Anyone know of a EQ that will work for Tidal on Windows? I tried using APO with Peace and couldnt get it to work. I’d like to avoid buying a hardware EQ like Schiit Loki.
Maybe im doing something wrong with APO
If you’re setting Tidal’s audio output to exclusive mode it will bypass Equalizer APO. That will be the case for any music app that you set to use wasapi or asio output, in fact. If you want to stay in the software domain, Audirvana integrates Tidal and you can download vst3 plug-ins for equalization. It costs around $75 usd I believe. Hardware solutions such as the Loki or a new dac with dsp equalizer are more expensive, but will work with any signal you put into them, and ultimately simplify system operation.
I use equalizer APO with Tidal, works fine.
what’s the problem you’re having with APO? It can be realllly finicky sometimes especially if you often restart your computer, put it in hibernation, or update windows. I use the Peace Interface. It allows you (if you run as admin) to restart windows sound service (basically correcting all error especially after a reboot)
I would totally uninstall APO, reboot, install APO and Peace, then reboot, then see if the issue persists
lmk if you run into any issues, i can also make a youtube video about setting things up if you would like
The issue I have with APO is I have to use the default config file (whatever it is named). If I save a separate preset under a different name and load it, I get nothing. Load a file named whatever the stock one is and bam, back in business. I haven’t spent enough time to figure out why, but if you’re renaming the stock config file that could be your issue.
hmm… i would definitely (as annoying as it can be) try uninstalling everything with something like revo. then restart ur pc and re-install everything. i’ve run into countless errors using APO but in the end it’s worth it imo lol. every once in a while it broke and i had to do all of this over again until i used revo and did a totally fresh install. peace APO is awesome because of its troubleshooting options (such as restarting the service as I mentioned before). give it a shot
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Equalizer APO also struggles with Windows updates at times. Sometimes after an update you will have to uninstall and reinstall it (along with Peace, if you use it) to get it to function again.
I was reading up on this on the web and i found a site that said APO wont work with wasapi or asio. Doesn’t Tidal use wasapi, asio?
Wasapi and asio bypasses the windows audio mixer, and directly interfaces with your device, so the only way to get this to work would be to use something like asio4all (if you don’t have studio gear that has asio), and route the audio from tidal (if it supports asio) through a daw or vst host with an eq plugin, and then back out to the dac
That would also be fairly resource intensive with high samplerates too, so you would have to have either a pc optimized for audio editing and studio work or have a fairly large buffer with high latency
ok whaty whaten? I really like the sound of Audirvana. A program that opimizes your system for music? that sounds awesome. Maybe it will make playing DSD files easier too?
It should do some background tweaks to make it preform better on windows. It’s a pretty nice player for sure
The method I described above is resource intensive, time consuming, and might be a pita so dont do that lol. Audirvana is a much easier and tried and true option
does it restart windows sound service on its own or so i have to start it?
it opens a command prompt and does everything for you
the option is in peace under settings>debugging and testing>restart windows audio service
it’s awesome
It sounds like a eq filter is applied when I switch to exclusive mode. Notice a brightness and reduced level in low frequencies. Gain also increases throughout the frequency range. More clarity on recordings. Just trying to figure out what they did. Not relating the post to master recordings focused on 44.1.