RHA CL2 EQ settings

Parametric EQ correction for the RHA CL2, derived from measurements by crinacle. It moves the measured frequency response toward a neutral target.

How the CL2 sounds before EQ

Measured against a neutral target, the CL2 comes out bright. Treble sits ahead of the bass, which reads as detail at first and fatigue over time.

The treble region, cymbals, sibilance and sparkle, sits about 5.0 dB behind neutral, so cymbals sound blunted. The sub-bass region, rumble and the weight under kick drums, sits about 4.6 dB behind neutral, so kick drums lose their weight. The presence region, vocal clarity and attack, sits about 3.4 dB forward of neutral, so consonants and attack can turn sharp.

The largest single move in the correction is 6.8 dB around 20 Hz, on top of a broad tilt of up to 5.0 dB. That is not subtle. This model benefits clearly from correction.

These figures are read from the correction itself: whatever the EQ lifts, the headphone lacked, and whatever it cuts, the headphone had too much of. The target is the community's neutral reference, and how far above 10 kHz you can trust any measurement varies by rig. More bright models.

The correction curve

The solid line is the full measured correction (all 10 filters). The dashed line is what Atrium applies: the same shape at 65 percent strength, capped at 6 dB per band, so the headphone keeps its own character instead of being forced flat.

What the EQ fixes

Summed across every filter, these are the changes the correction actually makes, largest first:

• At the bottom of the range the correction lifts everything below roughly 47 Hz by up to 6.8 dB.
• Around 7.8 kHz the correction lifts the treble by 6.5 dB, over a medium-width band about 0.9 octaves wide.
• Around 4.1 kHz the correction cuts the sibilance range by 6.1 dB, over a medium-width band about 1.1 octaves wide.

The preamp of -6.8 dB offsets the boosts so nothing clips at full volume.

The filter table below contains bigger numbers than these: its largest single filter is +12.7 dB. That is normal for an automatically fitted correction and it is not a boost of that size. Several of those filters sit on the same part of the spectrum and pull against each other, so what reaches your ears is their sum, which is the curve above. Enter every filter as listed and you get that sum. No single filter's gain is the size of any change.

Parametric EQ settings

This is the full measured correction in AutoEq format. It pastes straight into Equalizer APO or Peace on Windows, and into most parametric EQ apps. Enter every row, including the ones that cut. The fitting process is free to use large opposing filters that cancel down to a small net change, so a single large gain here does not mean a large change to the sound. The curve above is what the whole set does together.

How to use these settings

Manually: enter the preamp and each filter into any parametric EQ. On Windows that is usually Equalizer APO with the Peace interface. On a Mac, eqMac or SoundSource. Set the type, frequency, gain and Q exactly as listed.

With Atrium: pick your CL2 in the app and it applies a tuned version of this correction: 65 percent strength with a 6 dB per-band cap, which fixes the rough spots without erasing what the headphone does well. Atrium also measures how you hear with a short listening test and layers your personal hearing profile on top. Two people with the same headphones do not hear the same sound. Headphone corrections are part of Signature Edition; the app itself is free.

CL2 vs other RHA models

Bass and treble are each model's average distance from the neutral target in that range. Positive means more than neutral, negative means less.

Headphones that sound similar

Closest matches across all 4,332 measured models, by distance between their deviation curves. Useful if you like how the CL2 is tuned and want alternatives.

More RHA EQ settings