Hear1.3.1

People who expect to flip the switch on this software and get incredible sound out of any audio set-up, expect magic. Hear is loaded with all kinds of presets which are basically worthless. To get good sound out of a particular system, one needs to tweak the necessary settings to the correct parameters. Now, this is the main problem with Hear: you need to be kind of an audio engineer to do this. You may be lucky with one of the presets, but most of those use way too exaggerated settings just to showcase what Hear can do. The better the audio system, the closer each setting should be to 'zero' or 'neutral'. I know which settings to tweak in order to make a $5 headset sound like a Sennheiser, or get less crummy sound out of the tinny speakers in my MacBook Pro. But the 'average Joe' has no clue which of the 100+ settings to tweak in order to counteract the 10+ mysterious shortcomings of his/her particular system. Maybe some kind of comprehensive guide should be supplied which explains how each particular setting can be used to counteract a particular shortcoming of a sound system, and which settings are just pure 'ear-candy'. Since I have learnt how to use it, Hear has become almost essential for me. Unfortunately my major gripe with this program is that it's riddled with bugs. First of all, Hear has a memory leak. It will increase the memory usage of each and every application that plays sounds, each time a new sound is loaded or played. Eventually this will make the program crash, after slowing down your Mac to a crawl due to swapping. For instance, Audacity 1.3.6 will quickly consume all of the 3GB of RAM on my machine when loading a large sound and pressing the 'play' button a few times. Next, the controls will stop working at random moments, including the 'on/off' button. In such cases, the only way to regain control of Hear is either logging out, or manually killing the Hear Daemon and closing and re-opening all sound-related programs. Finally, when changing presets or settings, the previous settings are still used when a new QuickTime movie is loaded afterwards. The Hear interface must be quit and re-opened to 'fixate' the new settings. The 'average Joe' will not realise that any of the 3 above behaviours are bugs, except maybe the first one. The second and third bug will only make it seem like Hear doesn't work at all. If anyone at JoeSoft reads this, I highly recommend fixing those bugs as soon as possible. I really love this program but it will only be a matter of time before my frustration due to those bugs piles up so high that I start to hate it.

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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..

Downloaded and paid for this, all went well until I realised that it doesn't play with elements of my Line 6 software that I use as my interface with Logic X, completely stopping them from opening. I wrote to Prosoft, they wrote back to me to explain that, quote: "Hear is not meant for professional set-ups such as mine". Well, as far as I am concerned, my ideals are a little above giving disk-room to such an unprofessional piece of software from a developer that frankly couldn't care less, having taken my money! Instead I tried 'Boom', and have found absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Amazing app. I've got an old Altec 2.1 speaker rig I swapped the little speakers out with some little Pioneer bookshelf speakers. It's a great idea but sounds very muddy. Hear solves a problem that I've had with lack of System wide EQ for years and does much more. Worth every cent.

Seems to be broken in Mac OS 10.10. I tried it in 10.9 and was really impressed with the improvements in sound quality that could be achieved. The difference between the default sound quality and what this app creates is really astounding. I was close to buying it, but when I upgraded to 10.10, it doesn't work at all. I've tried it on 2 different computers, even on a clean install, downloading a new version and it just doesn't work. I'm disappointed because there are very few options for sound enhancer apps for OS X, and this seems to be the best. Hopefully they work out support for OS X 10.10 soon.

It used to be really impressive even for audiophiles and/or for professionally creating/correcting sound environments with specific goals: based on the "source" (music by genre, videos, movies, etc.) as well on the "target" (audience, acoustic characteristics of the room, ampli-speakers systems. Unfortunately IT IS QUITE CLEAR THAT PROSOFT HAS DROPPED HEAR OFF IN ITS DEVELOPMENT/UPDATE: from months, years, Hear has not been supporting any source that come from any browser (Chrome, Safari, YouTube, Flash, HTML5, etc.). Simply, it does not recognise them anymore! They should only decide to close the project and admit that HEAR HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED, without continuing to ask money for A SOFTWARE THAT DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE.

Sadly Hear no longer applies to Flash in Safari 7.0 and 6.1 (i just use Chrome to watch the Daily Show) Still, it's a great addition to any Mac! Apple should buy them and add this to the Mac OS!!

Why are people attempting to use Hear as an aid for sound-PROduction and then getting pissed off because it doesn't work worth a damn? Hear is a sound-REproduction tool. It's meannt to be used with music-players ONLY. I use it with every music-player from iTunes and BitPerfect to high-end players like Pure Music and Amarra. If you din't like what you Hear using its presets out of the box, you can modify Hear to your heart's delight and, when they cease to delight, it's no problem to change them or to revert them. I haven't tried to use Hear in conjunction with Audio HJ Pro, but Hear plays well with Digital Power Station, AstoundSound, and iWow. Use Hear as it's supposed to be used, for sound-REproduction, and, though you may not be satisfied enough with it to decide to buy it, at least you won't be criticizing it because you've tried to pound a square peg of REproduction into the round hole of PROduction.

This version fixes a problem I had with v1.1.5 (and didn't know it was caused by Hear). I was unable to hear GoToMeeting webinar audio. v1.1.6 FIXES the problem and I'm happy once again. I wouldn't be without Hear; it's improved the audio on my MBP and desktop system speakers noticeably.

Perhaps the 1.1.5 update was pulled. The link here and at the developer's site downloads 1.1.4.

After upgrade hear from 1.1.4 to 1.1.5 my macbook have problems with my audio, I could not get sound out ableton live 8 and my pro tools 10 was unable to use my hardware, and I get distortion sound out of iTunes. Fix it !!

Hear 1.1.5 conflict with Guitar Pro 6.1.4 on Mac OSX 10.8.1 running on MBP Retina. Guitar Pro 6.1.4 will stop working entirely (no sound at all) when Hear 1.1.5 is on the system. I have to uninstall Hear, reboot, to get Guitar Pro working This do not happemn with Hear 1.1.4 Fix please

It seems the download link has some problems, I can't able to download it.

The main thing I can say about this program is that it has definitely improved the sound quality coming out of a pair of Creature Speakers and is very adjustable as well. The main downside is that some of the presets for given genre of music introduce too much distortion for my taste, and then have to be tweaked (there are a heck of a lot of presets, too--overkill?) Overall: pretty happy with it.

Hear is an outstanding improvement to my Mac's sound. It can be used system wide, has a wide variety of presets and more adjustability than I even know how to use, the UI is pretty clear considering all that it does, and the app doesn't even have to be left running to listen to the processed sound. $20 is very reasonable price for this app.

Great app! Works system wide too. I especially like being able to use the curves instead of sliders. I had thought there was a problem with the app but it was actually simply allowing me to hear how badly some of my iTunes track were (i.e. I hadn't noticed it before because the iTunes Equalizer had muffled some of the digital noise). A caveat... don't give up on this app because it takes some trial-and-error to achieve the best possible setting for your personal taste. It's worth the time... especially since you have 30 days to demo it (unlike the $%^$#% App Store's no demo policy). I highly recommend this app.

This application has impressed me since I bought it several months ago. My only quibble with v1.1.2 is the same one as Diddimus reported, and ProSoft's rapid response was the same as they gave Diddimus and it worked fine. I was thinking of buying a better set of speakers for my Mac Pro. For the price, I decided to give Hear a try. This little piece of software saved me big bucks on a new set of speakers! To the point that sometimes I find myself just enjoying listening to my old Alien speakers because they sound terrific (they're good to begin with). At first it wasn't clear how the application was working, as no Pref Pane or other "control" mechanism is visible other than the application. Then I realized that it's [probably] just modifying the system's equalization curve, so no further controls are needed. The only thing I can think of that would make this better is to be able to set different curves on a per-application basis. While it's nice to focus on iTunes playback, I may not want my video editing and other applications to use the same curve. But, after all, that's what Apple does by default, so I can't fault ProSoft too much for this. Overall, I highly recommend this application.

From my 2010 review in which I gave Hear 2 stars: -After installing, I had to re-enter my registration information and restart my Mac. -Still can't resize Hear's GUI. Working the eq. with more than 10 bands is a bit annoying. Not much has improved. In 2008 I gave Hear 3 stars. So much potential yet so disappointing. The price is more appropriate these days. IIRC that's how much I paid originally thanks to crossgrade pricing. For music I find Hear unusable. I already detailed this issue in a previous review. I'll just quote another user (Xenophile): "I will echo Esperidion's observation that Hear yields over-processed sounds. For those interested in listening to music that is faithful to the original intent of the recording artist, Hear is worse than useless." For music, Digital Power Station is my choice. Unfortunately my old trick of routing audio with Jack to DSP-Quattro and processing it with my plugins is not working under Lion. I recently bought plugins from URS, Melda, ArtsAcoustic and others and would like to have this functionality again. Hear has plenty of features, is stable, easy to use, and may be a good value for some given the price reduction. Overall I'll give it 2 stars once again. As an effect it's OK, but there are plenty of alternatives with better sound quality.

Hi all, Looking at my over all rating I guess there are many out there that do not like the fact that when I write I speak the truth and will not soft peddle a product if it stinks or is a danger to your Mac. Hear is Not one of them! First, Hear is a stand alone product. It is not a Haxie so it does not put anything in the System. Also if you read the Docs., you would find that it is recommended to delete to delete any sound tweaking programs like Digital Power Station, iWOW, Audio Hijack Pro and AstoundSound because they will cause conflicts with Hear. Hear is not meant for just iTunes. It is designed for enhancements to all audio programs such as DVD Player, VLC, QT, iTunes and and any other sound programs that can make use of Hear. I read over the comments below and I too have had the problem where Hear is not functioning correctly where you change or adjust a setting and there is no different in the sound. When that happens, you just need to reinstall Hear. If you are not sure of how, call the Tech Dept. and they will walk you through it or send you an email on how to. The point is once you do that, you will find quite a difference in how Hear works and your problems should be solved. I helped beta test Hear 1.05 before they began to do it in shop. I sent in many suggestions and I was very pleased to see some of them worked into the program. My favorite correction can be found under the mixer tab where you see what apps are in use by Hear. In 1.0.5 Hear showed every app that was running. I made the suggestion for Hear to use a Little AI and not list programs not used by Hear like Office and other apps that did not deal with sound. At first they were not sure if they could do that at the current version of Hear. But, as new versions came out I first noticed that you could click on the arrow to the far left and it would shut it down to Hear. Now they had taken it to the level I initially recommend. Now Hear on list applications that are audio related. It took Pro Soft some time, but they finally got it right. As far as the nature of the "looks" of Hear, It is my opinion that those comments made below are just from people who just need something to nag about. The over all layout of Hear is clean and easy to move about from one tab to another. If you are not experienced in the science of Audio then take some time a read the manual. I know we Mac people like to just like to plunge into a program but, there are times where reading a manual can give you a wealth of information and help you to understand any program better. I have found the best way to tweak Hear is by having the sound source going as you adjust Hear at the same time. It makes it much easier because you hear the changes in real time. Hear does have a learning curve to it, but, if you just sit down and take the time to see what each tab does to your sound, then you will learn how to make your own sets and Pro Soft would love to look at them. So before you bitch about a program because you cannot resolve an issue and refuse to call Tech Support then you may as well be the rear end of a Donkey and if there are people out there who wish to grade me negatively, go ahead, what I write and write in the future will always be truth and if something sucks I will expose it for what it is. I have reviewed SW since the 128k Mac in Print and in Ezines and they came to me to write for them. Even inside MacGames asked me to write for them. So, if you think my writing is full of crap ask the readers across the U.S. and international. End of Line...

I obtained 'Hear' for Mac when I purchased a Mac bundle. Unfortunately since using it I have noticed that the application of effects/audio changes is inconsistent. I often have to select an effect multiple times in order to have the effect applied. Unfortunately, that's not the worst problem. I've also found that my audio drops out completely when using the application. At irregular intervals (on average 2-3 times in an hour period of continuous audio output) the audio simply stops working. In order to reenable audio functionality, I have to select/deselect the 'Mute' function on the Hear interface. I'm using Hear with my Early 2009 Mac Pro (64 bit 8-core machine with two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 series (Nehalem) processors) running Mac OS 10.7.3. The speakers are an audio-output connected Bose Companion 3 - Series II mulimedia speaker system. No - I'm not going to bother contacting their customer support. I've read the reviews/other comments and I'm not interested in troubleshooting their product for them. Updates haven't been coming at a regular interval, so I can't imagine there would be much response in the way of a fix. Thankfully, MacUpdate's 'Bundles' are affordable enough that I can afford to simply 'uninstall' this stinker, and call it a day.

After originally having a good experience with "Hear", it has now decided not to work - while the program loads, the window never opens and, as far as I can tell, it does not alter the sound quality in any way. To make matters worse, there doesn't appear to be a way of soliciting help from the developer via the support site email message system, as Hear is not listed as one of the developer's products. Can anybody help, please? Not happy! anj

Nice Application, full of features and configurations, i love to use and play, but don´t work with my interface (Apogee Duet 2). This application HAVE PROBLEMS WITH EXTERNAL INTERFACES. I use Soundflower for test, but have stability problems in Lion. Only works for 5 min. or two songs. Waiting for a fix or update. Or better alternative.

great program! the only major problem i've run into is a conflict with Adobe After Effects CS5. Once Hear is installed, i can no longer RAM preview a video file in AE that contains audio. instead i get an error that reads, "After effects warning: unable to start audio playback. please confirm your audio device is properly configured or change the driver selection in preferences:audio hardware." This error goes away after i uninstall Hear. I've tried excluding after effects in Hear's Mixer panel, but no dice. i hope you can fix this, because i love having a system wide program for my audio. Do that, i would rate the program a 5 out of 5.

Two things annoy me about Hear. 1) It doesn't automatically open when I launch iTunes so I often wind up not getting any benefit from it. 2) the application quits when you close its window which is NOT typical of Mac software. If I were using Windows I'd expect this behavior, but not when I'm using my Mac.

So...how does registration work? Does this come with a ridiculous activation limit the way SRS iWow did? Has JoeSoft charged for incremental releases (again, like with SRS iWow)? The MUPromo bundle has gotten me really interested in Hear but after having been burned with SRS iWow, I'm a little apprehensive.

LOL, I love the $741 price tag now... And 94% off... can't beat that. :\ LOL I guess I can see how the MacUpdate discount algorithms work now... ;) --> http://j.mp/u2H5Ax But it's a really nice app. I own it and enjoy it. Wish it would have a negative option that would not filter all apps, but the ones you select by default. I also wish it would handle some audio better without sounding like it's overdriving on some frequencies.

i tried nearly all preset and they all suck on metal music the only good one that i found is jazz and its still the shit all my music is in flac and is sound rubish it probly me but i found that too many option it like not enought option it get too complicated for nothing and nothing let us no what it modifi when we want to play with it , and my metal is this better with my normal thingy ..... sorry but metal aint pop and other thing like that ...... better chance next time