Equalizer won’t work with Airplay

[DrMushnick]

I have iOS 13 updated on iPhone and ipad

spotify premium 

the equalizer 

Won’t work with Airplay 

does work with playback thru device or with Airpods 

please help

Alan

one of the below information is required. However, the more you provide the easier it will be for us to try and help.

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

[Remco602]

I am going to have to update my last post... In my last post I mentioned I was able to use the equalizer by setting it while playing over my iPhone. The settings were then applied when switching to Airplay. Well, that appears to only work sometimes.. I.e. sometimes the settings get applied when playing over Airplay, but sometimes they are not. In addition, with the sometimes working equalizer switched on, I started noticing a horrible distortion in specifically piano music. First thinking this was my Airplay device gone bad, I tried another one. Same problem.. It went away after re-starting the Spotify app, but that was when it decided not to apply the equalizer settings.. After some more testing it seems the distortion only occurs when the equalizer is switched on, so I went back to listening without equalizer, as the distortion is even worse than listening with too much bass...

I really wish this equalizer would finally be fixed.. But as this is already going on for well over a year, with many others commenting having the same problem, I am afraid Spotify is either not willing, or just not capable to fix this.

I am going to look into Apple Music instead of Spotify, as that according to a previous poster does have an equalizer that works with airplay devices.

[DrMushnick]

Still not working for me.

[DrMushnick]

It isn’t fixed. 
the Spotify equalizer does not work while using Airplay devices 

please help 

Alan

[DrMushnick]

There are numerous threads about this problem. 

WILL SOMEONE FROM SPOTIFY FINALLY FIX IT? 

OR TELL US WHY THEY WON'T OR CAN'T?

Alan 

[Xenia]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to us. We understand that you're experiencing issues while trying to use Spotify via Airplay.

Unfortunately, the equalizer won't work with Airplay, as the Spotify app just tells the Airplay device which song to play from Spotify's catalog, with the Airplay device controlling how the audio will sound. Which is why, we can't control any equalizer settings on the Airplay device.

We'd recommend that you reach out to your Airplay device manufacturer customer support team to get help with adjusting the sound quality and equalizer settings.

Thank you for understanding.

[Remco602]

Hello Xenia,

Thank you for your reply, but you don't seem to understand the issue:

- I am not trying to control an equalizer on the Airplay device from the Spotify app (it doesn't have one).

- I am trying to use the equalizer that is built-in the Spotify app.

- This equalizer worked just fine when streaming over an Airplay device until about a year ago.

- Now, sometimes the equalizer settings are still applied when streaming over Airplay, but then typically accompanied with a very bad distortion. Also note that the equalizer settings can only be changed when listening through the iPhone, not when streaming over the Airplay device.

- I am now using a third party app to stream Spotify playlists over Airplay (SpotEQ). The equalizer built into this app works just fine, so there clearly are no technical reasons for this not to work in your own app.

And, as you can see from the thread, there are many users experiencing the same issue.. I don't understand why you don't want to fix this issue. Note I am a paying (Premium) member.

Thank You.

[iamstilllolive]

The EQ of Spotify is working fine with my Airplay1 device on iOS11.
That same EQ of Spotify is not working with that same Airplay1 device on
iOS13.
Please explain that.

[patrickgilmour]

Just to second @iamstilllolive 's post above. I hit on this solution too and came here to post about it - it's not perfect but it works. Set your EQ in Spotify while not using AirPlay then the settings will be respected in the audio when you switch to AirPlay (might take a few seconds).

[Jhavelk]

I have exactly the same experience as Remco602 describes in a comment from 2020-08-28. And thank him for the tip on the SpotEQ application, which works great even through airplay, but only Spotify playlists can be played in them, so it's not a complete solution yet.

Why are Spotify developers so reluctant to fix this bug? Why do they make excuses for the impracticability, when it was obviously feasible for SpotEQ developers and in significantly better quality?

[iamstilllolive]

This issue is marked as "Won't fix".

It will never be read again by Spotify.

Time to open a new one.

Or to find the procedure to reopen that one.

I am a bit furious because the comment by @Xenia is misleading.

The problem has nothing to do with the Airplay device.

Let me repeat this:

The EQ of Spotify is working fine with my Airplay1 device on iOS11.
That same EQ of Spotify is not working with that same Airplay1 device on
iOS13.
Please explain that.