Choosing an Equalizer App
AutoEq doesn't perform equalization on your device, only produces settings for different equalizers. A separate equalizer app is needed.
There are mainly three different types of equalizers
- Graphic equalizers with a number of sliders for adjusting volume of different frequencies. Graphic equalizers are the most common and can be found in many devices and music players. Even Spotify has a 5 band graphic equalizer built in. Unfortunately graphic equalizers don't offer enough flexibility and control to perfectly fix all problems of many headphones but are still better than nothing if there are no other options.
- Parametric equalizers allow to control all filter parameters (center frequency, quality and gain). With 10 parametric filters, most headphones can be fixed perfectly. The headphones that cannot be fixed with 10 parametric filters, often cannot be fixed at all based on measurements.
- Convolution equalizers which use finite impulse response (FIR) filters. The FIR filters can implement almost any kinds of frequency response with extreme precision but cannot be created or tuned by the user and always need to be done by some software.
AutoEq supports all of the three and additionally a couple of special equalizers where an arbitrary equalizer frequency response can be defined.
Which one should you use? The short answer is that both parametric or convolution eq apps are perfect companions for AutoEq.
The recommended apps by platform are:
- Windows EqualizerAPO with or without Peace GUI
- MacOS AUNBandEq with AU Lab and BlackHole or Soundflower. Alternatively paid options eqMac and SoundSource offer easier setup.
- Linux PulseEffects / EasyEffects
- Android Wavelet
- iOS iOS doesn't allow apps to hijack audio streams of other apps so system-wide equalizers are not possible. Hardware solutions Qudelix 5K and MiniDSP IL-DSP work on iOS too.
| Name | Type | Platform | Free | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EqualizerAPO Graphic Eq | Special | Windows | Yes | Allows an arbitrary frequency response. Uses convolution under the hood to implement the equalizer. |
| EqualizerAPO Parametric Eq | Parametric | Windows | Yes | EqualizerAPO supports any number of parametric filters with almost no limits to parameter value ranges. |
| Peace | Parametric | Windows | Yes | Peace GUI is a graphical user interface for EqualizerAPO. Some users prefer the user experince to EqualizerAPO’s own configuration editor. Peace comes with AutoEq profiles built-in but you might want to customize your experience first in autoeq.app |
| Wavelet | Special | Android | Yes | The best eq app on Android. Wavelet works with Spotify or any other app on the phone can do arbitrary equalizer frequency responses. Wavelet comes with AutoEq profiles built-in but you might want to customize your experience first in autoeq.app |
| Poweramp Equalizer | Parametric | Android | Yes | System-wide equalizer app on Android. Apparently requires some tinkering to get it to work with Spotify |
| Poweramp | Parametric | Android | No | Poweramp is the most popular music player on Android and has a built-in parametric equalizer that inspired also Poweramp Equalizer standalon app. |
| Neutron | Parametric | Android, iOS, Windows | No | Neutron is a music player on Android with a built-in parametric equalizer. Unfortunately Neutron can only play files on the phone and does not work with streaming services. |
| USB Audio Player PRO | Parametric | Android | No | USB Audio Player PRO is also a music player on Android with built-in parametric equalizer by Toneboosters. UAPP has improved support for USB DACs. |
| Viper4Android | Convolution | Android | Yes | Powerful DSP app on Android but requires rooting of the device. |
| JamesDSP | Convolution | Android | Yes | Another powerful DSP app on Android but also requires rooting. |
| RootlessJamesDSP | Convolution | Android | Yes | Version of the JamesDSP which doesn’t require rooting but unfortunately does not work with streaming service like Spotify out of the box. Patches are available to make Spotify work. |
| SoundSource | Parametric | MacOS | No | A powerful and easy to use audio tool on Mac. Quite pricey though to be used just for AutoEq. Comes with AutoEq profiles built-in but you might want to customize your experience first in autoeq.app. |
| eqMac Expert | Parametric | MacOS | No | A simple standalone system-wide equalizer app on Mac. Comes with AutoEq profiles built-in but you might want to customize your experience first in autoeq.app. |
| eqMac Advanced | Graphic | MacOS | Yes | Free version of eqMac but only has 10-band graphic eq. |
| AUNBandEq | Parametric | MacOS | Yes | A parametric equalizer plugin on MacOS which ships with the devices. This requires a plugin host to actually interact with any audio streams. AU Lab with BlackHole or Soundflower is an option for that. |
| PulseEffect / EasyEffects | Convolution | Linux | Yes | A powerful DSP engine on Linux with both parametric and convolution equalizers built in. The recommended choice for Linux systems. |
| Qudelix 5K | Parametric | Hardware | No | Qudelix 5K is a USB DAC, Bluetooth receiver and headphone amp with built-in parametric equalizer. Perhaps the best option on iOS platform. |
| MiniDSP IL-DSP | Parametric | Hardware | No | Another DAC, Bluetooth, amp dongle. Smaller and cheaper than Qudelix 5K but less full featured. |
The web application has many of the most popular equalizer apps available but obviously not all app in the world can be listed. In many cases it's still possible to make AutoEq generate eq settings for your headphones by choosing another similar app.
The 10-band graphic eq works for practically all standard 10-band equalizer apps. The bands' center frequencies are almost always the same and therefore the results are compatible. The eq settings will produce gains between -12 dB and +12 dB and this should be compatible with most apps. If your eq app of choice doesn't allow large enough gain to be set what the produced eq settings ask, just use the maximum (or minimum) value in your app instead. Similarly the 31-band graphic eq option works with most eq apps that have 31 sliders to adjust but keep in mind that the optimizer doesn't work well with such high number of filters as optimizing them would in most cases require more time than what is allowed in AutoEq at the moment.
Parametric equalizers with different number of bands than 10 or 31 can be worked with by configuring a Custom Parametric Eq. Remove the low and high shelf filters which are added by default and add as many peaking filters as your eq app has bands. The "Min Fc" and "Max Fc" for each filter should match the band's frequency. "Min Q" and "Max Q" should be also fixed to the width of the filter. The Q of each filter should be same as all filters in graphic equalizers have the same width and can be calculated by:
- Bandwith = 10 / number of bands
- Calculate Q from bandwidth using Sengpiel Audio Q factor vs bandwidth calculator.
For example with 20-band eq these would come out as:
- Bandwidth = 10 / 20 = 0.5
- Q = 2.871
So every filter would have MinQ and MaxQ of 2.871.
This is what the first 4 bands for a 20-band eq look like when configured to the Custom Parametric Eq.
Parametric equalizers are quite flexible and since fixing headphones shouldn't require more than 10 filters (bands), most parametric eq apps are compatible with each other. If you have a parametric equalizer that is not listed as an option in the eq apps, you can first try to select "Peace". This will produce a eq settings with a low-shelf filter, high-shelf filter and 8 peaking filters with gains between -20 dB and +20 dB and Q between 0.18248 and 6.0 and should therefore be compatible with most equalizer apps.
If the first option fails you by producing Q or gain values that cannot be configured to your eq app, you need to configure a Custom Parametric Eq. This is as simple as adding filters and configuring
- Min Gain: minimum gain value you can set for a filter
- Max Gain: maximum gain value you can set for a filter
- Min Q: minimum Q value you can set for a filter
- Max Q: maximum Q value you can set for a filter
for each filter according to what the equalizer app supports. If the eq app supports shelf filters, it's recommended to add one low-shelf filter with Min Q and Max Q of 0.7 and Min Fc and Max Fc of 105 and one high-shelf filter with Min Q and Max Q of 0.7 and Min Fc and Max Fc of 10000. All the other filters should be Peaking.
In most cases these values should be same for each filter of the same type. Some eq apps don't let you adjust Q for shelf filters and for these you can use value of 0.7 for Min Q and Max Q. If the eq app uses bandwidth instead of Q, you can use Sengpiel Audio Q factor vs bandwidth to do the conversion.