How to Make Your Gaming Headphones Sound Better – Auto EQ!

Not all headphones are created equally, and unfortunately, there are a lot of headphones out there that don’t sound particularly good.

If you find yourself in a similar situation with your gaming headphones you have two choices: either buy a better pair of gaming headphones, or you can try your hand at equalizing your current headphones to make them sound better.

Between your two choices, you are most likely to try EQ-ing your headphones first since it’s free, but at the same time, the process of equalizing your headphones properly can be daunting.

Luckily for you, we have found a process that makes it easy to equalize most gaming/studio headphones on the market, resulting in even your budget headset sounding a lot better!

What Is AutoEQ?

The way you can achieve these miraculous results is through the usage of the AutoEQ project that compiles a list of frequency responses from over 2500 headphones that allows you to tune your headphones automatically to a neutral sound.

The data used throughout this project was collected by certified audio engineers which have worked in the field for many years and have shared certain settings for different headphones that achieve better sound overall.

AutoEQ is also not just a list of possible EQs you can use but also a tool for equalizing or tweaking the equalization you imported to your own tastes.

Overall this project is what makes our lives a lot easier by basically providing all of the data and research we need in one place. All you really need to do at the end of the day is just import a couple of files and BAM you have professionally calibrated gaming headphones!

How Do You Implement the AutoEQ Frequency Calibrations?

As explained on the AutoEQ page the way to use the data stored in this collection is by installing Equalizer APO in conjunction with Peace which is a GUI that helps manipulate the parametric EQs you will import.

If you want to apply the same type of EQ to an Android device you can use an app such as Wavelet, or if you are using Linux on your PC you can use PulseEffects.

The vast majority of people are probably doing this process on a Windows machine therefore we recommend you install Equalizer APO and Peace GUI.

Detailed Guide of How to Import EQ Settings

To help you with the entire process we will have a step-by-step guide you can follow to get your headphones EQ-ed.

First of all, once you install Equalizer APO you will be greeted by the configurator screen. Here you want to select the audio device you are currently using so the system-wide equalization takes effect.

Besides this, we would also recommend checking the troubleshooting options tickmark and select the “Install as SFX/EFX” option. We have found that overall this leads to fewer chances of Peace GUI not working properly.

peace gui configurator

After the restart, you want to install Peace GUI and open it up. On startup, you should choose the full interface so your application looks like ours.

equalizer apo interface

The next thing you want to do is check if Equalizer APO and Peace have been installed properly. To do this you can simply select the Radio or any other EQ preset from Peace that will significantly change the way your headphones sound.

You should select your EQ, play some music and turn Peace on and off a couple of times to make sure you can hear the difference. The sounds should be drastically different so it should be pretty easy to spot.

Once you have confirmed that the applications are working properly you should open the AutoEQ project page and download the ZIP folder containing all of the EQ presets.

download autoeq

Once you have downloaded your ZIP file you should unpack it somewhere where you can find it. Once the process is done you should open your folder and navigate to the results subfolder and select which audio engineer you trust most.

The easiest recommendation is to go with oratory1990 since his EQs have been proven to be quite good overall. If you dislike the way your headphones sound after applying this specific EQ you can always try out the rest of them.

In this case once in the oratory1990 subfolder, you should select the type of headphones you have, in my case “over-ear” and from there find the specific model of headphones you have in the library.

autoeq library

In my case, I have the DT 990 Pros 250 Ohm headphones so that is the folder I go into. In the folder of your specific headphones, you need only one file, which is the ParametricEQ.txt file.

autoeq presets for dt990

You should drag this file over to your desktop or some other visible place for ease of access. After you have your file all that is left to do is to import it into Peace and use it as your EQ profile.

To do this you simply click on the Import button in Peace and select the ParametricEQ.txt file you have identified before. Peace then reads the file and applies the EQ settings immediately sparing you all of the cumbersome work.

After this, you just click save and select the new EQ profile you have just created. That is it, you have officially applied an audio engineer level of EQ to your headphones in less than 5 minutes.

equalizer apo save

Wonderful stuff!

Conclusions

Overall we would recommend doing this to any type of headphones you can find on the list in the AutoEQ repository. This means you will get the best possible sound out of your headphones while also putting in a very small amount of work.

Install two programs, import one EQ file, and sure enough, your headphones will sound better.

As mentioned above, if you do not necessarily fancy the way your headphones sound with the oratory1990 EQ profile, there are always others to try out! You never know which one will suit your taste!

We congratulate you on your entry into a better-sounding gaming world!

About The Author

Chris (vile_is_dead)

Custom Windows ISO enjoyer, FPS optimizer, and aim improvement enthusiast. Will disassemble all of his peripherals (and sometimes PC parts) to mod them even if all of them work perfectly fine. Discord/Twitter: vile_is_dead

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