Everything you need to know about MusEQ's menu bar controls, EQ editor, and audio routing.
MusEQ runs on macOS 14.6 or later. On first launch, a welcome window lists the permissions MusEQ will request:
Click Continue, then allow each permission when macOS asks.
MusEQ includes a 14-day free trial — no credit card or sign-up required. The trial starts automatically on first launch. When it ends, you can purchase a license to continue.
MusEQ lives in your menu bar. Click its icon to open the control panel. The green dot at the top right shows that MusEQ is processing audio.
To get set up, choose your output device, add your headphone, then import or create an EQ profile. Each step is described below.
Click the MusEQ title at the top of the panel to open the about popover. It shows your version, your license status, and two buttons: Check for Updates and Manage License....
Click Manage License... to open the license window. During the free trial, it shows how many days remain and has a field for your license key. Type or paste your key and click Activate. If you don't have a key yet, click Get a License to visit the store.
If your trial has ended or your subscription has expired, an orange warning triangle appears at the top right of the panel, and the panel shows an Activate License button in place of the controls. Click it to open the license window.
To move your license to a different Mac, click Deactivate License at the bottom of the license window. This frees the license so you can activate it on the other Mac with the same key.
MusEQ checks for updates automatically shortly after you launch it. If a newer version is available, you'll see an alert with the release notes and three options:
To check manually, click the MusEQ title to open the about popover, then click Check for Updates.
By default, MusEQ applies your EQ only to Apple Music. Turn on the System Audio toggle at the top of the panel to EQ all audio on your Mac instead.
This is the key to tuning your EQ by ear with web-based tools. Turn on System Audio, then play audio through a browser tool like Owliophile or Squig.link. MusEQ applies your EQ to that audio in real time, so you can switch back and forth with Apple Music to check your changes against your own music. Then save your profile — there's nothing to export or import.
Sample rate matching still works with System Audio on. While Apple Music is playing, MusEQ processes only Apple Music and matches your DAC to each track, just as it does with System Audio off. A couple of seconds after Apple Music pauses or stops, MusEQ goes back to processing all audio and sets your DAC to 48 kHz.
For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the Tune your headphones by ear tutorial.
Use the Output picker to choose where MusEQ sends its processed audio — usually your USB DAC, headphone amp, or audio interface. System Default follows whatever output macOS is using.
The Exclusive toggle next to the Output picker is on by default. While Apple Music is playing, it silences other apps at your output device, so notifications and other sounds don't mix into your music. Other apps are heard again when Apple Music pauses or stops. Exclusive works only when you've chosen a specific device (not System Default) and System Audio is off.
MusEQ can automatically switch your output device's sample rate to match each track, for bit-perfect playback. This is controlled by the Auto toggle in the Sample Rate section, which is on by default. While it's on, the panel shows your device's current rate and the rate of the track that's playing.
When a track at a different sample rate starts playing, MusEQ switches your DAC to the matching sample rate automatically — quickly and without playback gaps.
Choose the headphone you're listening with from the Headphone picker in the Parametric EQ section. Each headphone has its own EQ profiles and remembers its last-used profile and headroom setting, so when you switch headphones, MusEQ loads everything automatically.
To add a headphone, choose New… from the picker and enter a name. MusEQ creates it with an empty profile named flat. You can edit that profile, or add others with New, Import, or OPRA.
MusEQ also remembers which headphone you last used with each output device. When you choose a device in the Output picker — or a device you chose reconnects, such as when you plug your USB DAC back in — MusEQ switches to the headphone you last used with it.
To remove a headphone you no longer use, select it and click the trash icon next to the Headphone picker. You'll be asked to confirm — deleting a headphone also deletes all of its EQ profiles.
At the top right of the Parametric EQ section is the pregain — how much MusEQ lowers the volume so your EQ's boosts don't cause clipping. MusEQ calculates it automatically from your profile's boosts. When you switch to a profile that needs more pregain, it goes down. When you switch to one that needs less, it stays where it is, so your volume never jumps up unexpectedly. Switching headphones or changing the headroom sets the pregain to the right level for that headphone's profile.
To reset the pregain to the optimal level for the current profile, click it. If the reset would increase your volume by more than 3 dB, a warning shows the exact increase so you can turn down your amplifier before confirming.
If a headphone is selected, you'll also see the Headroom control. Headroom lowers the volume by a fixed amount on top of the pregain (default: −3 dB), which helps prevent intersample overs — clipping that can occur between samples even when the waveform peaks appear within range.
Resetting the pregain and changing the headroom are unavailable while the EQ Editor is open, because the editor is level-matching your comparisons. Close the editor to use them.
Below the Headphone picker are that headphone's EQ profiles. The highlighted Enabled pill marks the active profile; click another profile's Enabled pill to switch to it. Double-click a profile's name to rename it. Click the pencil icon to open a profile in the EQ Editor — it becomes the active profile, so you hear what you're editing. If the editor is already open with one profile, the pencil opens the profile in Tab B instead; once both tabs are in use, the pencils are unavailable until you close a tab or the editor. To delete a profile, click the X next to its name.
To reorder your profiles, drag the handle (≡) at the left of a profile row up or down. The order syncs across your Macs. A clock icon marks the most recently updated profile — hover over it to see when it was last changed.
Click New to create a blank profile: give it a name and it opens in the EQ Editor. It isn't added to your list until you click Save. Click Import to add a profile to your current headphone from a file — a .txt file from Squig.link or AutoEQ, or an oratory1990 .pdf. To add a profile to a different headphone, select that headphone first. Each of a headphone's profiles needs its own name, and settings can't be used as a profile name because it's reserved for the headphone's settings file.
Click the OPRA button to open the OPRA Preset Library — a community-maintained collection of EQ profiles for hundreds of headphone models. The search bar starts out filled in with your current headphone's name; edit it if your model doesn't appear. The left pane lists matching models with their manufacturer; click one to see its EQ profiles in the right pane. Each profile shows the author, a description, and the number of EQ bands. Select a profile and click Import to add it to your current headphone.
Click the pencil icon next to a profile to open it in the EQ Editor. You hear every change as you make it.
The graph at the top shows your EQ's frequency response and updates as you adjust filters, so you can see exactly what your EQ is doing across the frequency spectrum. Each filter's curve is drawn in a color that matches its frequency, from purple in the bass to red in the treble. Hover over a filter card to highlight its curve in the graph.
Each filter card at the bottom controls one band of your parametric EQ. You can adjust four parameters:
Use the sliders for quick changes, the + and − buttons above and below each slider for precise single-step adjustments, or type a value into the text field and press Return (Esc cancels).
As you boost frequencies, the pregain shown at the right end of the tab row automatically decreases to prevent clipping.
The editor opens your profile in Tab A. To compare it with another version, open Tab B with one of the buttons next to Tab A:
Click a tab's letter to switch to it — you always hear the selected tab. The selected tab shows its own profile picker and Save button, so you can load and save each tab independently.
MusEQ automatically level-matches the two tabs so you're comparing EQ differences, not loudness differences. It turns down the louder profile so both tabs play at the same perceived volume.
The A ⇄ B button at the left of the tabs swaps the contents of Tab A and Tab B, so you instantly hear the other profile. Because the button stays in the same place, you can click it again and again to compare the two by ear — even with your eyes closed.
To compare your edits with the saved version without opening a second tab, use the A ⇄ A′ button. It appears in the same spot as the A ⇄ B button once you change a profile that has been saved. Click and hold it to hear the saved version of the profile. The graph shows the saved curve while you hold. Release to go back to your edits. The saved and edited versions are level-matched the same way as two tabs, so you hear the difference in EQ, not in volume. Saving the profile makes the button disappear and, as always, stores its optimal pregain in the saved file.
Click Add Filter to add a new band. The menu offers a plain PEAK, LSHELF, or HSHELF filter, plus presets that start you off with a typical setting for a common adjustment: Tilt, Sub-bass, Punch, Bass, Vocals, Presence, Sibilance, Treble, and Air. Each preset is an ordinary filter you can then adjust. You can have as many filters as you need; scroll horizontally if your filter cards extend beyond the window.
Each filter card has an ON/OFF button at the top to enable or disable that filter without removing it — handy for hearing what a single filter is doing. To remove a filter entirely, click the trash icon on its card.
The Sort button reorders your filters by frequency from low to high, making them easier to read and manage.
Click Save next to the tab's profile picker to save your changes. Profiles are saved in the MusEQ folder in iCloud Drive, so they sync to your other Macs automatically — changes made on one Mac appear on the others without restarting MusEQ. If you aren't signed in to iCloud, profiles are saved on this Mac only, in ~/Library/Application Support/MusEQ.
If you close the editor with unsaved changes, you'll be asked whether to save them, discard them, or keep editing.
At the bottom of the panel are the Quit button on the left and the bug report and help icons on the right.
Click the ? icon to open this guide. Click the ladybug icon to report a bug. This opens a new email with sections for steps to reproduce, expected behavior, and actual behavior. Your system info (macOS version, hardware, app version) is included in the email, and your recent MusEQ logs are attached as a ZIP file. You can review everything before sending.