Headphone EQ

Beats Studio Buds + EQ settings for Mac

Last updated: September 15, 2026

Beats Studio Buds + has 3 published AutoEQ corrections, from 3 measurement rigs, and this page carries every one of them. Below is the curve, the exact parametric filters behind it, and a one-click preset for EQBase. macOS has no system-wide equalizer of its own, so applying a correction to everything your Mac plays, rather than inside a single player, needs an app that sits on the system audio path.

Worth knowing: Three rigs measured the Studio Buds +, and they cannot agree about its bass: Rtings asks for a touch of boost at 31 Hz where Kazi asks for 3.9 dB of cut, a 4.5 dB gap, and they finish 6.2 dB apart at 16 kHz. That is the signature of a sealed in-ear measured with three different tips on three different couplers, not three opinions about the headphone. Change tips and re-seat them before deciding a curve is wrong. The Studio Buds + is a separate product from the Studio Buds, which has its own page.

Each measurement below carries four things: the correction curve, its parametric filters, the same filters as copy-paste text in AutoEQ's format (which Equalizer APO and Peace, REW and most desktop parametric equalizers import, and which EQBase's own Expert EQ reads and writes), and EQBase's ten-band fit of that correction. The ten-band figures are what the downloadable preset applies, so what you hear matches what is written here. AutoEQ publishes its own ten-band file on the same grid, fitted to the raw measurement rather than to these filters, so the two agree closely through the midrange and can differ at the extremes.

The correction, measurement by measurement

Preamp: -3.8 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 105 Hz Gain 10.6 dB Q 0.70
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 702 Hz Gain 5.2 dB Q 0.41
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1352 Hz Gain -7.5 dB Q 0.72
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 195 Hz Gain 2.1 dB Q 0.80
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 42 Hz Gain -11.0 dB Q 0.47
Filter 6: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain -3.1 dB Q 0.70
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 6487 Hz Gain -4.4 dB Q 6.00
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 9846 Hz Gain -2.1 dB Q 2.19
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 3674 Hz Gain 1.9 dB Q 4.28
Filter 10: ON PK Fc 918 Hz Gain 1.1 dB Q 4.94

Preamp: -3.8 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 105 Hz Gain -2.6 dB Q 0.70
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1846 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 0.65
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 365 Hz Gain 1.7 dB Q 1.35
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 7144 Hz Gain 2.6 dB Q 0.36
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 32 Hz Gain -1.7 dB Q 1.52
Filter 6: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 0.70
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 3653 Hz Gain 1.8 dB Q 4.88
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 2780 Hz Gain -1.7 dB Q 4.05
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 7833 Hz Gain 2.0 dB Q 6.00
Filter 10: ON PK Fc 1907 Hz Gain 0.6 dB Q 3.09

Preamp: -3.5 dB
Filter 1: ON LSC Fc 105 Hz Gain -1.5 dB Q 0.70
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1051 Hz Gain -3.9 dB Q 0.38
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 359 Hz Gain 3.5 dB Q 0.48
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 9298 Hz Gain -6.8 dB Q 2.73
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 5928 Hz Gain 3.1 dB Q 0.65
Filter 6: ON HSC Fc 10000 Hz Gain 3.5 dB Q 0.70
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 77 Hz Gain 0.8 dB Q 2.58
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 33 Hz Gain -0.4 dB Q 1.64
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 4771 Hz Gain -1.7 dB Q 5.92
Filter 10: ON PK Fc 3745 Hz Gain 1.4 dB Q 5.03

What this correction changes

The largest boost is +2.7 dB at midrange (500 Hz), and the largest cut is −3.0 dB at upper midrange (2 kHz). Total swing across the ten bands is 5.8 dB. Averaged over its bands the treble is pulled back by 1.3 dB, more than the other two, which is where most of the audible change lands.

The 3 published measurements on this page, from 3 rigs, do not agree with each other, and the size of the disagreement is worth knowing before picking one. They differ most at top octave (16 kHz), where the ten-band figures span 6.2 dB, and least at presence (4 kHz), where they span 1.0 dB. A spread that wide usually means the rigs disagree about the seal or the coupler rather than about the headphone, so prefer the measurement whose conditions match how you actually wear them.

Applying this on a Mac

The Beats Studio Buds + is an in-ear monitor, and its bass depends far more on the seal than on anything in this correction. A tip that does not seal loses the low bass outright, and no amount of boost puts it back. If the bottom end still sounds missing after applying this, change tips and re-seat them before deciding the curve is wrong.

Most of the measurements behind this page were made with the headphone in its normal listening mode, and active noise cancelling changes the response it is correcting. Switching ANC or transparency on and off is not a small tone change, so a correction that sounds right in one mode may not in another.

In EQBase the fastest route skips this page entirely: open the Headphones pane, search for your model, and apply the correction. The Beats Studio Buds + is in the built-in catalog along with 8,665 other models. The preset above exists for people who want to see the numbers first, or who want a specific measurement rather than the default one.

Either way the correction applies to every app at once, and the free tier carries it with no time limit. The Beats Studio Buds + preset above sets the ten-band curve, which is what the free tier applies, so nothing on this page is behind a purchase.

Common questions

Do these EQ settings work on any Mac app?

Yes, if the equalizer runs on system audio rather than inside one player. EQBase processes everything the Mac plays, so the same correction applies to Spotify, Safari, YouTube, games and calls. The Music app's own equalizer only affects Music.

Where do the Beats Studio Buds + numbers come from?

From 3 published AutoEQ measurements of the Beats Studio Buds +, made by Rtings, Kazi and freeryder05. Each one is a real frequency-response measurement compared against a target curve, and each produces its own set of filters. They are all on this page rather than averaged together, because a measurement belongs to the person who made it.

Why is the Beats Studio Buds + preamp negative?

The Beats Studio Buds + correction needs −3.8 dB of headroom on its default measurement, so the preset pulls the signal down by that much before the boosts are applied. Boosting a signal that is already near full scale would clip it, and the negative preamp is what buys the room. Skip it and loud passages distort.

Can I use these filters in a different equalizer?

Yes. The filter table is a standard parametric list: type, frequency, gain and Q. Any parametric equalizer that accepts those four values per band will take them, on any platform. The one-click preset is only a shortcut for EQBase users.

Other headphones with published corrections

• Beats Solo3 Wireless EQ settings for Mac, 4 published measurements
• Beats Powerbeats Pro EQ settings for Mac, 3 published measurements
• Beats Studio3 Wireless EQ settings for Mac, 3 published measurements
• Beats Solo Pro EQ settings for Mac, 2 published measurements
• Beats Studio Buds EQ settings for Mac, 2 published measurements

Credits

Correction data from the AutoEQ project by Jaakko Pasanen, used under the MIT licence. The measurements themselves are the work of the people credited on each curve above. EQBase ships the same catalog in the app, with the same attribution.

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