WebEQ: Audio Equalizer & Sound Booster

What is WebEQ? WebEQ makes everything you listen to in Chrome sound better. It adds a room‑like sense of space, a clean 10‑band equalizer, and a volume booster to any tab, music, videos, podcasts, and calls. Use the simple one‑tap Spatial Audio toggle, or switch to Advanced for precise control.

Why install it? Instant upgrade: Make laptop speakers or earbuds sound bigger and clearer. Simple or advanced: One‑tap Spatial Audio, or fine‑tune with 10‑band EQ and effects. Works everywhere: YouTube, Spotify Web, Twitch, news sites, video calls, any site with audio. Private by design: All audio stays on your device. No accounts. No tracking.

Key features:

Spatial Audio (Simple mode) One toggle: room‑like depth and width without smearing vocals. Great default preset; designed to sound good on typical earbuds and laptop speakers. 10‑Band Equalizer (Advanced mode) Frequencies: 32 • 64 • 125 • 250 • 500 • 1k • 2k • 4k • 8k • 16k Clean, responsive sliders with live readouts. Volume boost Turn it up responsibly. A gentle compressor helps keep peaks under control. Effects (Advanced) Stereo width, spatial angle, spatial depth, subtle compression. Presets Built‑in presets (Flat, Bass Boost, Vocal Boost, Treble Boost, Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Electronic, Podcast). Save your own custom presets and rename them. Global across tabs Your current settings apply across sites and tabs (gesture required on some sites due to browser policy). Minimal, fast UI Simple mode shows only what most people need. Toggle Advanced for full control.

How it works (in plain English)

WebEQ uses the Web Audio API to route the tab’s audio through a high‑quality processing chain. Spatial Audio: a virtual speaker stage (front/center/rear) combined with early reflections and a subtle reverb tail—designed to feel like speakers in a room while keeping voices focused. EQ: 10 peak filters tuned for musical results. Compressor: light “glue” to keep boosted audio under control.

Quick start

Click the extension icon to open WebEQ. Simple mode: Adjust Volume. Flip “Spatial Audio” ON for a bigger, more immersive sound. Advanced mode: Choose a preset or fine‑tune the 10‑band EQ. Try small adjustments first (±2–4 dB). Your settings are applied globally across tabs. On some sites, click once on the page to enable audio processing (browser autoplay rule). Permissions explained

activeTab + host_permissions (“<all_urls>”): Needed to access media elements on pages so audio can be processed in the tab. scripting: Used to inject the content script that connects audio to the Web Audio graph when needed. storage: Saves your presets and settings locally (and the current settings for global application).

Privacy

No account. No tracking. No analytics. Audio is processed locally in your browser and never leaves your device. We store your presets and settings using Chrome’s local storage only. Limitations

Browser policy: Some sites require a click/keypress before audio processing can start. You may see a small “Enable WebEQ” prompt—click once and you’re set. Cannot process chrome:// pages or the Chrome Web Store itself (browser restriction). Very old or highly locked‑down pages may need a manual refresh after installing.

Troubleshooting

“AudioContext was not allowed to start”: Click on the page or the “Enable WebEQ” prompt to activate audio (browser autoplay policy). No change in sound: Make sure the tab is playing audio and that Spatial Audio or EQ adjustments are enabled. Conflicts: Other audio extensions modifying the same tab may interfere, try disabling them.

Changelog (1.0.0)

Spatial Audio with immersive virtual speaker stage 10‑Band EQ with volume boost and gentle compression Simple/Advanced modes Presets + custom presets Global settings across tabs Gesture‑aware activation and a one‑tap “Enable WebEQ” prompt