Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Owners of Google’s Pixel Buds Pro can now take much greater control over the way the earbuds sound. Google has announced that, as of the latest firmware update, which has begun “slowly rolling out” today, you can adjust a five-band EQ to customize the audio profile. There are also six presets that are tuned by Google’s audio engineers.
Any custom EQ you settle on will remain active on the Pixel Buds Pro across all your devices until you make changes again. The new firmware update also “contains controls for the left / right balance and general bug fixes and improvements,” according to Google’s support page.
Jam out your way.
With 5-band EQ on #PixelBuds Pro, you can now customize your sound or choose between presets tuned by our audio engineers.
Update your Pixel Buds app and firmware, then head to Bluetooth settings ➡️Device Details ➡️Sound ➡️ Custom Equalizer to get started. pic.twitter.com/cY3CU6sxMJ
— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 11, 2022
As it turns out, the Pixel Buds Pro are currently discounted for Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale: you can save $48 off the normal price for a total of $151.99. These are far and away Google’s best full-featured earbuds to date. They deliver good sound (that’s now easier to adjust to your liking), decent noise cancellation, and other convenience features like multipoint Bluetooth support.
If you’re not seeing the latest update on your buds and still don’t have the EQ, give it some time: Google says the latest firmware is rolling out “over the next week.” Just make sure you’ve got the latest version of the Pixel Buds app installed, and you should see those frequency sliders show up eventually.
Google hasn’t forgotten about its more affordable Pixel Buds A-Series, either. The company recently started selling them in a third color — black — to join the existing green and white options. The original colors are on sale right now for $69, though you’ll have to pay the full going rate of $99 for the new charcoal buds.