How do you know what listening hardware to aim for

[gwilendiel]

And how do you calibrate your own?

I've been wondering this lately. I know you can only do so much, and if somebody has messed up EQ preferences on their system then they won't hear things the same way but...

What should you shoot for when calibrating your own system for production, so you know what the average listener will hear? I'm having this issue lately, like stuff sounds good on my headphones or speakers but may sound bad on somebody elses.

I'm at my dads at the moment and he's got these studio headphones, but his EQ is kind of jacked up... I tried one of my songs and was like "holy smokes that's bad!" But then I tried other songs from other people and they too were bad... except a couple songs still sound good (but I can still tell the EQ is out of whack)

So.. anyway

[Nekofrog]

headphones/monitors/whatever to be flat across the board in eq, tailor to that

[gwilendiel]

headphones/monitors/whatever to be flat across the board in eq, tailor to that

Right, I got that part, works the same as db levels on the peak meter (relatively standardized). But like say with flat EQ, my bass recording sounds too weak, so I adjust the EQ on the recording. Would that be the wrong thing to do? Especially if my speakers/headphones are somehow bad? Or possibly even 'too good'? How can I tell if they are bad when everything sounds good? o.o

Like if you have headphones that make less low frequency than usual, raising the low frequency to what sounds normal could make it too much when heard through a different set... or maybe I'm thinking too much.

Edit:
I think I know how to solve my question.
This is probably the best mixing job I have done recently (as far as levels go, it's an instrument edit)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XknH8Msr-8
So maybe people can tell me how the levels are and I'll have a known reference.

[Fishy]

If you don't know the response of your headphones, mix to a professionally mixed reference that you think sounds good on your stuff.

If your mix doesn't have as much bass as a song you think is mixed well, it is the right thing to EQ the bass up. Other then that it's entirely a personal preference thing really.

[gwilendiel]

If you don't know the response of your headphones, mix to a professionally mixed reference that you think sounds good on your stuff.

If your mix doesn't have as much bass as a song you think is mixed well, it is the right thing to EQ the bass up. Other then that it's entirely a personal preference thing really.

Ahh, ok. That's what I thought o.o (and what I did) but still got comments about my mixing (which was intentionally and knowingly done) so I kind of started getting flipped out wondering if there really is something I'm not hearing (rather than a choice I made)

Not that I'm a pro or anything, but just good to know I at least had the right idea. Thanks!