MyTunes Unleashes Incredible Sound

If you're an audiophile, like I am, then you probably know by now that our dearly loved iPhones and iPads, while incredibly powerful and versatile machines, lack drastically in the audio performance department.

Case in point: I, and other iPhone 4S users, have experienced questionable stereo audio quality when playing music through the device's integrated speakers. Specifically, on the iPhone 4S, it seems that the sound on the right speaker plays at a volume that is two to three times higher than that on the left speaker. The result, of course, is a distorted and mostly unintelligible soundstage and an overall poor-quality audio experience.

MyTunes unleashes incredible sound

Improving the sound

Fortunately, there is an answer to this problem: MyTunes Pro HD (iPad only: free, full features available via in-app purchase, app2.me/5014), an advanced audio-enhancing music player ap­plication developed for the iPad, and the accompanying My­Tunes Pro (free, full fea­tures available via in-app purchase, app2.me/5015). Both are from SRS Labs, the consumer electronics industry's go-to source for audio technologies that make TVs, PCs, tab­lets, and smartphones de­liver bigger, better sound. SRS Labs is also behind the popular iWOW 3D ($59.99, srslabs.com) au­dio-enhancement adaptor for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod that iPhone Life re­viewed last year.

According to SRS, both MyTunes Pro HD and My­Tunes Pro were designed to enhance any iDevice's ability to play lossless and compressed digital music, so it would sound truer to the studio recording. The apps seamlessly pull music, podcasts, and audio book files from your iTunes music library, but what these apps do with those files is what makes them remarkably different from other music players that I've tried before.

MyTunes Pro addresses the iPhone's audio qual­ity by working in a host of SRS Labs' proprietary audio signal process­ing technologies, most notably WOW HD. The company claims their technology retrieves au­dio information that gets lost in the recording and compression processes, resulting in music that sounds far more natu­ral. SRS states that the technology restores the natural tonality and spa­tial characteristics of re­cordings, making music sound as if you're in the same room as the artist. By turning this feature on within the app, I immediately heard a noticeable improvement in quality and didn't even have to work the advanced settings. While the presets worked well, SRS also gives audiophiles the option to precisely control their listening experience with advanced controls that no other music players have, such as spatial control, psychoacoustic bass en­hancement, definition control, and vocal level.

Improving the sound

Getting started

Getting started with this app couldn't be easier. It takes a few seconds to boot on the first launch since it has to populate the music library, but once it's loaded, it works very quickly. The second you pop in your headphones, a small window appears, asking you what kind of device was just plugged in. Each setting has a different sound, so for my application, I selected over-the- ear headphones. When listening to music with the WOW HD feature on, I could notice the improved clarity, higher highs, and lower lows, but additionally, I could hear the soundstage expand far beyond my headphones. When using my iPad's built- in speaker with WOW HD on, the sound quality was greatly improved across the entire frequency range, and the music didn't sound so glued to the device.

In addition to the audio­-processing technology, the app features several other bells and whistles, including a fully adjust­able 10-band EQ with presets and a simple three-knob tone control system (both of which of­fer further personalization of audio playback). It also has volume normalization, which maintains a consis­tent listening volume, re­gardless of the music be­ing played. I appreciated the ability to tweak the various frequency levels in the EQ in order to give my music a little stronger bass and more pronounced highs — this is something that I think most of us who listen to music on our iPhones, iPods, and iPads have wanted since the begin­ning, and now with MyTunes, we finally have it. Additionally, the volume normalization feature was highly effective at keeping all of my music at the same playback level. Amazingly, when go­ing from classical music with a large dynamic range to modern pop, which is optimized for loudness, there was no noticeable difference in perceived loudness between the tracks, so I never had to adjust the volume level.

Getting started

Additional features

Beyond their sound-improvement technologies, MyTunes Pro HD and MyTunes Pro also feature a mix of advanced audio-­processing technologies designed to allow users to personalize and customize their listening experience to match their moods, settings, or activities. For example, the app has a workout mode that allows users to simply set their workout intensity level. Then the app automatically adjusts their playlist and songs' speed to fit the intensity of their workout. Similarly, there is a party mode that allows users to select their playlist and party type; the app then reorganizes the playlist to fit the selected party style. The app also provides the experience of having a DJ mix your music — no hired DJ required — thanks to the app's built-in intelligent DJ transitions.

Another cool feature is the speed control setting. According to SRS, this technology was intended for use with tracks featuring only spoken words, like podcasts and audio books, not music. If you do use it with your music, it may sound a little weird. This feature allows you to increase or decrease the speed of your podcasts and audio books with no detrimental effect on the pitch and tone of the person's voice, and, I must say, it works well! I was able to get through The Hunger Games audio book much faster than I could have without it.

The final verdict

Though the MyTunes apps are available to download for free, you can only use their fully functioning music players with ad­vanced features for 10 minutes a day. If you like what you hear, you can unlock the apps' advanced features via a one-time, in-app purchase (iPhone/iPod version: $4.99; iPad version: $7.99). Overall, I was impressed with the functionality and advanced features of MyTunes Pro HD and felt that what it did for my iPad's music collection and sound capabilities made it well worth the $7.99 unlock price. There are very few music player apps out there that trump Apple's built-in music player, but the array of playback features included in the MyTunes apps, combined with their uncanny ability to improve the overall sound quality on any iDevice, make MyTunes Pro HD and MyTunes Pro must-have apps for any music lover.