Apple AirPods 4 EQ settings

Parametric EQ correction for the Apple AirPods 4, derived from measurements by Rtings. It moves the measured frequency response toward a neutral target.

How the AirPods 4 sounds before EQ

Measured against a neutral target, the AirPods 4 comes out dark. The treble sits well behind neutral, so detail and air are muted.

The presence region, vocal clarity and attack, sits about 5.4 dB behind neutral, so detail and clarity soften. The bass region, punch and bass lines, sits about 2.2 dB forward of neutral, so bass lines carry extra weight. The lower mids region, warmth and the body of voices, sits about 1.9 dB forward of neutral, so voices and guitars thicken up. The air region, openness at the very top, sits about 1.6 dB forward of neutral, so the very top sounds airy and open (measurements this high up vary between test rigs, so treat the exact number loosely).

The largest single move in the correction is 6.4 dB around 4.5 kHz, on top of a broad tilt of up to 5.4 dB. That is not subtle. This model benefits clearly from correction.

These figures are read from the correction itself: whatever the EQ lifts, the headphone lacked, and whatever it cuts, the headphone had too much of. The target is the community's neutral reference, and how far above 10 kHz you can trust any measurement varies by rig. More dark models.

The correction curve

The solid line is the full measured correction (all 10 filters). The dashed line is what Atrium applies: the same shape at 65 percent strength, capped at 6 dB per band, so the headphone keeps its own character instead of being forced flat.

What the EQ fixes

Summed across every filter, these are the changes the correction actually makes, largest first:

• Around 4.5 kHz the correction lifts the sibilance range by 6.4 dB, over a medium-width band about 1.3 octaves wide.
• At the bottom of the range the correction lifts everything below roughly 27 Hz by up to 4.4 dB.
• Around 110 Hz the correction cuts the bass punch region by 3.0 dB, over a broad band about 2.9 octaves wide.

The preamp of -6.4 dB offsets the boosts so nothing clips at full volume.

The filter table below contains bigger numbers than these: its largest single filter is +11.7 dB. That is normal for an automatically fitted correction and it is not a boost of that size. Several of those filters sit on the same part of the spectrum and pull against each other, so what reaches your ears is their sum, which is the curve above. Enter every filter as listed and you get that sum. No single filter's gain is the size of any change.

Parametric EQ settings

* Rows 1 and 3 are marked because each of those gains is larger than anything this correction actually does. Those filters overlap others in the list and pull against them, so their full size never reaches your ears. Summed with the rest of the set, the largest change anywhere in this correction is 6.4 dB, around 4.5 kHz. The preamp above is set from that sum, not from any single row, which is why it is only -6.4 dB. Enter every row exactly as listed, including the marked ones and the cuts. The set is correct together and misleading apart.

This is the published correction for the AirPods 4, unaltered, in AutoEq format. It pastes straight into Equalizer APO or Peace on Windows, and into most parametric EQ apps. Enter every row, including the ones that cut. These are the values to use: the numbers are not rounded off or simplified for the page, because changing them would change the result.

How to use these settings

Manually: enter the preamp and each filter into any parametric EQ. On Windows that is usually Equalizer APO with the Peace interface. On a Mac, eqMac or SoundSource. Set the type, frequency, gain and Q exactly as listed.

With Atrium: pick your AirPods 4 in the app and it applies a tuned version of this correction: 65 percent strength with a 6 dB per-band cap, which fixes the rough spots without erasing what the headphone does well. Atrium also measures how you hear with a short listening test and layers your personal hearing profile on top. Two people with the same headphones do not hear the same sound. Headphone corrections are part of Signature Edition; the app itself is free.

AirPods 4 vs other Apple models

Bass and treble are each model's average distance from the neutral target in that range. Positive means more than neutral, negative means less.

Headphones that sound similar

Closest matches across all 4,332 measured models, by distance between their deviation curves. Useful if you like how the AirPods 4 is tuned and want alternatives.

More Apple EQ settings