Mac: How to customize the equalizer in iTunes

Got a new pair of headphones or speakers but sounds a bit off? If you’re an Apple Music subscriber or use iTunes as your way to manage music, there might be a way to offer a temporary fix for your audio gear…

Note: This won’t fix headphones or speakers that have driver issues and distort. It will also only work in iTunes, so jumping to Safari, or playing music from the Music app on your iPhone won’t apply these settings.

Mac: How to customize the equalizer in iTunes

1. Open iTunes on your Mac.
2. Click Window > Equalizer in the menu bar.
3. Make sure the On box is checked.

Now, you’ll be able to select from the available presets (usually bad) or tinker with the audio yourself. To keep this super simple, anywhere between 32Hz and 500Hz is bass, 1K-4K is the mids, and anything higher is treble. There are exceptions and overlaps in there, but this is will give you generally what you’re looking for.

As a rule of thumb, if you plan on raising anything above 0dB, you should move the preamp down the same amount to avoid distortion.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our how to guide as well as the following articles:

• iPhone & iPad: How to customize the Music app’s equalizer
• iPhone: How to customize the way you trigger Siri
• iPhone: How to change contacts sort order and display order
• iPhone: How to disable Raise to Wake
• Mac: How to change Apple Pay billing and shipping address
• Apple Watch: How to keep the screen on longer

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