Apple Music is a great music streaming app if you want to listen to your favorite songs and albums at the best quality. But despite the fantastic sound quality available on the platform, you might need to adjust your equalizer settings for enhancement if you’re unsatisfied with the sound.
While there’s a built-in equalizer, Apple Music offers custom presets with no way to customize the sound effects. For that, you’ll need to use third-party equalizers for Apple Music. Here are the five best equalizer apps for fine-tuning your Apple Music sound.
Limitations of Using Apple Music Equalizers
Before we jump into the equalizer apps for Apple Music, we should note one major limitation. Due to licensing restrictions, songs available on Apple Music have Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. DRM protection prevents third-party apps from applying sound effects to your Apple Music songs.
If you want to bypass DRM protection on Apple Music and use third-party equalizer apps to customize your audio sound, there’s only one way out—purchase songs from iTunes. As one of the best places to buy music online, iTunes is easy to use. Open the iTunes Store app on your iPhone and go to the Music tab. From there, you can search for songs and albums and purchase them.
Once you purchase a song or album, iTunes will automatically download it on your iPhone or iPad, and it will be added to your Apple Music library. After that, you’ll be able to apply sound effects to the purchased song(s) because songs available on iTunes have no DRM protection.
1. Equalizer Fx: Bass Booster App
Equalizer Fx is one of the best third-party equalizers for Apple Music. The app has eight custom presets to choose from, and you can add your own if you want. The equalizer allows you to adjust different sound frequencies to adjust your audio sound exactly as you’d like. There’s also an easy-to-access Bass Booster button at the bottom of the music player.
Connecting Equalizer Fx with Apple Music is a breeze, so you won’t have an issue getting started with the app for a beginner. The only catch is that you’ll need to pay for the app to customize your sound. However, the good news is the app offers a free three-day trial for you to give it a try.
Although you can play all songs in your Apple Music library on Equalizer Fx, DRM restrictions apply, meaning no sound effects will be applied to DRM-protected songs. If you’re playing DRM-protected music in your library, we recommend using the official app, which offers equalizer presets. Here are tips on how to set up your Apple Music equalizer.
Download: Equalizer Fx: Bass Booster App (Free, subscription available)
2. Boom: Bass Booster & Equalizer
Boom has a variety of presets to choose from if you don’t want to dig into frequency adjustments. But if that’s what you wish to do, Boom has an eight-band and 16-band equalizer, plus the ability to adjust pre-Amp levels. Best of all, Boom has 3D surround sound available, which you have complete control over through the 3D Speaker Controls settings.
Here, you can turn off individual speakers and see how the sound output changes instantly. For better tuning, you can even select your headphone type in the app’s settings section.
Once you connect your Apple Music account, you can view your library’s songs, albums, artists, playlists, and genres by using the relevant options at the bottom of the app. It also makes your library easy to navigate by using the search bar above each section. It’s one of our best equalizers for Apple Music and a good choice if you want to boost your iPhone’s volume.
Download: Boom: Bass Booster & Equalizer (Free, subscription available)
3. Equalizer+ HD Music Player
Equalizer+ has a seven-band equalizer that you can use to customize your Apple Music sound quality. If you’re a fan of presets, the app has nine options available. There’s an option to boost the bass of your music, and it includes eight visualizer effects and seven DJ transitions if you’d like to incorporate them into your music. It has dedicated buttons for boosting your volume and bass as well.
The app could have a better user interface design relative to other Apple Music equalizers on this list, but it does an excellent job for its main functionality. Another drawback is you can’t play all songs in your Apple Music library unless you purchased them on iTunes (even though the app imports all your songs). Finally, like most apps on the list, you’ll have to pay to enjoy the app’s full functionality.
Download: Equalizer+ HD Music Player (Free, subscription available)
4. Bass Booster 3D
Bass Booster 3D looks similar to Equalizer+ but has several unique features. For one, it has a 3D bass booster and a selection of presets, but you can still create your own. The equalizer is five-band which can be a limitation if you’d like to fine-tune your Apple Music sound to the finest details.
Plus, unlike Equalizer+, which shows all your Apple Music library songs, whether they are DRM-protected or not, Bass Booster only imports DRM-free songs and albums.
The paid version unlocks sound, volume, and bass customization, but you don’t have to upgrade if you’re content with the basic version.
Download: Bass Booster 3D + Volume Boost (Free, subscription available)
5. Equalizer – Volume Booster EQ
This app has an excellent user interface, is easy to use, and allows you to tune your sound without a fuss. You have four options on the player screen: Maximizer, Equalizer, Pitch/Time, and Spatial Audio.
The equalizer is eight-band, which should offer you enough freedom to customize your sound or simply select one of the app’s presets for a quick fix. The catch is that only the equalizer option is free—you’ll have to pay to unlock others.
Once you download the app, it gives a taste of what to expect on the loading screen. The app automatically requests you to link your Apple Music account, which takes a few seconds.
Download: Equalizer – Volume Booster EQ (Free, subscription available)
Experience the Best Sound on Apple Music With Third-Party Equalizers
Apple Music offers excellent audio quality, but you certainly need more than the highest sound quality if you’re an audiophile. Customizing the sound is always welcome, and Apple Music offers a built-in equalizer that isn’t customizable. But by using any third-party apps listed above, you can fine-tune your sound the way you want.