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Installing Audio Equalizer

Install the needed package(s).

sudo apt install pulseaudio-equalizer

Add Audio Modules to Load

Manually load modules using this command

pactl load-module module-dbus-protocol
pactl load-module module-equalizer-sink

Edit file /etc/pulse/default.pa and add the following lines to make the modules load at startup. 

# Added for equalizer
load-module module-dbus-protocol
load-module module-equalizer-sink

When having more then 1 input source for the equalizer select the default source first before loading the equalizer module.

# Required module for the equalize.
load-module module-dbus-protocol
# Set the default source which the equalizer uses as the input.
# The source name varies between systems
set-default-sink alsa_output.platform-fef00700.hdmi.hdmi-stereo
load-module module-equalizer-sink
# Now switch to the equalizer source as default.
set-default-sink alsa_output.platform-fef00700.hdmi.hdmi-stereo.equalizer

Remove an Existing Configuration (trouble)

Delete configuration files

rm -rf ~/.config/pulse
rm -rf ~/.pulse

To make the changes have effect.

When killed it will normally start automatically again.

pulseaudio --kill
pulseaudio --start

Missing Menu or Broken?

Fix for missing pulseaudio-equalizer-gtk referenced by the menu entries.

Create entry in the users bin directory. If the directory is not present it needs to be created.

ln -s /usr/bin/qpaeq ~/bin/pulseaudio-equalizer-gtk

Create Menu Entry

Create file /home/arjan/.local/share/applications/pulseaudio-equalizer.desktop and add the following content.

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_US]=PulseAudio LADSPA interface using MBEQ Multiband EQ plugin
Comment=PulseAudio LADSPA interface using MBEQ Multiband EQ plugin
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=qpaeq
GenericName[en_US]=Equalizer
GenericName=Equalizer
Icon=view-media-equalizer
MimeType=
Name[en_US]=PulseAudio Equalizer
Name=PulseAudio Equalizer
NoDisplay=false
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
Version=1.0
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=