The Discata listening guide

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The three settings that matter most

1. Tell Discata your headphones

   Headphone correction removes your model’s own colouring, so everything else sounds as intended. It is the biggest single improvement for most people.

   In the app: Sound › Headphones

2. Pick a sound, then compare

   Choose a style or a room, then flip Sound On / Original while the song plays. Both play at the same loudness, so you judge the sound, not the volume.

   In the app: Sound › top switch, or the pill in the player

3. Set a comfortable volume, then leave it

   Ears adapt within minutes. Decide on changes at the volume you normally listen at, not louder: louder always seems “better” for a moment.

EQ in plain words

What each part of the sound does

Sub-bass, 20–60 Hz

Felt more than heard: the rumble of a kick drum or synth bass. Too much makes headphones strain and distort.

Bass, 60–250 Hz

Warmth and punch. A lift around 60–100 Hz adds weight; lifting 150–250 Hz quickly sounds boomy.

Low mids, 250–500 Hz

The “mud” and “boxy” region. A small cut of 1–3 dB here often makes music clearer than any boost elsewhere.

Mids, 500 Hz–2 kHz

The body of voices, guitars and piano. Cut too much and music sounds hollow.

Presence, 2–5 kHz

Brings voices and snares forward. Our ears are most sensitive here: too much sounds harsh and tiring.

Treble and air, 5–20 kHz

Detail, cymbals and space. Harsh “s” sounds (sibilance) live around 5–8 kHz; the “air” above 10 kHz is subtle.

Cut before you boost

Removing a little of what is too much is cleaner than adding more of everything else. Move in small steps of 1–3 dB, use wide bands (low Q) for tone and narrow ones only to fix a single problem.

In the app: Sound › Tone › edit a profile (drag the points on the graph)

Leave Auto level on

It keeps the loudness the same when you change the EQ, so a boost does not just sound “better” for being louder. Use Level only to fine-tune.

Rooms and space

Getting music out of your head

Which room for what

Control room and Mix room: precise and close, great for pop, electronic, hip-hop and podcasts. Studio hall and Chamber: warmer and wider. Concert hall and Orchestra hall: classical, film scores and live recordings.

In the app: Sound › Space › Room

Keep Clean bass on

Real rooms make bass boom. Clean bass keeps the low end tight and dry while the room works on everything above it. Lower the crossover (80–100 Hz) for more room, raise it (150 Hz) for tighter bass.

In the app: Sound › Space › Clean bass

Less room for dense music

Busy mixes (pop, techno, metal) stay clearer with the room at 60–80 %; sparse, acoustic music can take 100 %.

Virtual surround

Moves the spacious parts of the mix (reverb, wide synths, crowd) to speakers beside and behind you, and voices to a centre speaker where the room has one. Great for live and ambient music; turn it down for podcasts.

In the app: Sound › Space › Virtual surround

Head tracking

With AirPods Pro, AirPods Max or supported Beats, the speakers stay put when you turn your head, like a real room. Tap Recentre if “front” drifts.

Loudness

Even volume without squashing the music

Turn on loudness normalisation

Modern masters differ in loudness by 10 dB or more. Track mode evens out shuffles and playlists; Album mode keeps the loud and quiet songs of an album as the artist intended.

In the app: Sound › Playback › Loudness

Which target level

−14 LUFS matches most streaming services; −16 is Apple’s level and leaves more headroom; −18 (ReplayGain) sounds the most dynamic but quietest.

Why the limiter is there

It catches the rare peaks that EQ boosts or rooms push over the top, without audible pumping. If you hear distortion, lower the boosts rather than turning the limiter off.

File quality

What actually makes a difference

Lossless vs lossy

FLAC, ALAC and WAV are exact copies of the master. Good MP3 (320 kbps) and AAC (256 kbps) are indistinguishable for most people on most headphones; bad sources (low bitrate, clipped masters) are not fixed by any setting.

Hi-res and Bluetooth

Bluetooth re-encodes everything (AirPods use AAC), so lossless and hi-res files only play at full quality through wired headphones or a USB DAC. Sample rates above 48 kHz bring no audible benefit to most listeners.

The quality badge

Shows what the file really is (codec, bit depth, sample rate), measured from the file itself, never guessed from its name.

Healthy listening

Protect your hearing

The 60/60 rule

Around 60 % volume for up to 60 minutes at a time is a safe habit. The WHO guideline is about 80 dB for up to 40 hours a week.

Let iOS watch the level

Settings › Sounds & Haptics › Headphone Safety can reduce loud audio automatically, and the Health app shows your weekly headphone exposure.

Take breaks

Ringing ears or music sounding dull after a while are signs of fatigue. A room or gentle crossfeed makes long sessions less tiring than hard-panned stereo.

Troubleshooting

Distortion, mud, harshness

Distorted or crackly

Lower the biggest EQ boost or the Level trim, and make sure the limiter is on. If it only happens with one room, try a lower room amount and report it.

In the app: Sound › Tone, Sound › Output

Muddy or boomy

Turn on Clean bass, lower the room amount, or cut 250–400 Hz by 2 dB. A wrong headphone model can also add bass: check Sound › Headphones.

Harsh or tiring

Try the “Less harsh” preset, or cut 3–5 kHz by 2 dB. Loudness normalisation also helps with very loud masters.

Lyrics out of sync on Bluetooth

Discata compensates for Bluetooth delay automatically; if a song is still early or late, its lyrics file may be offset. Report it with the song’s name in your message if you like.

Something else

Use Report a Problem: it opens an email with the details that help fix it, and you see everything before sending.