OpenPEQ

⚠️ Golden Rule: Protect Your Hearing First

Pure sine tones in the 3 kHz – 10 kHz ear-gain region sound piercing through in-ear monitors. Always keep the Volume slider low (at or below -30 dB) before pressing Play or Run Sweep.

1. Choose Your Frequency & Sweep Mode (4 Options)

Use the Mode selector in the Resonance & Tonal Generator bar to target specific acoustic regions, and watch the live frequency playhead move across the graph:

• 1. Selected Frequency (Manual): Plays a steady pure sine tone locked to the Freq slider (`20 Hz – 20 kHz`) so you can manually scrub and inspect any exact frequency.
• 2. Full Spectrum (20 Hz – 20 kHz): Runs a continuous logarithmic sweep across the entire audible spectrum to evaluate overall tonal smoothness, driver coherence, and upper-treble extension.
• 3. Canal Peak Finder (4 kHz – 10 kHz): Sweeps the critical quarter-wave ear-canal insertion resonance zone (`5.5 kHz – 8.5 kHz`). When a frequency suddenly jumps out as sharp or piercing, click 🎯 Snap Band and apply a narrow cut (`-2.0 dB` to `-3.5 dB`, `Q: 3.5 – 5.0`) to eliminate treble fatigue.
• 4. Sub-Bass & Mid-Bass (20 Hz – 300 Hz): Sweeps the low-end foundation to verify eartip acoustic seal (`20 – 60 Hz` sub-bass rumble) and identify `150 – 280 Hz` mid-bass bloat or boominess.

2. Verify Natural Tonal Balance (Pink Noise)

Pink noise contains equal acoustic energy per octave (falling at 3 dB/octave), perfectly mimicking how human hearing judges spectral balance across bass, mids, and treble.

• Step A: Click 📻 Pink Noise after tweaking your PEQ curve.
• Step B: It should sound like a continuous, smooth, soothing waterfall.
• Step C: If you hear a harsh whistle or hissing peak, your treble has an uncorrected spike. If it sounds hollow or thin, check your 250 Hz – 500 Hz lower mids.
• Step D: Click ▶ Apply (Live DSP RAM) to audition on your connected DAC before saving to persistent hardware NVRAM.