I am tempted to try this at home:
To add to the above: does anyone of you have experience in using convolution filters in a headphone system?
1 Like
My headphone system. dCS Rossini Apex + Clock, Woo WA33 EE, Audeze LCD-5 & ZMF Caldera. I am a Roon user. Audeze has Preset convolution filters provided to Roon for all their headphones. I do not use the Presets as Audeze recommends the Linear mode of use and that negates the full decoding of the MQA signal. I was able to download the filters and use them as a pure convolution filter with great success. I also add a PEQ tweek for fine tuning. Mitch Barnett of Accurate Sound has developed convolution filters for a variety of popular top end headphones. I believe he offers a short term trial with a purchase price around $200(at least for the LCD-5 filter). Some in the Audeze community swear by it. From my reading one can build your own filters but that is way above my technical ability.
3 Likes
Thank you @pippen99 . My headphone system also consists of a dCS Rossini Apex + Rossini Clock, but with the dCS Lina amp, and with Hifiman Susvara and Abyss 1266 TC. I use Roon, and know about the built in Audeze filters.
Indeed, his filters are here . I am going to try his HiFiMan Susvara FilterSet, plugged into Roon. On paper there seems to be a great correction, both in frequency and phase response:
2 Likes
I’m curious about these headphones. I had the original SR-1a and a RAAL amp, but sold it sometime ago. At the time you could not use them with other headphone amps.
1 Like
Indeed. The Raal Requisite TI-1b Ribbon/Amp Interface does the trick. Here is how it works:
Hi, you might have seen me these past weeks commenting through the system changes I was trying to make. I had a couple of variations including an experiment into E-stats. Here is where I am winding up.
Lina Dac
Lina Master clock
Replaced the Lina amp with the EF 1000 HiFiman Susvara combo deal.
Waiting on the new amp to arrive ( unfortunately my first one had a flaw in the input switch)
I too have sung the praises of the DCS Lina after previously having their Bartok. I cant say enough about the Dac. I have always however been less satisfied with the AMP particularly when driving my Susvara and AB 1266 power hungry HP. The amp drove them for sure, but not like when I heard the HE 1000. Hence took the plunge and I am hoping to been in headphone heaven once again by the end of the week. I also use Roon,Qbuz, Tidal a bit less and I am on again off again with MQA. I had Meridian speakers extensively using MQA for a time but I am finding some Hi-Res tracks that sound more natural without MQA. I don’t EQ much (mostly because Im not experienced with it) I mostly these days stream but have couple of thousand self ripped CD’s ripped in AIFF on my Roon Nucleus internal drive. Thinking about re-ripping some as I now think I have some more knowledge in how to do it better. So That’s my current idea of my dream system. Yours sound awesome enjoy!!!
I’m also interested in who else does this.
I use a simple Parametric EQ in Roon for my Stax SR-X9000, which is fundamentally just a dip of 3.7dB at 1078Hz (with a Q of 1.15). This works well for me, but I like to keep things simple, where possible!
1 Like
I use Mitch’s convolution filters with my SR1a headphones, and when I turn them off it makes the headphones sound broken. Strongly recommended.
(Mind you, when I forget to turn them off and listen to my speakers, THEY sound broken 
)
2 Likes
Thanks Ben 
Would really like to try this out, but don’t want to live without my headphones for 3+ weeks!
Why would you be without your headphones ? Convolution filters are not hardware and are downloaded to Roon or e.g. a Hang Loose convolver ( I guess that is downloaded to a PC or mac based replay system ?)
Could be that Mitch hasn’t done a set of filters for the X9000 that Jeremy has, and therefore needs a set against which to test his options.
I know Mitch hasn’t done the Hifiman Shangri-La yet, and doesn’t have an amp to drive 'stats, so the electrostatic amp might be the sticking point for the X9000s also. He could also have borrowed an amp and done some X9000s, though — this is all me guessing.
1 Like
Thanks for the heads-up Erno (this is SO much easier than having to use my Trinnov ST2-Pro) 
1 Like
Thanks. Yes it could be or could it be related to headphone calibration, but that is only available to N. American residents AFAIK.
1 Like
That’s the issue, he hasn’t yet been able to calibrate the X9000’s, so needs someone to lend them to him. If I lived close-by, his offer of the calibration free of charge would be very tempting.
However, there is the unspoken issue of items like this getting stuck in UK customs (their default opinion seems to be anything arriving in the country a second time should be taxed a second time without ‘orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters’).
Then there’s the really long waiting list to replace them, if customs really do lose them.
1 Like
While I’m sure he might make an exception to test these headphones, the weeks (I really do mean weeks) of hassle I’ve had getting upgraded gear through customs in one piece still makes me shiver.
PS I hasten to add this wasn’t anything to do with the supplier, but (repeated) instances where DHL showed absolutely no interest in where my parcels were or their current status for weeks at a time. All that was important was that they had been paid. At that point, they felt their job was done!
1 Like
Have any of you try these Mitch filters on Susvara? I quite like these EQ settings:
They also recommend -5db headroom management but the Susvara handles that big bass lift without clipping.
$200 seems quite a bit of cash for some EQ settings no?
I am using DCS Bartok > Feliks Envy > Hifiman Susvara / Meze Elite
Planning to add a Grimm MU1 at some point as source.
2 Likes
There are several people on Headfi who swear by Mitch’s filters. Most use the filter for the Audeze LCD-5 but at least a couple have tried the filter for the Susvara and were pleased. I believe the price relates to the complexity of the filter and the labor expended to compile it. I have been tempted but am currently satisfied with Audeze’s own filter and my PEQ tweaks.
Rossini Apex>Woo WA33 EE>Audeze LCD-5/ZMF Kingwood Caldera
Please forgive my lack of knowledge but how is the filter implemented? Is it downloaded to a computer which is the programme source or to Roon or some other way?