Comments on: “Perfect” iTunes Equalizer Settings

By: Joe Bigliogo

Joe Bigliogo — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:49:27 +0000

This is nothing more than the classic (invented in the 50s) Fletcher/Munson “loudness” boost” to compensate for a crappy little speaker’s lack of bass warmth plus our ear’s lack of sensitivity to certain frequencies at low listening levels.
Warning: boosting the highs on typical small speakers that are already bright and zippy–will make them sound over the top shrill and sibilant. These curves might work with some speaker setups OR spell disaster with others. Speakers all sound radically different from each other, therefore different EQ setting will be necessary for each and every speaker brand.

What an EQ won’t do is compensate for peaks, resonances and stored energy (“hot spots”) typical of most inexpensive speakers. You simply cannot eliminate distortions inherent in the hardware.

There simply is no substitute for choosing good hardware to begin with. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear. The best advice is to run the computer’s audio into your best home stereo (even if you have to run long cables). I do it and rarely do I touch Itunes’ EQ settings

By: Amadeus

Amadeus — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:00:57 +0000

RazorFus settings sound kickass on my Marantz towers and my pioneer surrounds. Put out with an Onkyo receiver and ADC Equalizer. Thanks man. Bump.

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:36:09 +0000

BUMP!

Razorfu’s settings work pretty sexy on Reggae with my Rotel amp and Tannoy speakers. Have yet to try other styles. There’s quite a strong bass push there, so acoustic or vocals might need some tweaking.

Thanks Bud!

By: Nuno Guimaraes

Nuno Guimaraes — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:18:09 +0000

i am looking for a way to equalize the musics on itunes.
the musics seem all with the same sound when i listen on itunes, but when i pass then for the ipod, there are some musics with the sound higher than the others and some with the sound lower than the others.
can somebody tell me if there’s a software to equalize the musics?
i use the itunes and ipod equalizer and the problem persists.
thanks

By: Michel Rouzic

Michel Rouzic — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:26:30 +0000

I’m losing faith in people. You guys don’t listen. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT EQUALIZER, BECAUSE YOUR SPEAKERS THEMSELVES MODIFY SOUND JUST LIKE AN ARBITRARILY SET EQUALIZER. That’s why there can’t be an equalizer that works on all speakers/headphones.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:29:34 +0000

It doesn’t require a program, I’ve found that the quickest way to find a good EQ for your set up is to just go down the list of presets. I found that with my altec vs4121 2.1 speakers, the vocal booster preset is best. The bass on these speakers is far to prominetn, so this preset helps reduce the pounding bass, while making the sound at the other frequencies sexy too.

By: philip

philip — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:35:45 +0000

charles u made me happy,tnx boy

By: Mac Genius

Mac Genius — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:59:26 +0000

Charles, that setting that you have supplied here is garbage sir. Bottom line, keep your EQ settings set to centered & adjust the preamp between 0-1.5! Everything else depends on your audio system. The player for iTunes, as well as, all of the presets, are arranged & recommended to be used with 5.1 surround or better. Sadly, if you do not have this then your sound will always be subpar!

By: jharold

jharold — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:11:41 +0000

try to use SRS sandbox 1.7.0, my setup works perfectly. I used Creative SB X-FI Fatality for my soundcard, Logitech z-5500 for my speaker, itunes 7.5.0.2 and razoefu eq settings…

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:06:21 +0000

Thanks you appreciate the tips, guys.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:43:14 +0000

Charles, I tried your settings for half an hour now on different genres and it’s great ! I have been looking for settings which allowed me to play my Tunes loud without the heavy bass or breaking high trebles. Your settings did the trick.

I am in the process of changing all my tunes to the new setting. It’ll take about half an hour. :(

Thanks again

By: Joe Leong

Joe Leong — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:09:28 +0000

Charles, the settings are great.

I gave up on the iWow2. Even on my Bose® speakers, the sound broke and made these speakers sound cheap. So I disabled iWow2.

Thanks Charles

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:03:58 +0000

I have been looking for a nice, balanced sound from my speakers too. I finally found the right setting – with the sliders you create a parabola shape for smooth frequency response:
32 = Tick 1 (ie. One above the centre)
64 = Tick 0
125 = Tick -1
250 = Tick -2
500 = Tick -3
1000 = Tick -3
2000 = Tick -2
4000 = Tick 0
8000 = Tick 2
16000 = Tick 4
Pre-Amp = 0dB

The results were stunning for me, and my files are low bitrate. I hope you get the same results.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:42:44 +0000

Recently installed SRS iWOW 2 and it sounds so much better than Volume Logic. I use both Perfect Setting (from MacOSXHints) and RazorFu’s EQ setting. Perfect Setting bass is too deep for my jazz and RazorFu’s is beautiful !!! Still, I might still be messing around with the EQ. For now, the sound is sweet on my Bose® speakers

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 23:41:15 +0000

The so called “perfect” equalizer is not perfect after all. The setting causes all of your songs to become distorted. Whoever created this perfect equalizer, might have to check their ears, because it doesn’t make a very good sound. And it can’t be said that it is the perfect setting because sounds vary on differ computers.

By: kei

kei — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:36:36 +0000

http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/keiishot/Music%20EQ/?action=view&current=iTunesWarmEQ8-28-07.jpg