How to Use AutoEq to Boost Your Headphone Sound Quality (Free Tool)

You might be bragging because you spent 350 bucks on a high-quality headset, yet your hearing is as refined as that of a naked mole rat. Everything you listen to sounds like it was mixed by a drunk DJ playing in the back of a basement. In fact, most headphone manufacturers calibrate their products with acoustic curves that stray far from what our brain considers natural and balanced sound. As a result, we end up with piercing highs, hollow mids, and overly strong bass.

It’s sad!

But today, I’m going to help you fix things with a solution much more economical than buying an even more expensive headset! It’s called AutoEq, and it’s a free and open-source tool that will help you properly tune your headphones by providing the right settings to input or import into your favorite equalization tool.

To do this, AutoEq analyzes the frequency responses of thousands of headphones measured by experts (oratory1990, crinacle, Innerfidelity, Rtings) and automatically generates equalization profiles to conform to a scientifically validated target curve (like the Harman curve).

The concept is simple… each headphone has its own “sound signature,” like an acoustic fingerprint. Some are too bright in the highs (hello sibilance), others have a dip in the mids as I mentioned earlier (goodbye natural vocals), and many over-amplify the bass to impress during first tests in stores (hello Beats ^^). AutoEq will therefore precisely analyze these flaws and generate the perfect equalization settings to correct them.

To take advantage of this, visit the AutoEq website by clicking here.

1- Select Your Headphones In the drop-down menu at the top, search for your model. If you have a special type of headphone made in a basement in Moldova, you can also import your own measurement data (CSV file) by dragging it into the selection field or clicking on the icon to choose a file from your device.

2- Choose Your Equalization Application AutoEq does not perform the equalization itself (it’s just the brain of the operation), so you’ll need a third-party application. Depending on your system:

• Windows: Equalizer APO + Peace (free and powerful)
• Mac: Sound Source (recommended) or eqMac
• Android: Wavelet (my favorite) or Poweramp Equalizer
• iOS: A bit more limited, but some apps like Boom have EQ options

3- Test the Difference with the Live Demo This is the magical part! Play a song with the built-in player at the bottom of the interface and toggle the equalization to hear the difference. You’ll have a “WTF?!” moment when you realize how badly your headphones sounded before. You can also adjust the bass and treble according to your personal preferences because we’re not all robots wanting a perfectly neutral curve.

Export the Settings to Your Equalization Application Depending on the application you use, you can either download a configuration file, copy and paste the settings, or manually set up the filters. The interface will tell you exactly what to do based on the chosen application.

What’s great about AutoEq is that you can visually see what’s wrong with your headphones. The central graph displays several curves:

• The Raw Curve (blue): the original frequency response of your headphones, with all its flaws
• The Target Curve (green): the ideal response we want to achieve
• The Error Curve (red): the difference between the two, what needs to be corrected
• The Equalized Curve (dark gray): the result after correction

If you’re the type to spend your Friday evenings recompiling Linux kernels, you can also use AutoEq from the command line. The tool is available as a Python package that you can install with pip and use for even more advanced configurations.

For example, here’s how to equalize a Sennheiser HD650:

1python -m autoeq \
2--input-file="measurements/oratory1990/data/over-ear/Sennheiser HD 650.csv" \
3--output-dir="my_results" \
4--target="targets/harman_over-ear_2018.csv" \
5--convolution-eq \
6--parametric-eq \
7--ten-band-eq \
8--fs=44100,48000

There’s even an option to add a custom bass boost because NGL (yeah I’m young ^^), we all like a bit of punch in our bass when listening to Daft Punk.

An important technical detail: when applying equalization, you generally need to use negative preamp (that’s the -4.4 dB you see in the image) to avoid signal clipping. It’s like lowering the overall volume to have some headroom when amplifying certain frequencies. Don’t worry, AutoEq calculates all that automatically for you.

The difference can be striking. Headphones that cost $30 can sound like models worth €300, and even your AirPods can go from “they’re convenient but sound mediocre” to “wow, this actually sounds pretty good.” Of course, no equalization will magically turn a low-quality headset into an audiophile’s holy grail because the quality of the drivers remains fundamental, but the improvement is often astonishing.

In short, I find AutoEq very cool because it allows you to really change your audio experience without spending a dime, without necessarily succumbing to marketing sirens urging you to invest in super expensive gear. So, if you like it, remember it’s open source, so you can contribute to it and share it with those around you!