Alternatives to Equalizer APO

A system-wide parametric and graphic equaliser for Windows that hooks into the audio stack itself. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Equalizer APO.

  • Peace Equalizer

    Control Equalizer APO through a graphical interface for Windows audio.

    FreeOpen sourceWindows

    Peace Equalizer adds a graphical interface with presets on top of Equalizer APO, so it still requires Equalizer APO to be installed.

  • FxSound

    Apply equalization and audio effects to Windows playback.

    FreeOpen sourceWindows

    FxSound is also free and open source for Windows, offering presets and effects rather than unlimited parametric bands or Room EQ Wizard filter import.

  • Boom 3D

    System-wide equalizer and 3D surround simulator for desktop and mobile.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOS

    Boom 3D is paid and closed source, also running on macOS, with a system-wide 31-band equalizer and 3D surround simulation.

  • Easy Effects

    A rack of audio effects for PipeWire on Linux: equaliser, compressor, limiter, noise reduction and thirty more.

    FreeOpen sourceLinux

    Easy Effects runs on Linux with PipeWire instead of Windows and adds around thirty effects including compressor, limiter and noise reduction.

  • ViPER4Android

    System-wide audio processing engine for rooted Android.

    FreeOpen sourceAndroid

    ViPER4Android covers rooted Android devices instead of Windows, with a convolver that supports impulse responses for headphone correction.

  • eqMac

    A system-wide audio equalizer for macOS with a per-app volume mixer and headphone presets.

    FreemiumProprietarymacOS

    eqMac moves to macOS as a freemium system-wide equalizer with headphone presets, closed source and with advanced features behind Pro.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Equalizer APO as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • MathAudio Headphone EQ

    Headphone resonance correction plugin with a free foobar2000 component.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsmacOS

    Equalizer APO is free and open source under GPL-2.0, applying headphone correction system-wide on Windows, but its native interface is a text configuration file.

  • Wavelet

    Apply headphone equalization to supported Android playback sessions.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroid

    Equalizer APO is a free, open-source system-wide equaliser for Windows with unlimited parametric bands, though its native interface is a text configuration file.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.