Prosoft
Engineering has come up with an incredible app that can boost the sound quality
of your Mac - Hear. Hear reinvents your listening experience. It acts as a sound processor that allows you to improve, correct, enhance, and extend the
sound stage created by your headphones or speaker system.
With
Hear, you can easily adjust the frequency response using its built-in
equalizer, much as you can do within iTunes. But unlike the iTunes equalizer,
Hear affects all of the audio being played on your Mac, no matter the source.
In addition, Hear’s equalizer can
cover up to 96 frequency bands, as opposed to the simple 10-band EQ offered in
iTunes. You can also recreate your musical environment with this app.
Pros
·
Loads of presets in six categories.
·
Appealing and easy-to-use interface.
·
Controls volume of individual apps
running on your Mac.
·
Large collection of special effects.
·
Includes a useful help file.
·
Includes an uninstaller.
Cons
·
Installation requires restart
·
No menu bar item; must run the app to
make changes.
·
Too many presets.
Installing Hear
Hear’s installation is nothing different; simply
drag the app to your Applications folder and you're ready to go. But once you
launch Hear, you'll be stopped right on track by the requirement to restart
your Mac before Hear will work properly.
This
is due to the fact that Hear must install components that need to be
initialized when the Mac starts up.
Once
past the restart problem, Hear is easy to navigate as it opens as a
single-window application.
Using Hear
Hear
presents a tabbed interface, with 13 tabs available. Each tab provides the
interface for a specific set of audio enhancements, such as General, EQ, Mixer,
3D, Ambience, and FX. You can use each tab to make adjustments to the sound
you're hearing.
That
may sound great, but you'll likely soon realize that 13 tabs, each with
multiple selections and adjustments maybe a bit much to go through to
fine-tune your sound preferences. That’s
why Hear comes with a great many presets that you can use as a starting point.
Once you come up with your own personalized settings, you can save them as your
own preset.
Effects
Hear
includes a library of effects that can alter sound quality as well as the sound
stage. You'll find effects from the 3D surround, which creates the illusion of a
surround system, to FAT, which simulates an old-style vacuum tube amplifier.
One
of the available effects that catch the eye, and ear is the extended space. By
using a very mild 3D and Extend Space, Hear can create an expanded sound stage.
Adjustments
As
mentioned earlier, there are 13 tabs, each corresponding to effects settings or
general audio filter settings. It may seem like a lot, but actually, since some
of the tabs are tied to specific effects, there's a good chance you won’t need to make any adjustments unless you
intend to use those effects.
Having
such a large number of settings ensures that Hear will be useful for a large
number of people, even if it does mean you'll likely spend an enjoyable amount
of time just trying out the various features.
Review
Beyond
providing a richer and deeper sound, Hear is also, for the most part,
unobtrusive once you set it up.
Hear
is one of the best audio processors for the Mac. With its ability to mold the
sound to meet your needs, its simple-to-use interface that covers up a very a powerful audio processor and its attractive price, Hear belongs on every audio
enthusiast's must-have list.
Hear
is $19.99. A demo is available.
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