Review: SoundFocus for iOS
Apple Music for iOS is less of a full-featured music player and more of a front end for selling music on iTunes. If you’ve grown frustrated with Apple Music as I have, with its lack of features and cumbersome navigation, there are other (better) options. One of those options is an app called SoundFocus, which I recently discovered. (Alas, the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy) but, in my view, that doesn’t deter the quality of the app. I find it to be excellent for my daily use.
SoundFocus was created to make “hearing disability a thing of the past”, in the words of its founder. When the app launches, users are presented with a clean interface that lets you calibrate your device to your hearing range for low, medium and high frequency sounds. Simply adjust the volume to where you can hear the generated tones and SoundFocus takes care of the rest. It’s a 10 second process.
For a music player, the interface is incredibly well thought out. It’s very easy to move through the app and play songs by artist, album, songs, most played and your already existing Apple Music playlists. In addition to Apple Music, SoundFocus also works with Spotify. Albums are presented with large thumbnails making it easy to find and select the track you are looking for. I found the Search feature to be incredibly fast and accurate. Below are a few screenshots showing off SoundFocus’s interface and navigation.
My favorite feature is SoundFocus’s equalizer. It’s built into the app, making it easy to customize settings or use one of the many provided presets. As you can imagine, the equalizer makes a huge difference in playback.
The player controls are large, making skipping or pausing tracks a breeze. Furthermore, users can toggle the SoundFocus settings (represented by the blue circle with SF) while listening to any DRM-free track. Unfortunately, DRM tracks have this ability turned off.
Another feature that I really like is SoundFocus’s ability to let users create and save custom audio profiles for your headphone, car, etc. As a frequent commuter, I like having the ability to keep specific profiles in place without the need to constantly fiddling with the settings.
In my opinion, SoundFocus is what Apple Music should have been. It’s a nimble app that’s really easy on the eye. I’m truly sad that the company is folding. Given the recent proceedings, future iOS updates may very well break the app. But if you’re willing to look past the concerns, SoundFocus is free on App Store. I’ve tested it with iOS 9.3.2 and it’s stable and fast. Grab it while you can.
SoundFocus earns 4.5 out of 5 Bob Weiners.
-Krishna
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