A long time ago I remember that Apple iTunes included an equalizer that would let me increase the bass, lower the very high tones, etc. It even had presets like some 80s hifi. Is that still in iTunes 11?
You’ve been a long time Apple iTunes user if you can remember the tiny grey equalizer that displayed in the mini-window, showing you a visual rendering of the high and low tones of the song or music you were hearing. Then a click on it and you’d see an equalizer window that let you adjust the tonal ranges. Heck, I can remember when that was something you’d have in your physical stereo, your “hi-fidelity” or “hi-fi” unit, one of many boxes that people had stacked up as part of their system.
Actually you can still buy them! Go to Amazon.com and search for “stereo equalizer“. Sweet!
Wait, now what were we talking about?
Oh yeah, whether the equalizer is still a part of the very latest version of Apple iTunes, iTunes 11. And the answer is… yes. You can’t get the tiny display as part of the mini-window (at least I haven’t figured out how to do so) but you can bring it up as a separate window to tweak things to compensate for small speakers, too much bass in the latest trance dub, or whatever.
To start, let’s look at the main iTunes 11 window on my Mac system:
Used to be that there was a grey box to the left of the what’s playing information that had the equalizer, but as you can see, it’s no more.
My guess: Apple analyzed usage and realized that very few people were clicking on the equalizer. So it’s gone.
Or is it?
Turns out that you can still get to it from the “Window” menu:
Choose the Equalizer and it pops up, just as you remember:
To enable it, click the “On” checkbox.
I recommend you experiment with a good pair of headphones plugged in so you can hear the often surprising differences between the settings on your favorite song.
Click on “Flat” and you’ll see that there are a ton of presets:
I often use “Jazz” as my setting as it adds a pleasing brightness to the music, or “Loudness”, as you can see I’ve done here.
Make your selection and you can instantly hear the difference. The equalizer itself, meanwhile, shows the new settings:
Very cool. And the fact that probably 95% of people who use iTunes have no idea this feature exists? A bummer, as it’s quite helpful, and 10x if you’re using earbuds or low-cost headphones.
Hope that helps. And as for your hifi? You’re on your own with that: I use my Vizio soundbar via bluetooth as my stereo at home now. 🙂