Name: Hear
Price: 19.99 $
Rating: 3.606 (188 reviews)

Hear overview

Hear greatly improves audio quality in movies and music throughout all of your Mac OS X applications. With Hear, music is richer, movie sound and dialog is clearer and games will blow you out of your chair!

3D Sound - Like movies? like'em more with virtual cinema quality sound experience. Sound will approach you from all angles, even from behind. You are there with Hear.
Equalizer - Perfect your sound with Hear's studio quality N-band equalizer with built-in peak limiter. You've got control.
Speaker Correction - Control speaker resonance to increase frequency range and enhance sound.
Center Channel Control - Control the volume and width of the sound coming from your own virtual center-stage for performance-grade audio effects. A concert in your house.
Virtual Subwoofer - No Sub? No problem. Let Hear use your existing speakers to boost your bass. Don't you need more thump in your life?
Ambience - Fine tune reverb to emulate any venue from phone booth to concert hall. Either way, it's music to your ears.
Fidelity control - Music the way it was meant to be heard. Restore frequency, coloring and intensity lost during the recording process. Put more "hi" in your "fi".
Much more - Hear can control the volume and quality of each application independently. You can control enable and disable each effect independently. You can apply the effects in any order for dramatic results. You can define and recall presets at any time. You can enjoy Hear's effects through your computer's speakers, headphones and external speakers. And you can do it all in an easy-to-understand user interface.

What’s new in version 1.3.1

Updated on Jun 09 2016

Version 1.3.1:

Fix hang-on-launch on OS X 10.9 and earlier

Information

License

Shareware

Size

4.8 MB

Developer’s website

https://www.prosofteng.com/hear-audio-enhancer/

Downloads

93754

App requirements

Intel 32
Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later

0.0

(0 Reviews of )

There are no reviews yet

Buffy-The-Computer-Slayer

Jul 9 2020

1.3.1

5.0

Version: 1.3.1

I can't live without it, though I've spent a lot of time creating my own presets (I rarely use the ones supplied). There are users who complain they don't like Hear (why??) and can't turn it off even after quitting the app. Well, that's the point of Hear - you switch it on, then you quit it and it continues to enhance your audio. If you really want to turn it off, there's an ON button in Hear which you click off THEN quit the app. Oh, and here's a tip: if you use audio capture software, SWITCH HEAR OFF FIRST. If you don't, you will record with audio enhanced, then when you playback, you get audio enhancement again. Double enhancement = distortion.

bbr0ther

Jun 24 2020

1.0

Don't waste your money. This thing totally screwed up my audio, and would not work if I didn't have an internet connection (during long flights on a plane, for instance, it would render my mac soundless if I forgot to change settings before take off) Emailed tech support and they just answered that they no longer supported this thing. Nice scam, guys, thanks for nothing...

Rgfrfe

Jun 11 2020

3.0

Hi. There a lot of good reviews here...just wanted to add my 2 cents. I'm in the process of still testing it out. I thought this might replace my current similar app...SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba. The jury is still out but I may be sticking with SoundSource. One aggravating issue with Hear is how you cut/stop the sound from one app to the other. You actually have to move a volume slider for each app...not very intuitive. Another downside is SS lets you do settings that for EACH app where as Hear does not with some settings. I should be able to kill sound by clicking on the icon. And you can preset loaded apps anytime whereas Hear only adjusts on current open apps. Another downside to Hear is it's being discontinued...no more updates. About the only downside with SoundSource, is it's a bit expensive at $29. But check it out on trial see how it works for you. Thanks.

Andrzej-jablonski

May 11 2020

I no longer works?!!!

OSX-FTW!

Jan 13 2019

I was unlucky enough, to purchase this. Then it stopped working, and they abandoned it.

Drlex

Dec 16 2018

2.0

This used to be a fantastic app. With the right settings it was possible to get much better sound out of mediocre speakers (like the built-in ones of a MacBook Pro) or headphones. It could squeeze that little bit of extra out of good loudspeakers as wel.
Unfortunately due to the increasing use of sandboxing in OS X, Hear no longer works with many current apps, most importantly iTunes. Hear indeed does NOT work with its main target app!

In a Blogspot article of mine you can find a very cumbersome workaround to make it work again by routing audio through Soundflower and Audacity, but no normal person will want to do this. (Moreover, this hack adds about a second of delay.)

The Prosoft website states that Hear is no longer supported so it will probably be only a matter of time before it breaks completely. I really wish some company would step up and make an equivalent that works (I'm looking at you, Rogue Amoeba).

476429

Oct 10 2018

If it wasn't already obvious, it is now. The message on the Hear homepage says:

<< Hear is no longer under development and there is only limited support available. >>

Too bad. I used it for years and have not found another app with the same feature set.

S. Blumer

Nov 14 2017

0.5

Now it no longer works for Firefox, Safari, iTunes, Quicktime (basically anything on the mac. This software has fallen down for the last time I am afraid) .
Any alternatives that work as well? I really only want the compression to level out poorly created podcasts. the EQ I can handle. So until they fix this issue I cannot recommend it anymore.

pnn314

Aug 2 2017

Nice app. But it does not support iTunes on Mac (Version 12.6.1 and above). Unfortunately, at this time support team have not heard any news from our developers about an update for Hear.

rick-58

Jun 13 2017

My initial experience with Hear wasn't good. All I could get was muted or clipped audio. I uninstalled and gave Boom 2 a try and it worked without problems. After my Boom trial ended, I decided I should give Hear a try again and put more effort in to "figuring it out". Well, my 7 day trial had already ended so now I can't do anything without buying it. Too bad. If the other reviews stating Hear needs to be connected to the internet each time you start are still accurate, I'm glad I didn't spend more time with it.

paul-169

Nov 24 2016

Stopped working in OS 10.12.1 (Sierra). Was the only way to amplify Mac Speakers before it broke.

Arnauld

Jun 8 2016

The new Hear version 1.3.1 solved the "hang-up-problem" under OS X 10.9.5 but now the program wants to validate its serial number at _every_ launch via an internet connection. So Hear becomes unusable in an off-line situation. (Even after a successful online-activation the program yells during startup:" Failed to validate serial number. Please verify you are connected to the internet" (at prosofteng.com port 443). I'll go back to version 1.2.4 - and btw.: Go to hell - Prosoft - stooooopid. There still exist some other/similar solutions also for later systems.

Agf-

Jun 4 2016

1.3

4.0

Version: 1.3

After 1.3 update Hear hangs on startup (OS X 10.9.5). Any solutions?

LeMerlot

Jun 1 2016

I use HEAR since years – e.g. on my Mac Mini as a media center audio supporting software and I'm still excited what one can adjust with it. I use it for example to enhance streaming audio – the results are awesome. The developer keeps on updating it and so I even would pay for it twice.

Big Johnson

Jan 17 2016

1.2.4

Version: 1.2.4

Recently I contacted the developer to ask why Hear doesn't work with audio from Safari. The reply I received was crapola.

"Mac OS X 10.9 implemented a new security feature called Sandbox. This term describes applications that are secluded from other programs for security purposes. Safari and included plugins happen to be one of these applications.
Hear and other softwares cannot take control of Sandboxed applications."

If that were true then no "softwares" could capture or control Safari's output, but there are plenty of apps that can. I use Audio Hijack daily to record audio from Safari, mostly from one of the plugins. So if AH can capture audio from a sandboxed app, why can't Hear?

Coreaudio is also sandboxed, yet AH is able to capture any system audio, so the dev's answer is incorrect.

Besides, their direct competitor (Boom) works with Safari, so obviously their assertion that no software can control Safari audio is fallacious.

I tried Boom but didn't like the sound. I prefer Hear although its many options can be overwhelming and seem to need frequent tweaking, such as when changing genres in iTunes.
I dislike all of the the presets and have created my own for headphones, podcasts, tv etc.

There's absolutely no reason for Hear to not work in Safari and it's a major shortcoming, thus only 2.5 stars because of this and the bogus excuse.

Mtp99

Dec 8 2015

Utter junk. Purchased as part of a promo and received an invalid key. Emailed the MacUpdated and have never heard an answer.

ylluminate

Oct 25 2015

3.5

I really would like to see this as a menubar app with the ability to direct certain applications to specific audio output devices. Also having AudioMate's functionality integrated would be really nice.

Jefrart

Aug 5 2015

1.2.3

Version: 1.2.3

"Safari is not supported".... Why ???

4-5-inches-and-floppy

Jun 2 2015

A powerful app! A word of caution though, I was playing with it and forgot to turn it off before I deleted it. A few days later I was wondering why my sound was all distorted.. ! I just had to download it again to restore my audio.

Petersphilo

Mar 30 2015

4.5

I *love* Hear! It's a great product that does exactly what it portends to do: get great sound out of crappy speakers.. The only (big) problem is that it doesn't work with Safari, so, i have to admit that i checked out the competition: i installed Boom 2, which does work with Safari.. *However* Boom 2 introduces a nearly 0.5-second delay in audio, which is fine, unless you're watching video, in which case, it's unbearable.. So, long story short, i (happily) re-installed Hear! i'll deal with the no-Safari thing, as i have before, but, at least, i'm now again enjoying videos with great sound and no audio delay issues! Hope this helps! PS: i know that you can adjust audio sync in VLC, but you can't watch everything in VLC..