Everyone has different music tastes. By simply changing the audio settings of your music player via trebles, vocal enhancers, or bass, you will get a sound quality that will match your taste.
Spotify recognizes that listeners may want to change their music or podcast sound, so in early 2014 – the company rolled out an equalizer feature for premium users to the audio settings for treble, mids and bass to fit their needs.
This feature helps users find the right sound for them, but it may be difficult to find especially for subscribers new to the app. In this article, we will discuss where to find the equalizer and how it works across different devices.
What Is An Equalizer?
EQ or Equalizer is a filter that adjusts the loudness of specific audio frequencies when you’re listening to music or podcasts. Some equalizers reduce bass, boost the bass, or boost the high end.
All songs and podcasts you listen to are normally edited, to make it sound good on a variety of sound systems whether it is played on a lossless CD player or a low-quality audio connection. Users on most streaming apps like to use the equalizer settings – they have the option to dial in or use the preset, to make the music sound the way they want on the equipment used at that time.
Spotify doesn’t have the most advanced equalizer settings, but the custom equalizer settings on the mobile app can help you achieve the sound you want. Check out our article on how to perfect equalizer settings for the best sound.
How To Change Equalizer Settings on Spotify
When using an Equalizer, changing the settings to one type might not work well on all devices and music. The settings vary across individual songs, genres and all devices. Let’s say you’re using a standard laptop speaker to listen to music, it is recommended to reduce the mids and increase the bass. Similarly, if you’re using a speaker with strong bass, you can choose to increase the bass on the equalizer settings to balance it out.
Factors like age and hearing capabilities affect the normal equalizer setting for your listening experience. Everyone has different music preferences, however, Spotify saved most users a lot of trouble by setting presets for each user’s equalizer.
Changing Spotify Equalizer Settings on iPhone
1. If you use an iPhone, Open your Spotify app, click on the ‘Your Library’ Tab. Select Playback by tapping on the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Make sure the toggle is turned on, then select Equalizer.
The numbers you see under each graph correspond to a range of certain audio frequencies. On Spotify, 60Hz to 250Hz correlates with the bass, 250 Hz to 4 kHz to the midrange and > 4 kHz for the treble. You can change each of the sound frequency settings by dragging any points on the graph to any position you want in this simplified parametric EQ.
To get a feel of the changes you input, put on one of your favorite songs or podcasts and check if the sound is what you want to achieve.
If you don’t feel like changing the tune of your equalizer settings, or just want to keep things as they are, Spotify has a preset that you can choose from. They are named either by the genre of music they work best for ( e.g classical or Rock) or by their function ( e.g Bass reducer or Bass Booster).
The preset is very easy to use, just tap on it and it will be applied immediately. You also have an option to modify the preset after you have it set up.
Changing Spotify Equalizer Settings on Android
For Android Users, Open your Spotify app, tap ‘Settings’ on the gear icon in the top right corner. Select Equalizer by Scrolling down.
The equalizer for each Android is different, it depends on the manufacturer how it is installed. Spotify then works with the equalizer installed by the manufacturer. Below you can see the equalizer settings for a typical Samsung Android version.
Depending on the manufacturer of the phone and how the Equalizer is installed, each of them works slightly differently. But they all perform the same function. You can play around them as much as you want until you get the sound that you want.
If you can’t find an option to change the equalizer, that means the manufacturer hasn’t enabled it for your phone. In most cases, you don’t need an equalizer, but if you want to make your music sound great, they are worth playing with.
Some headphones like Apple’s Beat X earbuds tend to overemphasize the bass. You can dial it back a bit on the Spotify Equalizer, to produce a more natural sound.
Changing Spotify Equalizer Settings on Windows
When you open Spotify on your Windows or Macbook computer, you may be confused about how to change the Equalizer settings. There are no equalizer settings for Spotify on the Desktop client. In fact, if you search for ‘Spotify Equalizer Desktop’ on Spotify Community, you will get this answer below:
“By considering it, again and again, we have decided not to create an equalizer for the Spotify desktop app at this time instead making this idea as Case Closed. In fact, they are always used by a small audience and Spotify will focus on features that have higher engagement”.
What do we do to change the music quality to our own taste on a Windows or Mac computer? There are a variety of third-party Spotify Desktop app equalizers to choose from such as eqMac for Macbooks and Equalify Pro for Windows laptops. In this section, we will use each app as an example to guide you on how to change the sound settings on your Spotify desktop app on your Windows or Mac computer.
How To Use Equalify Pro For Spotify On a Windows Computer
Step 1: Install Equalify Pro on your computer first, and it will automatically integrate into the Spotify Desktop app
Step 2: Open the Spotify app on your PC and play any choice of your songs through the Spotify app. At the top bar, you will see an ‘EQ’ icon pop up.
Step 3: Tap on the ‘EQ’ icon, a equalizer window will come up and you can change the music sound preset to what fits your needs.
How To Use eqMac for Spotify On A MacBook
Step 1: Log on to www.eqmac.app. Download the eqMac.dmg file.
Step 2: Drag the file into the Applications directory and launch it on Mac
Step 3: Open your Spotify app. Play any song of your choice. You can edit the song settings on the main screen of the eqMac. Click on ‘Basic Equalizer’ to control the Bass, Mid, balance, Volume, and Treble.
Step 4: You can use the ‘Advanced Equalizer‘ settings to adjust the Advance Equalizer settings for your Spotify app.
How To Change Equalizer Settings On the Spotify Web player
Spotify Web player allows users to enjoy music on Spotify on their web browser. It doesn’t feature an in-built equalizer that allows users to change audio settings. However, it is possible to use the Equalizer on Spotify web player to enhance the music to match your taste. You can use the Audio Equalizer for Google Chrome to achieve this. Here’s how to change your music settings on your Spotify web player:
Step 1: Search for ‘EQ- Audio Equalizer‘ ; on the Google Chrome Web Store. Go to the overview page and click on ‘ADD to Chrome’.
Step 2: Add ‘EQ-Audio Equalizer’ to your Chrome. Your Chrome browser will provide you with a couple of instructions, operate as instructed. If you follow the instructions, you will find the ‘EQ’ icon on the top menu bar of your extensions.
Step 3: Open the Spotify Web player on your browser and play any track or playlist of your choice. Tap on the Audio Equalizer at the top menu bar of your chrome extensions.
Step 4: You will be taken to the panel of the Audio Equalizer, tap on the menu button of ‘Default to select the preset you want to change. Edit the settings and start enjoying your music.
How To Play Spotify Songs on Other Music Players Using An Equalizer
Apart from the methods mentioned above, there are a number of ways to make your Spotify content sound better. One way is to upgrade to the Spotify Premium plan, so you can adjust the music quality from Normal to Extreme on your mobile device and 160 kbps to 320kbps on your computer.
Also, various media players come with equalizers that are easily accessible, VLC media players come with a nice equalizer. With these media players, you can download music on your Spotify to these players. But this can only be achieved with a good Spotify Music downloader, some of which are: Spotify Music Converter for Windows and AudFree Spotify Music Converter for Mac.
These apps will not only download tracks and playlists from the Spotify app to your computer, but they can convert these songs to different audio file formats such as MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, AAC, and M4B without losing metadata or audio quality.
You can also change the audio quality for your Spotify by changing the sample rate, bit rate, audio channels, and some other features. After you download the songs from your Spotify, change the music presets from any music player of your choice to enjoy the songs downloaded from any platforms that support Spotify.
Which Equalizer Settings Are The Best for Spotify?
We included this question because our team has seen a lot of people search for this question. Honestly, the answer to this question is that you have figured it out yourself. The kind of sound setting I like might be different from the one you like.
Best equalizer settings for Spotify really depend on your music taste, the speakers you use to listen to music, and other factors like hearing abilities and age. We suggest you apply the Spotify preset Equalizer settings then explore till you arrive at the one that matches your taste.
Pros and Cons of Using Spotify Equalizers
The main reason Spotify introduced the equalizer was to allow users to customize the sound quality to get the right one that they love. Depending on the device you’re using, you can access this feature directly on the app or on other screens.
But there’s an issue with changing the equalizer settings, your device settings are the same as the equalizer settings, so this affects all the sound coming from your phone. This doesn’t change even though you close the Spotify app. For notification tones, you might not notice this change, but when you’re watching a video, the sound output might sound different. And for phones that don’t have a built-in equalizer, it would produce an awkward implementation.
If Spotify is your primary source of audio, then this might not be something to worry about. Spotify wants their users to have good audio experiences therefore you will enjoy a quality sound output and even if you experience some inconveniences the quality of the audio you’re getting will take all that away. Do not that there are other streaming options out there.
Limitations to Spotify For Android
Spotify for Android doesn’t come with a built-in equalizer. But once you click on the equalizer, you can directly access the one built into your phone’s operating system. Instead of going into your Androids phone settings, you can choose the audio profile that is best for you. But take note that editing the equalizer settings for your Spotify Android app means you’re adjusting the equalizer for your device.
Also, not all Android phones have equalizers in-built, meaning Spotify doesn’t have an equalizer since the device doesn’t have one. You can get a third-party equalizer app, but you still won’t have an option to change the equalizer settings on Spotify.
Other Ways to Make Your Spotify Sound Better
Most users don’t dive into Spotify settings to explore the options available. This menu contains several customization options that users can play around with, change, tweak to produce an output that they like.
1. Enable Hardware Acceleration: For those with devices that have high processing power, optimizing your listening experience to what your computers can handle allows you to get a good sound quality. Spotify hardware acceleration only works on the Spotify desktop app for Macbooks and Windows.
It uses the existing hardware to increase the performance of the app. To enable hardware acceleration for your Spotify Desktop app, go to settings, scroll down and tap on the Show Advanced Settings Options.
Under that option, you will see the ‘compatibility’ icon, tap on the Enable hardware acceleration. Enabling hardware acceleration improves the listening experience of your sound, however, it can cause playback issues like unplayable songs on Spotify.
2. Allow Crossfade and Gapless Audio Playback: Normally, these settings are enabled by default on the Spotify app, but you can as well check to see if it is enabled for your device. The crossfade option allows you to switch from one song to another by eliminating the silence between those songs.
The gapless options work really well for classical or connoisseurs of live music, it allows users to flow into the next song without having to pause in between them. Both gapless and Crossfade work similarly.
Simply go to the Spotify settings on your iPhone and Android app, scroll down till you see the ‘Gapless’ and ‘Crossfade’ options.
If you want to enable crossfade and gapless options on your Spotify desktop app, click on ‘Settings’, scroll down and click on ‘Show advanced setting’. You will see an option to enable crossfade and gapless below it. Make sure you put on the toggle switch next to it.
3. Enable Automix: Automix is used to feature smooth transitions. It’s an artificial intelligence that uses several methods like skipping, looping, crossfading, and addition of transition effects. With Automix, you will not notice the track changing. You can find the Automix switch under the Gapless icon on the Settings page. Just switch it on to get started.
4. Edit Spotify Audio Quality settings: One easy way to enjoy premium high-quality audio output on Spotify without hassle is to change the streaming quality to the highest audio quality settings. Simply go to the Spotify Settings, scroll down to the part you see ‘Audio quality’.
Most times, it is below the ‘Autoplay’ option. Select the ‘High’ option for both Cellular streaming and Wi-Fi streaming. If you’re on an unlimited data plan, you can enable ‘high’ for your Cellular streaming. This might consume a lot of data, and you might be worried that it will result in excess data bills, you can choose the ‘Automatic’ option instead, so this will be a default setting on most devices. However, the ‘Very High’ option is available to Spotify Premium users.
Conclusion
Using the Equalizer tool in Spotify is a nifty and often overlooked feature that will fine-tune your listening experience. While having one is not a pre-requisite for high-fidelity sound, the barrage of options is useful for dialling back or dialling up frequencies which your headphones may be under or over-emphasizing. With the pre-empted release of Spotify HiFi, users will no doubt be spoilt with further options for audio quality. Let us know how you get on…
You may also be interested in:
- Best Equalizer Settings For Perfect Sound
- What is Parametric EQ?
- Spotify Competitors – Alternatives To Try
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