TL;DR

Do individually calibrated headphones from Sonarworks make a difference? Yea!

  • Stereo imaging is clearer
  • Vocals are not over-pronounced
  • Bass (especially in <= 200Hz range) is clearer/louder

Is it worth the $149? IMO yes, especially because of how it cleans up the sound. (It is worth noting that not all headphones normalize with EQ calibration well, but the HD 650s do.)

Calibration Curves

Below is a comparison of the average calibration curve to the individually tailored one.

The corrections in the 10kHz range are particularly interesting!

Sonarworks’ Average of all HD650s Calibrated

Individually Calibrated L/R

Individually Calibrated L Only

Individually Calibrated R Only