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I tested Apple’s AirPods equalizer: Here's what works (and what doesn't)
Well, it’s finally here: Apple gave its AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4 models an actual equalizer. Though it’s a bit of a departure for Apple, is the feature any good? I was able to take the AirPods Pro 3 back into the lab to kick the tires on the new sound adjustment settings. The results were… mixed, to say the least.
What works:
For a first attempt, Apple got a few things right. Below are the main positives from the three-band equalizer.
The bass and treble adjustment sliders
Last week, I theorized that Apple’s equalizer may not be so bad because the biggest issues with the AirPods Pro 3 could be more or less dealt with fairly easily with two shelf filters. That’s exactly what the new equalizer does: offer a low shelf filter, and a high shelf filter centered around 5kHz. Though the highs can be a pain for some depending on how loudly you listen, the equalizer adjustments for bass and treble alone are effective — adding more would be an exercise in diminishing returns for all but a few people.
Though I am the last person on Earth to want to say this: good job, Apple.
The bass slider seems to be a low shelf filter at about 150Hz, and will boost or cut everything below by +8 to -7dB.
There aren’t any odd tweaks to the adjustment, so most people should get exactly what they expect with this tone control. However, it’s possible you’ll run into wierdness at full volume, like we did.
I’m unsure why the lows wobble here so much, but it could simply be a function of the test protocol and not something you’d ever notice.
The treble slider is a shelf filter at about 5kHz, which will move everything from that frequency on up to +8 to -7dB.
This adjustment doesn’t seem to have any other surprises waiting for us, and behaves just like a normal high-frequency adjustment would in any other app.
I get the feeling that the treble cut doesn’t always work the same way, because it will extend pretty low if you have any other adjustments active at the same time (above). Otherwise, it will terminate at about the same place as the boost (top). If you only apply the treble cut, it will behave like a 5kHz shelf filter that bottoms out at -7dB or so.
The equalizer lets you counteract LDEQ
Loudness-dependent equalization (LDEQ) has been met with mixed reactions because it changes the sound of your earbuds depending on the listening level you choose. This led to some fairly animated and strongly negative reactions from some users, which would have been avoided had the AirPods Pro 3 launched with a way to counteract these adjustments.
If you look around on Reddit, you’ll see a lot of people turning down the bass and treble on headphone enthusiast subreddits — though there’s plenty of people instinctively doing the opposite. You may not expect that, but because anyone listening to the Apple AirPods Pro 3 at a lower level likely has an unreasonable amount of emphasis in these ranges. I actually expected to see this because it’s evidence that users are simply disabling the effects of LDEQ in their earbuds. It’s addressing the source of people’s distaste for the new tuning offered by the latest AirPods.
What doesn’t:
It’s not all sunshine and roses; there are some sucky parts of the new equalizer. They become apparent pretty quickly.
The mids slider
I’m not sure what the heck was going on when the decision was made to make the mids slider change its center frequency depending on what setting you choose. But it’s not great! If you expect the mid band of the equalizer to behave like every other three-band EQ out there, you’re in for a rude surprise.
I have no idea why, but the center frequency of the mids slider changes depending on how much you boost or cut this range. You can see that maxing out the slider will push everything centered around 1.4kHz up by about 5dB, while cutting the mids will drop everything centered around 875Hz by about 10dB.
It’s a bizarre adjustment scheme, but I don’t know that many will be using it all that often.
Annoyingly, this control doesn’t fix the underemphasis between 2 and 5kHz, which seems like a bit of a misstep in my opinion. But then again, you aren’t going to get very granular controls with an EQ like this.
It’s not a huge deal, but making adjustments that don’t make intuitive sense is a recipe for unexpected results. It’s not bad per se, but definitely something that should get a closer eye on. I was hoping that this filter might counteract an underemphasis in a really important region (ear gain), but it’s not quite there.
The user interface
To say that the user interface is as tough to read as it is to use would be an understatement. Users aren’t given actual numbers or tick marks to help them navigate how much they’re adjusting the sound — they’re just expected to be okay with a blind slider.
While that may not be an issue for some, it is for the type of person who’s actually wanted an EQ for years now. It’s bad enough that the three bands are only labeled “bass,” “mid,” and “high,” but not putting any sort of guide or good idea how you’re altering the frequency response is just an unforced error.
Clashing features
Though it’s unclear whether or not this is intended or simply an oversight, but if you change your sound settings in other parts of iOS, the equalizer will apply its changes on top of those other filters. That means that Headphone Accommodations and your streaming service’s equalizer could clash, and reduce your audio quality if you don’t disable the equalizer filters you don’t want used.
While those making tiny adjustments may not notice this, those of you who like to listen loud absolutely should. Though not definitive, I noticed a small (but hardly audible) amount of distortion in the uppermost range of human hearing with the equalizer enabled. I can only imagine this would worsen the more filters you stack on the signal.
Verdict
It’s not perfect, but Apple’s inclusion of an equalizer for its AirPods models is a solid baby step forward. However, the company really needs to get over its addiction to overly simple designs if it wants to give users an actual way to address their biggest pain points with AirPods’ sound. You may think a basic EQ is fine, but it would help to have some sort of guide or label to know how much you’re boosting or cutting a certain band, for example.
Well-tuned headphones and earbuds generally don’t need complicated tone controls to sound good. Though the AirPods Pro 2 fit this description, the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 aren’t tuned well enough to a standard to make this limited adjustment scheme as effective as it could be. Still, the adjustments to bass and treble are quite good across all models that can use the new equalizer, so even this limited adjustment scheme is a marked improvement.
Did Apple go far enough with its new AirPods EQ?
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