tell them ...

 

It's not straight line flat, your EQ should follow the Harmon curve.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets/

 

I'm trying but nobody wants to listen and still spending huge amount of $$$ in bad rooms and worse treatments.

Joke apart a treated room is sure a good thing but don't look for an ultra flat response. Instead look for a well balanced and warm curve, too much hi frequencies and the mix is gone, too much subs & bass and the mix is fucked, too much mids and you lose details and energy.

Please don't confuse, balancing bass, mid and hi frequencies has nothing too do with the flat response myth.

Different matter is mixing or testing a mix on an headphone, in that case any plugin treatment is never good, never.

 

This mix engineer disagrees, as do many others ...

 

In fact that's not too far from reality..!

IIRC Beyerdinamic uses a Diffuse Field target to calibrate their headphones..

They got this special Room/chamber for measurements, with non-parallel walls and reflective surfaces for sound scattering..
Seems like the room is not too big, but gives the impression of being in a much bigger space.

Then they place a dummy head with microphones on the ears, and measure sound arriving from all directions,
and that's their diffuse field target..

The idea is to make headphones sound like what you'd experience in a very reverberant diffuse space,
rather than an anechoic chamber.. (as other manufacturers/targets could use)

And that's part of the Beyer sound signature..

-So you're kinda spot on when describing it that way, as it's in part their intention.

Now I haven't tested the new Plugin yet, (leaving linux and login on windows is like a chore.. lol)
but seems it has different simulated rooms, so one of them could indeed be a similar room, if not that beyer room itself..

 

Last edited: Feb 1, 2026 at 7:17 PM

to complete this argument, headphones aren't made for self-indulgence, they're a tool, and like all tools, they can be good quality, solid, great, it all depends on who's talking ;o) this story of a flat response is, in my opinion, a marketing argument, who's had ns10s for mixing and found the sound rotten? yet great albums have been mixed on them. headphones aren't designed for mixing, you need air, the sound comes from the front, from one side to the other, from reflections on objects, in short I'm not going to go into the history, headphone rectifiers are wrong, and if I need to use it as a complementary tool, I'll do it, this free software lets you do it at a lower cost, if it's to be used, it's not to be used alone for mixing, unless you know your headphones very well, at a pinch to clean up tracks, why not, why some people here have found it super flat brilliant?, well, it has rectified the problems of hump and hole in the bandwidth, for headphones from a prestigious brand, if I'm not mistaken it's only for Beyer isn't it? all that to say what, apart from filling in lines ;o), headphones were designed to isolate the listener, not to be used for mixing in a professional environment just for instrument feedback (mixing is for others to hear, not always but often) if you consider it a tool not an end in itself, your music will be good good goog, have fun & regards from spain

 

if "flat and perfect" is what i got from this plugin, it is not something i want at all.
Whatever a supposed "flat and perfect guy" think at the other end of internet.

 

Sure, many things are going wrong in Germany.
Germans seem like perfect victims of marketing/propaganda BS.

 

@Zenarcist, isn't Virtuoso a Binaural Translator?

Beyerdynamic headphone lab is a different thing, more precisely is a BS marketing tool from a Chinese company, because you know... Beyerdynamic is now a Chinese company.

Unfortunately is even worse.

https://audioxpress.com/news/century-old-german-brand-beyerdynamic-acquired
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/headphone-maker-beyerdynamic-sold-to-chinas-cosonic-for-139m/

 

Yes, with nearly 10 years of academic research behind it.

 

A lot of cans have this.
There is a very simple but effective solution to this:
One or two sheets of paper tissue. I use handkerchiefs. There is a brand on amazon that has black ones.
Too expensive for a cold, but ok for using 1 pack a year for damping tweeters and cans.
Just take sissors, cut a circle just as large to have the edges go all to the outer brim under the earpads.
Most of the time it is best not to put it behind the earpads, the tissue could vibrate against some plastic.
But there are a lot of brands where that works just fine, i.e. because there is cloth underneath or something.
Just as older generations diskussed what the best tissue would be to make a NS10 a decent speaker, I say:
Handkerchiefs is best. No toiletpaper, no Kleenex, no kitchen roll ever sounded as musical, with soft, silky top end, a bone dry bass and a perfectly balanced mid range.

 

We can't compare a treated room to some eq courve on some headphones.
We can get used to headphones, and maybe over years make good mixes on them (I can't, I tried).
But dsp power on cans will most likely not be the best room you've ever worked in.

 

It's generally better sounding than my room and I've got over 1,000 listening hours under my belt.

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2026 at 7:40 PM

Exactly, and thats great. Thats what it is meant for. But I think jhagens argument is still legit.
Even the best studios are not that flat and besides that a lot of them are eqed to the taste of the staff.
Or maybe, ok, let me put it that way, I'm not good with words:
I can't mix on cans, because I did that like 25 hours in my life and thats not enought to learn the craft.
Now my argument is: Even on perfectly flattened headphones I would not manage to make a mix that is barely as good as on loudspeakers.
And I guess it goes the other way round too. I guess people who are good on cans would need many hours to adopt to speakers, even if the came from perfectly processed headphones.
My experience so far is, none of the studio sims for headphones sounded like speakers to me.
If anyone prefers that to the non processed cans, thats fine, whatever works.
My gess is just, it is about what people are used to. And if someone is used to unprocessed cans, he might have a hard time to adopt to a plugin like that beyerdynamic thing. Especially when it comes to that room simulation.