The thing I miss with the Apple audio chain is a user-controlled equalizer. With my hearing issues, I really need to boost treble, and I prefer to boost bass. I haven't yet discovered a way to do that. Apple thinks that flat is best, and so should you, apparently.
On OSX Music, window>equalizer. You can also grab Rogue Amoeba’s “SoundSource” to have volume controls for every noise-generating app on the computer, and apply effects chains to them, including EQ.
I love SoundSource so much. I bought it so I could use the volume keys on my keyboard to adjust the system volume on my HDMI monitor. I was blown away when I found out I could plug my collection of VSTs into the output pipeline.
Great, thanks very much. All their products look useful.
I've tried Sound Source and not only do the eq's work, but I can boost the volume so I'm listening at 6/10, where before I was at 9/10 and had no headroom.
I knew I'd get an answer by saying something wrong on the internet.
And it's insane that this hasn't changed for at least a decade! Apple's own PowerBeats Pro sound like garbage without bumping up the low frequencies, but with an equalizer they sound great. Or maybe this is just subjective and you can file it under "accessibility".
I was jailbroken on iOS 14 for the longest time solely for a system-wide equalizer for Apple Music. With a new phone it's a major step back, and I've switched to Spotify for their (worse) equalizer and somewhat worse overall experience (Spotify doesn't even have an equalizer on desktop!)
It's really unfortunate that such a straightforward feature is so limited on Apple platforms, and for no discernible reason.
Yes, I've used a couple of those iOS apps, but the end result is not boosted enough in the higher frequencies. My $500/pair of MDhearingaid Airs work a lot better, but they don't connect to my Apple devices.
I also have the latest AirPod Pros. With Apple Music, they are not too bad, but Apple is preventing me from having enough volume. I switched to Tidal - the sound is better, and their overall audio out level is higher than Apple. (Tidal also has notes on the music and the bands like the liner notes in the old days.) I tried Idagio, but their output level is even lower than Apple's Music. Basically, I couldn't hear the music well enough to bother with them.
If I play music on my sound system at a comfortable level, and ask people, "Is it too loud for you?", they say, no, it's fine.
The other problem I have with the AirPod Pros is their transparent mode doesn't provide any gain or much EQ for external sounds (even with the audiogram), so I can't hear people nearly as well as I can with my cheap hearing aids. I still have to remove the AirPods and put my hearing aids on, if I want to talk with people in anything but a silent room.
What I need more than anything else is compression. I can hear loud sounds fine - in fact, they bother me. What I can't hear any more is quiet sounds. That's what I need amplified, along with treble boost to compensate for my aging ears.
Apple is really missing a market here for OTC hearing assist. They have all the tech needed, even already built into existing hardware - AirPod Pros are an engineering marvel. They are holding back for some reason, probably some contractural arrangement we're not aware of.
