EQ Software for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS/iPadOS and Android.

[abm0]

The readme from the source repo is a little different and shows it available from the Play Store too if people don't want to use f-droid.

There's little reason to not want to use a store of free and open-source apps vs. Google Play, other than that you haven't installed F-Droid (or Droidify) yet and see that step as a hassle. Aside from the well-known Google-specific spying, tracking and profiling of users, I've been finding myself ever more irritated at the confusing anti-usability changes and the amount of advertising and misdirection they've been adding to the Play interface lately, getting in the way of my finding the app I'm looking for. Meanwhile F-Droid and its alternatives have no ads and no misdirection, WYSIWYG.

Anyway, what's damped my excitement about RJDSP in the meantime is the notion that it might not be bypassing the Android SRC and might allow the output sampling rate to be forced to 44.1 or 48k just like V4A. That would prevent me from using oversampling as a fix for potentially bad DAC filters with early rolloff.

Haven't found out anything definitive on this yet (and also can't install it on my current phone to check).

 

[bmarshall]

Has everyone seen this?
Rootless JamesDSP

If it works as advertised (and can be tweaked to be "reasonably system-wide") this could be a "ViPER4Android for the masses", as it doesn't require a rooted Android.

I'm especially interested in the Convolver function, which is a critical V4A feature for me as that's how I apply my HRTF-based headphone corrections (it's basically like an unlimited-bands PEQ if you know how to use waveform editors like Audacity on your PC). I would lose that moving to my next phone if I opted to not root it in the interest of higher security, as V4A is root-only (as is the original JDSP). This would be my saving grace in that scenario.

Thanks for mentioning this. I've had JamesDSP loaded as a Magisk module on a rooted phone for years and used it occasionally to drag better sound out of rubbish bluetooth headphones/earbuds but I was quite a few updates behind and it didn't work with all apps. This new version looks (visually) a lot nicer, and I found instructions on the github repo to use the new app with the magisk module on rooted phones to remove some of the limitations so thought I would check it out and report back.

First up in true rootless:
Works pretty much how the app description says so plays well with some apps and not with others.

Qobuz app - works
UAPP - works for speaker and bluetooth (i.e. no USB DAC) as long as you have disabled the "HiRes Direct driver" option for the internal audio driver options. Doing this you can see that UAPP is downsampling everything to the system rate regardless of source sample rate.
Audio from termux does not work so no squeezelite.
Firefox (Nightly) - got a pop-up to say app not supported so had to disable it - no embedded youtube content i guess?

I also experienced some of the delay in starting new audio streams that is warned about in the in-app help and maybe on the github repo.

Running with the Magisk module (rooted)
With the root capabilities pretty much all the limitations are removed. There's no more audio delay and more apps start working.
Termux (squeezelite) - now working
UAPP - works for speaker and bluetooth even with "HiRes Direct Driver" option enabled. UAPP shows playback for speaker or bluetooth at the file sample rate (no downsampling)
Firefox (Nightly) - works.

So for anyone considering this the rooted option is still way more powerful! Autoeq integration works well enough - easy to search and load up a new headphone correction - plus you still get access to loading totally custom graphic eq strings or using the convolver etc if you have your own custom corrections.

 

[ZolaIII]

@abm0 F-Droid excludes Google analytic API lib so it's not just about Play store when it comes to spying.

 

[somebodyelse]

@abm0 I would be using f-droid or building from source, but I know plenty of people who will reject f-droid as too complicated and/or don't care about the data collection. The Play Store comment is aimed at people like them.

 

[abm0]

So for anyone considering this the rooted option is still way more powerful!

But still limited to the host Android's sample rate in both root and non-root versions, right? This is what I'm hearing from the devs.

F-Droid excludes Google analytic API lib so it's not just about Play store when it comes to spying.

I assume you mean "includes"?
Meh. Not every app that has tracking-capable libraries included is actually using them (in that way). But anyway, sure there are known security problems with F-Droid too, that's why I also hinted at alternatives like Droid-ify (though the deepest issues aren't fixed in any high-usability alternatives that I know of so far).

 

[bmarshall]

But still limited to the host Android's sample rate in both root and non-root versions, right? This is what I'm hearing from the devs.

Yeah i think so. Unscientifically tested here using my E1DA 90838D which I can see the playback sample rate on using it's app. Playing a 96KHz track from Qobuz app shows a 48KHz playback rate on the DAC. I believe 48KHz is my phone/OS native sample rate. JamesDSP was working for this testing so I am assume it's operating at 48KHz. The only local files I had on the phone were 44.1KHz, these also play back on the DAC at 48KHz.

I don't know enough about Android to know where to up/down-sampling is happening. My best guess would be that Android itself is downsampling the 96KHz stream from the Qobuz app (and up-sampling the local file stream) but I can't rule out that the Qobuz app does this itself if it "knows" the system only supports 48KHz?

 

[abm0]

Don't know what these streaming apps can do, but you can test even with 44.1 files in Neutron Player if you turn on Oversampling in Audio Hardware and keep Direct USB turned off. Or in UAPP I think there's also some upsampling option that should work about the same.

 

[JLGF1]

Some free PEQ VST's for Windows & (some) Mac.

https://ddmf.eu/freeware/

 

[Peterinvan]

Just to let you know Hiby Music got 10 band PEQ with basic filters (Q 0.20 to 20 range), Qubuz suport along with other less significant futures.

HiBy Music also streams Tidal playlists, so the excellent EQ functions can be utilized. FiiO M11 Pro (Android).

 

[Greg Wilding]

@Doodski awesome list, what a great resource! Would you add my app HouseCurve to the list? It's a REW-like app for iOS that can generate PEQ filters for room correction. It supports several EQ file formats. You can use it with calibrated mics like the UMIK-1, but works fine with just the iPhone mic too.

 

[Doodski]

@Doodski awesome list, what a great resource! Would you add my app HouseCurve to the list? It's a REW-like app for iOS that can generate PEQ filters for room correction. It supports several EQ file formats. You can use it with calibrated mics like the UMIK-1, but works fine with just the iPhone mic too.

I added it to the list. Thank you very much for the link!

 

[CedarX]

@Doodski awesome list, what a great resource! Would you add my app HouseCurve to the list? It's a REW-like app for iOS that can generate PEQ filters for room correction. It supports several EQ file formats. You can use it with calibrated mics like the UMIK-1, but works fine with just the iPhone mic too.

Didn’t know your app !!! Installed and purchased the tuning bundle. Now I need to get my ear muffs and start playing

 

[MachOne]

@Doodski awesome list, what a great resource! Would you add my app HouseCurve to the list? It's a REW-like app for iOS that can generate PEQ filters for room correction. It supports several EQ file formats. You can use it with calibrated mics like the UMIK-1, but works fine with just the iPhone mic too.

This looks great! Will have to try it sometime.

 

[Westsounds]

For windows and users of Firefox as their browser, I’ve been using Audio Equalizer.

It’s a decent little eq which sits in the extensions/add-ons of the browser, and if you listen through your browser to a music website or whatever you can quickly tweak and adjust the sound to suit. I use it subtlety and it just brings the sound ‘for me’ to a perfect balance. I’m quite sensitive to any harshness or aggressive sound, and I can smooth it out perfectly. It’s not a complicated eq but for my purposes works perfectly and now my main eq while listening to music through a browser. You can also save set your own presets if you do want to change or enhance certain aspects for different music or listening.

Need one like this now for my TV Fire Stick and Alexa, unfortunately the eq controls for those are not available when Bluetooth streaming.

Audio Equalizer â Get this Extension for ð¦ Firefox (en-GB)

Download Audio Equalizer for Firefox. Stylish audio equalizer in toolbar popup.

addons.mozilla.org

 

[mrfat]

Audacious is my favorite player for Linux and Windows, it plays DSD easily and has some eq.

Audacious - An Advanced Audio Player

audacious-media-player.org

 

[e_h]

Is there any difference (in terms of sound quality) between using EQ APO/PEACE at the source, vs applying EQ later in the chain with a DAC/amp setup?

For context: I recently bought a pair of good headphones and intend to use them with my Windows 11 laptop as a source (for gaming and music). I'm now trying to figure out what DAC/amp setup to get and if it should have EQ capabilities. I want to optimize the sound quality as much as possible, to the extent that it makes a (possibly) audible difference. I don't have any DAC/amp today since I'm running an all digital chain from my laptop to my Genelecs (EQ:d using GLM), and I've been using APO/PEACE for my previous headphones which were plugged directly into the laptop's 3.5mm output.

 

[RosalieTheDog]

Is there any difference (in terms of sound quality) between using EQ APO/PEACE at the source, vs applying EQ later in the chain with a DAC/amp setup?

For context: I recently bought a pair of good headphones and intend to use them with my Windows 11 laptop as a source (for gaming and music). I'm now trying to figure out what DAC/amp setup to get and if it should have EQ capabilities. I want to optimize the sound quality as much as possible, to the extent that it makes a (possibly) audible difference. I don't have any DAC/amp today since I'm running an all digital chain from my laptop to my Genelecs (EQ:d using GLM), and I've been using APO/PEACE for my previous headphones which were plugged directly into the laptop's 3.5mm output.

No, don't worry. EQ is always in the digital domain, so it doesn't matter if it's on the pc or in the digital domain upstream. Save some money too, Dac/amps with EQ possibilities are much more expensive than equivalent ones without this functionality. Dac/amps with EQ are usually not meant for use with PCs as source, as that would defeat their purpose.

 

[Lunafag]

Is there any difference (in terms of sound quality) between using EQ APO/PEACE at the source, vs applying EQ later in the chain with a DAC/amp setup?

For context: I recently bought a pair of good headphones and intend to use them with my Windows 11 laptop as a source (for gaming and music). I'm now trying to figure out what DAC/amp setup to get and if it should have EQ capabilities. I want to optimize the sound quality as much as possible, to the extent that it makes a (possibly) audible difference. I don't have any DAC/amp today since I'm running an all digital chain from my laptop to my Genelecs (EQ:d using GLM), and I've been using APO/PEACE for my previous headphones which were plugged directly into the laptop's 3.5mm output.

EQ applications themselves may produce different results from the same set of filters, that's just something people should be aware of. Always measure what your speakers/headphones are actually outputting after EQ if you can.

 

[Fdr186]

Hello @Greg Wilding, thank you for your app: the best 9€ spent for anything hi-fi related. I have a question for you: my eq software SoundSource doesn’t accept Q values higher than 5 so it won’t accept the txt from your app nor I can manually insert the parametric values. Any ideas or suggestions, other than having to change the app?

 

[antcollinet]

@Greg_Wilding might have a better answer, but in the meantime, you can use AUNBandEQ in sound source. That uses width instead of Q (Width is F/Q), and doesn't seem to be restricted in the way you are finding.