These days, most premium earbuds and headphones allow you to play around with equalizer settings in their companion app to tweak the sound to your liking. Until now, that feature has been missing from Apple's AirPods, which rely on Apple's Adaptive EQ to optimize their sound on the fly, with some users -- and reviewers -- knocking the lack of manual sound tuning as a drawback.
But that's about to change. Apple announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference that a customizable EQ is coming to the AirPods Max 2, AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4 with the public release of iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 this fall.
Read more: How To EQ Audio for Better Headphone Sound
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Apple says you'll be able to adjust a 3-band (low, mid, high) equalizer directly from AirPods Settings, complete with an interactive preview of the audio changes. Additionally, once you set a custom EQ, you can "seamlessly switch back and forth to the default AirPods sound tuning."
While some folks may argue that a 3-band equalizer is a little limited (Sony's WH-1000XM6 over-ear headphones and WF-1000XM6 earbuds feature a 10-band equalizer), it's certainly a step in the right direction. That's especially true for those who want greater control over their AirPods' sound, rather than relying exclusively on Apple's algorithms to determine what's best for their ears.
For many years, Bose also resisted adding custom equalizer settings to its headphones and earbuds, only introducing them in 2020 with a firmware update to the Noise Canceling Headphones 700. Of course, not everybody wants to bother playing around with treble, bass and midrange settings to fine-tune a sound profile. And some folks prefer "auto" EQ settings that enhance and optimize audio based on factors like the shape of your ears, your surroundings and the quality of the audio track you're listening to.
That said, users generally like having a custom EQ option, particularly when you own headphones that cost as much as the AirPods Max 2 do and promise premium sound quality.
As of now, it appears the custom EQ settings will only be available on the latest AirPods powered by Apple's H2 chip and not earlier AirPods like the AirPods Pro 2 and the original AirPods Mac (I'll update this article if I hear differently). It remains unclear whether Beats' Powerbeats Pro 2, which are also equipped with the H2 chip, will get custom EQ settings, but it would be nice if they did.
Along with bringing custom EQ settings to the latest AirPods, Apple also announced that AirPods Pro 3 users will soon be able to sync their workouts with GymKit.
"With expanded GymKit functionality," Apple said, "users can seamlessly pair and sync their iPhone with cardio equipment, including treadmills, ellipticals, indoor bikes and stair steppers with just a tap. And users with AirPods Pro 3 can sync their heart rate data through iPhone while enjoying incredible audio quality."
GymKit is available on certain equipment from leading commercial cardio manufacturers, including Johnson, Life Fitness, Precor, Schwinn, Technogym, Woodway and others, according to Apple.