Guide

How to boost bass on a Mac

Last updated: October 3, 2026 · By Taha Bozdemir, who builds EQBase

macOS has no bass control that reaches every app, so boosting bass on a Mac means a system-wide equalizer. Raise its low bands, let it trim the overall level so the boost cannot clip, and pick the bands by what you listen on: on headphones and real speakers the lowest ones work, while on MacBook speakers the bass you can actually get lives an octave higher, around 100 to 200 Hz.

How can I boost bass across all audio on my Mac?

Use a system-wide equalizer and raise its low bands, with automatic headroom on so the boost does not clip. macOS has no equalizer that reaches every app, so the bass control has to sit on the system audio path. In EQBase's free tier that is one pick: the Bass Boost starter curve, which lifts 31 Hz by 5.5 dB and tapers to +1 dB at 500 Hz, applied to every app at once.

You need macOS 14.4 or later and EQBase. Everything below is on the free tier.

1. Open EQBase, choose Equalizer in the sidebar, and switch to Advanced for ten bands. Basic has a single Bass knob at 100 Hz if you would rather turn one control.
2. On headphones or real speakers, pick Bass Boost from the Starter curve pop-up on the Bands card. On laptop speakers, raise the 125 Hz and 250 Hz bands by 2 to 4 dB instead and leave 31 and 62 Hz alone, for the reasons below.
3. Turn on Auto headroom. It trims the overall level just enough to keep the curve's peak at or below 0 dB, so loud tracks stay clean.
4. Play something you know well and adjust by ear. A starter curve is a starting point, and the bands stay editable after you pick it.

What to expect: more weight under every app, from Spotify to YouTube and games, and a slightly lower overall level while Auto headroom is trimming, which the volume slider makes back. If it distorts or rattles, the bass is asking for more than the driver can move: lower the 31 and 62 Hz bands first.

Bass on laptop speakers: what's possible, what isn't

This is where most advice on the subject quietly misleads people. A MacBook's speakers are physically small, and a small driver moves a small amount of air. Below roughly 100 Hz there is very little output available no matter what an equalizer claims to be doing.

Boosting 40–60 Hz on speakers like these does not create bass. It asks the driver for movement it cannot deliver, and what comes back is distortion that smears the midrange, so the result sounds worse overall while technically measuring as "more bass". Three things work better:

• Lift 100–200 Hz instead of 40–60 Hz. This is upper bass and lower midrange, where a small driver still produces real output. It's where the body of a kick drum and the working harmonics of a bass guitar live.
• Let your ear fill in the rest. Given a series of harmonics, human hearing infers the fundamental note even when that note isn't physically present: the missing fundamental effect. It is the reason emphasis at 100–200 Hz reads convincingly as bass on hardware that cannot reproduce bass at all.
• Cut before you boost. The boxy, congested quality of small speakers usually lives around 300–500 Hz. Taking a couple of decibels out of there often does more for perceived bass than adding anything at the bottom, because it uncovers what's already present instead of piling more on top.

Bass on headphones

On headphones the rules change completely: real low-frequency extension is available, and the better tool is a correction curve measured for your specific model rather than a generic bass boost. A correction often does more than a generic boost, and a bass tilt on top of it sets the amount to taste; see headphone EQ settings for Mac for your model.

Related

How to make your Mac louder · Headphone EQ settings for Mac · Does macOS have a built-in equalizer? · Per-app volume control on a Mac

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