Guide

Parametric EQ on a Mac

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Several Mac apps now give you a fully parametric equalizer for everything your Mac plays, not just a row of fixed sliders. The main ones are EQBase Pro (24 bands), eqMac Pro (unlimited bands), Equaliser (free, up to 64 bands, macOS 15 and Apple silicon only), Sonance EQ (a new app with a $9.99 Pro unlock) and Sound Control, which runs Apple's own parametric Audio Unit on each app. SoundSource and Boom 3D stay with fixed graphic bands, and which of the rest suits you comes down to price, your macOS version and how much delay the whole chain adds.

That's the short version. Below: what parametric control actually buys you, every option side by side, what really decides latency, and how EQBase does it.

Parametric or fixed bands: what the difference is

A graphic equalizer has fixed bands, usually ten, an octave apart from 31 Hz to 16 kHz, and you only choose how far to raise or lower each. A parametric equalizer lets you place every band yourself: its frequency, its gain, its width (called Q) and its shape, such as a bell, a shelf, a notch or a high-pass filter.

That matters when a problem is narrow: a resonance at 6.3 kHz sits between two graphic bands, and moving the neighbours smears the fix across an octave. It also matters for measured corrections, which are published as parametric filters. Across the 8,666 AutoEQ corrections EQBase ships, the ten-band version's largest gap from the parametric curve between 40 Hz and 10 kHz has a median of 3.3 dB; the breakdown is on our headphone EQ page.

Which Mac audio apps offer a fully parametric equalizer rather than only fixed frequency bands?

For all system audio on a Mac, a fully parametric equalizer (your own frequency, gain, Q and filter type on every band) comes in EQBase Pro with 24 bands, eqMac Pro with unlimited bands, the free Equaliser with up to 64, Sonance EQ with a $9.99 Pro unlock, and Sound Control at $30 through Apple's AUNBandEQ. SoundSource and Boom 3D ship fixed graphic bands. Audio Hijack and Roon have parametric EQ, but only inside their own audio.

Your options

Prices and features change; if something here is out of date, tell us.

Three small open-source projects started in 2026, all free and all on macOS 14.4 or later, also offer parametric bands: ParaEQ (15 filter shapes including crossovers, v2.3.0, July 2026), OnlyEQ (unlimited bands, v1.2.7, August 2026) and MacEQ (unlimited bands, 12 shapes, v1.4.0, September 2026). Each is one developer's work with a small user base, and OnlyEQ and MacEQ state that they are not notarized by Apple.

Left out: Audio Hijack's Parametric EQ lives in a recording tool, and Roon's applies only to music Roon plays. Reflect is bass room correction, covered in room correction on a Mac.

What should I look for in a low-latency system-wide Mac equalizer?

Check three things. First, what the EQ stage itself adds: ordinary minimum-phase filters add no delay, while linear-phase filters, lookahead limiters and block-based convolution each add a fixed amount. Second, the capture path, because every system-wide equalizer has to take the Mac's mix and play it back through buffers. Third, whether the app shows one end-to-end figure, and stays bit-perfect when every control is flat.

• Minimum phase or linear phase. Standard EQ filters are minimum phase: output starts at the same instant as input, at the cost of a small phase shift around each band. Linear-phase filters avoid the shift by being symmetric in time, so nothing comes out until half the filter has passed: tens of milliseconds, plus a faint pre-ring before sharp transients. For listening, minimum phase is the sensible default.
• Lookahead limiters. A limiter that sees peaks coming delays the audio by its lookahead, usually a few milliseconds. Worth knowing if it can't be switched off.
• Blocks and plugins. FFT convolution and many Audio Units process in blocks and add at least one block of delay unless the design hides it.
• The capture path and the output buffer. Whether an app installs a virtual audio device or reads the mix through a Core Audio process tap, the audio makes a round trip through macOS buffers, and the output device adds its own. Bluetooth adds codec delay on top. A figure that counts only the filters is not the number you hear.
• Transparency when flat. With every control at zero, an equalizer should hand back exactly the samples it received. Few apps claim that; fewer show it.
• Accuracy near the top. The common textbook filter design squeezes bells and shelves narrower near half the sample rate, which at 44.1 or 48 kHz bends the top octave. Better designs match the analog shape.

What alternatives to eqMac offer parametric equalization on Mac?

The closest like-for-like alternative is EQBase Pro: a 24-band parametric EQ with dynamic and linear-phase modes, and no driver to install for normal use. Equaliser is free and open source with up to 64 bands, but needs macOS 15 on Apple silicon. Sonance EQ is a new process-tap app with a $9.99 Pro unlock. Sound Control runs Apple's parametric AUNBandEQ per app for $30.

eqMac still wins on three real counts: it costs less than EQBase at every tier, it runs back to macOS 10.13, and its Expert EQ has no band cap. If one of those decides it, stay with eqMac. The full side-by-side is in EQBase vs eqMac, and the wider field is in the best Mac equalizer apps.

Parametric EQ in EQBase

EQBase's Equalizer pane has three modes. Basic (three knobs) and Advanced (ten bands at the standard octave centers) are free. Expert, in Pro, is the parametric one: up to 24 bands, each with its own frequency (20 Hz to 20 kHz), gain (±24 dB), width as Q or octaves, and one of seven shapes: peak, low and high shelf, low and high pass, notch and band pass. Any peak band can be made dynamic, acting only when that part of the spectrum gets loud, the way a de-esser does. Per-Channel EQ (Pro) gives left and right their own 24-band curves, and a headphone correction can sit in its own layer underneath, so it stacks with your curve instead of using up its bands.

On latency, EQBase adds zero samples to the direct signal, convolution included. Exactly two features add delay, both opt-in and both counted in the app's own readout: linear-phase mode (Pro, about 43 ms at 48 kHz) and the true-peak limiter (2 ms of lookahead). The Output Device pane shows one latency figure for the whole path, capture and device buffers included, itemized when you hover over it. With every control flat the processing chain is bit-perfect, verified continuously and shown on the same pane. In the default mode macOS hands EQBase a converted copy of the mix, so we claim bit-perfect end to end only in the opt-in Audiophile mode, which reads the samples untouched.

Where EQBase leads on the checklist above: no other app on this page lists dynamic bands, only Sonance EQ joins it in offering linear phase, and its peak bands use a matched design that follows the analog bell into the top octave. Where others are the better pick: more bands (eqMac, Equaliser), more filter shapes (Sonance EQ's steep cuts, ParaEQ's crossovers), a parametric curve per app (Sound Control, Sonance EQ), and price.

Building a parametric curve in EQBase:

1. Open the Equalizer pane and choose Expert. On the free tier, Advanced is the ten-band equivalent.
2. Click Add Band and pick its Filter Type: Peak for a resonance, a shelf for a broad tilt, High Pass to clear rumble.
3. Set frequency, gain and Q by dragging the band's dot or typing values. A higher Q is narrower. To find a resonance, sweep a narrow boost until the problem jumps out, then make it a cut.
4. Already have filters from REW or AutoEQ? Use Import… instead of typing them. On Pro they load exactly.
5. If your curve boosts anything, turn on Auto headroom so its highest peak stays at or below 0 dB.
6. Leave Phase on Minimum Phase unless you have a reason. The Latency row on the Output Device pane shows what any change costs.

Common questions

Is a parametric EQ better than a 10-band graphic EQ?

Not better, more precise. For broad tone shaping a ten-band equalizer is quicker and entirely adequate. A parametric one wins when the problem is narrow, like a single resonance, or when you are applying a measured headphone or room correction, because those are published as parametric filters that fixed bands can only approximate.

How many parametric bands do I actually need?

Fewer than the band counts on this page suggest. Every one of the 8,666 AutoEQ headphone corrections EQBase ships uses exactly ten filters, and EQBase's automatic room fit defaults to eight. Past a dozen or so bands you are usually correcting noise in the measurement rather than anything you can hear.

Does linear-phase EQ sound better?

For normal listening, rarely audibly. It avoids the phase shift minimum-phase filters introduce, but it adds delay (about 43 ms at 48 kHz in EQBase) and can pre-ring before sharp transients. It earns its keep in mastering and crossover work. For video and calls, leave it off.

Can I use REW or AutoEQ filters on my Mac?

Yes, with any system-wide parametric equalizer that imports them. EQBase reads AutoEQ ParametricEQ.txt and GraphicEQ.txt files and REW filter exports: exactly into the 24-band Expert EQ on Pro, or as a ten-band fit on the free tier. It exports your curves in the same two formats.

Related

The best Mac equalizer apps · EQBase vs eqMac · Headphone EQ settings for Mac · Headphone correction on a Mac · Room correction on a Mac · Does macOS have a built-in equalizer?

Download EQBase free

Compiled October 1, 2026 from eqmac.app and the eqMac GitHub repository (v1.9.2, September 19, 2026), equaliser.knage.net and its repository (v1.3.3, May 18, 2026), the Mac App Store listing for Sonance EQ (1.0.4), staticz.com (Sound Control 3.4.0), rogueamoeba.com (SoundSource 6.1.4, Audio Hijack 4.6.0), help.roonlabs.com, and the ParaEQ, OnlyEQ and MacEQ repositories. None of these developers are affiliated with EQBase or Bold Biscuit. Prices, features and system requirements change; check each developer's site before buying.