EQBase vs SotF
EQBase
eqbase.app
SotF
sotf.spinorama.orgSide by side
| Figure | EQBase | SotF |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $3.33/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 8 | 1 |
| Spec score · Audio Equalizer Software | 9.0 (#1) | 7.4 (#15) |
| Maker | EQBase is made and published by Bold Biscuit, described as an independent software studio. | The site credits SotF to Pierre F. Aubert. |
| Privacy | The maker says audio, recordings and listening information stay on the Mac and are not collected or transmitted. | SotF says it collects no user data and uses no analytics, telemetry, cookies, or tracking. |
| Product | EQBase is a system-wide macOS equalizer that processes audio from apps in real time. | SotF is a free, open-source audio player and optimizer for sound in rooms and headphones. |
| Room correction | Pro can play a sweep, capture microphone measurements and fit an automatic room correction. | Room EQ measures and analyzes room response, then calculates correction filters to apply in a plugin chain. |
| Support | Support is provided by email with a stated typical response time within two business days. | Users can submit feedback or bug reports through GitHub and join the AudioScienceReview discussion linked from the product page. |
Plans
EQBase
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Pro Monthly$4.99 a month
- Pro Monthly$4.99 a month
- Pro Annual$39.99 a year
- Pro Annual$39.99 a year
- Pro Lifetime$79.99, paid once
- Pro Lifetime$79.99, paid once
In their own words
EQBase
EQBase is a system-wide macOS equalizer that processes sound from apps in real time. It includes a 10-band EQ and measured correction profiles for more than 8,600 headphone models. The free tier has no time limit and can record system audio in MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, or AIFF. Pro adds microphone-based room measurement and a fitted parametric correction curve, per-app volume, mute and tone controls, and routing audio sources to one or more outputs. Pro also supports Audio Unit plugins. EQBase uses headphone correction curves from the open-source AutoEQ project. Audio is processed locally; the privacy policy says audio content, recordings, and listening information are not collected, stored, or transmitted. Normal setup does not install a driver, while optional Audiophile mode and Pro routing use a user-space Core Audio driver. It requires macOS 14.4 or later and supports Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Pro Monthly costs $4.99 per month for three Macs; Pro Annual is $39.99 per year for three Macs, and Pro Lifetime costs $79.99 once for one Mac.
SotF
SotF is a free, open-source audio player and optimizer for room and headphone sound, available for Linux, macOS and Windows. It plays FLAC, MP3, AAC, ALAC and Vorbis files, and lists more than 40 audio plugins for equalization, compression, limiting, upmixing, binaural processing, convolution and denoising. Room EQ analyzes room response and calculates correction filters for a plugin chain; using it requires a measurement microphone, its calibration file and connected speakers. Headphone EQ calculates parametric filters targeting the Harman curve for hundreds of measured headphone models. Spinorama EQ provides correction for thousands of speakers without a microphone. SotF can export settings for CamillaDSP, Equalizer APO, EasyEffects, Wavelet, PipeWire and Roon. On macOS, a CoreAudio HAL virtual device can route audio from other apps through a configured plugin chain. The app runs on the user’s machine and says it does not collect user data or listening history. Speaker EQ queries the public Spinorama API for the selected model. SotF is GPL-3.0 licensed and has no subscription.