EQBaseComparisons
How EQBase compares
Last checked: August 4, 2026
macOS has no system-wide equalizer, so several apps fill the gap — and they're aiming at genuinely different things. Below is how EQBase sits against each of them, written to help you pick correctly rather than to make our own product look inevitable. Every page says where the other tool is the better choice, because for a lot of people it is.
The short version
- Want free and open source, or you're on an older Mac? eqMac — it's free, Apache-2.0, and runs back to macOS 10.13.
- Want your music to sound bigger, louder and more exciting? Boom 3D — it's an enhancer, with 3D surround, volume boosting and internet radio, and it's on the Mac App Store.
- Want precision and a signal path that provably doesn't degrade anything? That's what EQBase is built for: zero added latency, bit-perfect when flat, and correction rather than colouring.
Comparisons
EQBase vs eqMac
The closest comparison, because the feature lists overlap heavily. eqMac is free and open source, costs less at every paid tier, and supports much older versions of macOS. EQBase differs on the engineering: zero added latency, transparency you can verify live, convolution, linear-phase and dynamic EQ, crossfeed, and roughly twice the headphone library.
EQBase vs Boom 3D
Less a competitor than a different philosophy. Boom 3D is an audio enhancer: 3D surround, volume boosting, a built-in player and internet radio, sold once and available on the Mac App Store. EQBase is a precision tool that tries to add nothing at all unless you ask it to. If you want your audio noticeably transformed, Boom 3D is doing what you want on purpose.
EQBase vs SoundSource
Not written yet.
SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba is the other serious option, particularly for per-app audio control, from a developer with a twenty-year track record on the Mac. We'd rather publish nothing than publish a comparison we haven't done properly, so this one is still pending. In the meantime their site is the honest place to look.
Not sure you need any of them?
Start with does macOS have a built-in equalizer? — it covers what your Mac can already do on its own, which for some people is enough. If your specific problem is one loud app drowning out another, see per-app volume control on a Mac.
Something wrong or out of date on these pages? Tell us and we'll fix it — competitor features and prices change, and a stale comparison helps nobody.