This software nags you with a dialog to call home even after activation. You get spammed by discount offers to upgrade every few days. I understand many developers in the apple ecosystem take advantage of the self serving nature thats common today, but these guys firmly have crossed the line.
There is no evident memory leak with v1.3.8. I have it running at 181.8 MB RAM. There had been an intermittent bug where a restart would result in no sound driver loading, requiring a workaround of manually activating the Boom Audio drive in Sound system preferences. So far, that bug is not evident in v1.3.8. - - For me, this is a Must Have addition to macOS as it is so useful and successful at improving my Mac's audio. The devs keep improving it and ironing out occasional bugs. I wouldn't use my Macs without it. Oh and its sound driver allows you to record sound alongside screen recordings, something macOS on its own does not do. As a beneficial, essential app, I give it 5 stars.
HUGE MEMORY LEAK on macbook. App starts at 33mb memory usage, and I have screenshots of it using more than 4GB (!!!!) of memory after running a whole day. Authors dismissed my bug reports and didn't give any other solution other than to reinstall it (and go through the stupid "tuning showoff" every time). Obviously it didn't help.
It noticeably lowers the output volume when it's running in the background, regardless of whether it's "on" or "off". The only way to fix it is to quit the app.
They company does not offer a refund, stating customers have a 30-day trial before purchasing. Fair enough. Don't be like me and impulse buy. Make sure it works to your liking before purchasing.
Tried the trial version on my MacBook with my Bluetooth JBL speaker connected. It crashed the first time. When I got it working the equalizer had no effect at all when playing a song. Kept getting annoying pop-ups. Uninstalled it. Then had to use a utility to hunt down files the uninstall left behind. Very poor.
I buyed a Senheisser 260 HD headphones and I was kind of dissapointed on them because they didn't sound loud enough... a friend suggested me to buy an external portable HiRes amp, and I tried to find some virtual amp for MacOS... and so I stumbled with Boom3D...installed the try version and ... I felt in love with my new headphones!!! they sound absolutely perfect thanks to the Boom3D amp and 3d surround effect!! I think I had never buy an app so quickly in my life! The best 12$ spent ever!!!
yes the charge every so oftenn is anoying but it is one of best music app players i enjoy and play the most at home next to Megaseg Pro..and i can use it with my Audio Quest Dragonfly..go together like steak and lobster.
I would like to share my opinion about the app. This app is really amazing. Using only ordinary earphone, I hear my musics and movies with incredible sounds. The 3D sound effect also fantastic.
I have used this both on Catalina 10.15.3 and Mojave 10.14.6.
I noticed when using Boom 3D my Mac scrubs/skips through videos online via safari and via quicktime and music on iTunes, freezes my chrome and unsyncs audio on Firefox and safari. audio is also has a lot of static in it when these errors happen if I can get anything to play. I have been through apple support thinking it was an issue with my mac. I closed boom 3D when I had the audio issue and what do you know no issues. if you application is as buggy as it is please fix all the issues that your app is causing. I don't have any log to provide but I just want to know that you have made me think that I had to buy a new Mac because of these errors.
I have also had to reset my mac multiple times because of these issues loosing all my data that I had on my Mac. your program was also slowing down my Mac quite a lot.
the only explanation I have is that boom 3D was causing all the issues because since not using it I haven't had the issues pop up again.
This is one of the best designed programs !
i've tested Boom3D: Volume Booster and EQ at a friend's Macbook. Of all the apps, utilities, and programs I have ever used, this one takes the cake for highest level of perfection. Somebody has totally obsessed over this, getting everything right, down to the smallest detail, as if the fate of the universe depended upon it. If you are at all tech-oriented, you are going to be impressed with the level of detail and sheer amount information they have managed to pack into Boom3D: Volume Booster and EQ.
Having problems again with Boom 3D sporadically crashing without any apparent cause. I send a problem report (generated by the app) to the developer every time. Even when I include an email or have attempted to reach their support team, the resonse is #crickets. No one's ever responded to me about reported issues. Guess the team is a little on the small side!
In general, I like this app and have been using it since it came out. That said, I sometimes experience the same bugs that I thought Boom would have ironed out by now: odd metallic distortion overall at times, distortion in the bass frequencies (not headphone/earbud dependent), the hair-trigger button settings on the equalizer (why can't I just type in a number instead of using the slider???), and the nag emails when I already have the product.
Taking two points off for persistent, erratic app issues.
Was great until it stopped working with Mojave (10.14.6). As soon as I connect a BT device, it crashes and can't even be reopened. I have to shut bluetooth off to be able to open Boom 3D again. I'm using the latest version.
The set up often needs considerable adjusting when shifting from one source of music (DVD, You Tube, on-line radio). But when set up properly the results are good in most cases. Recently, however, when Boom 3D is on it intermittently shuts down the sound system on my MacBook. Nothing works: MacBook speaker, earphones, bluetooth speaker. I then need to reboot my system. I have read other reviews indicating widespread similar problems, especially with the more recent versions of 3D. So for now I'm disabling the app. and ignoring the almost endless steam of invitations to upgrade to the newest version. I'll try a new version in a few months to see if problems have been resolved.
This software nags you with a dialog to call home even after activation. You get spammed by discount offers to upgrade every few days. I understand many developers in the apple ecosystem take advantage of the self serving nature thats common today, but these guys firmly have crossed the line.
I've been using Boom 3D on my Macbook Pros and Airs since it first came out. It's reliable, easy to adjust, and performs remarkably well. The Ambient and 3D settings are mind-blowing. I haven't experienced the problems others have with payments. Have I made two, one for each of my Macs? I don't think so. But even if I did, it would be worth $20 to get control over my audio, better than the native Apple controls.
Since I switched to the latest MacBook Pro Touch Bar the Boom 3D application is constantly crashing.
Every time I need to use my AirPods for a call on Slack or FaceTime or any time I use my AirPods for any kind of call the app will just crash and even if I restart it just crashes straight away again.
I really enjoy using the Boom 3D but they need to fix all of those bugs it is so frustrating using it when every time I need to make a call it crashes. And I do make a lot of calls using my MacBook Pro.
WORKAROUND for distorted System sounds:
Recent versions of Boom 3D have introduced the potential for distorted system sounds such that, oddly, sounds start to play part-way through then play the start of the sound briefly thereafter.
I nailed the problem down to the Boom 3D Setting "Sleep when idle". If you get this distortion, UNcheck that setting. The problem is gone. No other culprits were found to be involved in my system.
If for some reason you find a need to use 'Sleep when idle', the workaround it to go to:
-> System Preferences/Sound/Sound Effects/"Play sound effects through:"
Choose in the popup menu "Internal Speakers". The distortion is gone.
I've passed the problem source and workaround to the developer in order for them to be able to help users in the future. [The distortion problem had flummoxed them as well.]
I Too had to Give up on this app after a couple months like others have stated here. 1) Too many issues with out of Sync Audio & Video on YouTube... Had to constantly quit and relaunch to get audio in sync. Had to wait for update to fix this. 2) Compatibility issues and Latency Issues with Pro Video & Audio Editing Apps. You have to Quit out of it to resolve these. 3) Blows the crap out of Audio if you have HQ Music file such as FLAC or AIFF audio files. 4) Required constant adjustments to EQ if you have Audio from a wide variety of Sources & Quality. I found UnInstalling it and Not using preferable to all the issues with it running. 5) Finally, If you just use it with Average quality iTunes MP3s and AC3 files then it works well, but easier to just Use iTunes Custom EQ Settings than to flip back and forth with this thing and all its Quirks.
I've been using Boom since it came out. I'm about to give up on it, though. The latest version, 1.2.7, crashes so many times a day it's absurd. Sometimes it completely kills all sound output from my MBP; only doing a restart restores sound output. There's a dialog box after the app crashes that supposedly submits a bug report to the developers. I've sent dozens of these, which include my name and email address and gotten no response. I contacted them directly through support on their website and got only a robo-response and nothing further.
I'm not sure if the bug is completely Boom's fault or if there's some bad juju with the app and Mojave 10.14.x, but I'm fed up with the crashing and the fact that the developers can't be bothered to respond to bug/crash reports.
I'd backgrade to the previous version if I could; had no problems with that version.
Otherwise, I generally have to leave it disabled. Save your money for the next big iteration of Boom 3D, folk, assuming they get the kinks worked out. And I'm not even speculating on the app's future path with Catalina..
The sound is an improvement compared to the old version of Boom, but I became fed up with all the messing about where sound would randomly be lost if playing a video or I plugged in a microphone.
If you listen to the radio through their new update the volume is suddenly screaming loud and very hard to control, so in the end I just uninstalled it. It became particularly unreliable when using a line out cable from the Mac Pro to the monitor speakers, but there are no issues when I simply use the system sound options.
One perk I've discovered from using Boom 3D is that its audio driver can be used to ADD Mac audio recording to macOS 10.14 Mojave screen recording. Apple has NOT allowed their audio driver to be used, meaning that all Apple provides is silent recording. (Thank the RIAA and MPAA).
If you bring up the screen recording interface (Command-Shift-5) and go under Options, choose your Microphone to be "BoomAudio". Start recording the screen and all your Mac audio will be included. This is an EXCELLENT replacement for all but the most powerful screen recording apps, including beloved defunct SnapzPro X, rest in peace.
Since Mojave 10.14 there are audio dropsouts every 7 minutes in Boom 2 and Boom 3D!.
Begin this month i had a skypecall with the helpdesk/maker of this software. I have record also a short movie moment where you can hear what happens. i sent this to the helpdesk.
The problem is only with both Boom versions., and it's not there when Boom is off! I had also a call with Apple helpdesk and they say it's a problem from the maker of Boom because it's only happens when Boom is on! The helpdesk checked also some settings.
Since that call with Boom helpdesk and earlier some emails they don't give me a solution for this problem.
I have tried many Apple options on my Mac.
In our skypcall they recognized this problem! What should be a solution of this audio dropouts every 7 minutes?
When it works, which isn't often - it's fantastic. Sometimes plays audio from youtube. Won't play from iTunes. Restarting laptop and options to use Boom3D as output and input in sound preferences...disappear. Spent far too long to try to make this work. Unfortunately I purchased it during one of the early times when it was working.....regretting that decision now.
If I want to upgrade, I will navigate to your website and do so. Half star rating due to nag-ware that never quits. I have purchased your software, now let me enjoy it in peace. One should not thank customers by nagging them 24-7.
I tried out Boom 3D and Bongiovi DPS. While I hate the subscription model for software, I found DPS to be my preferred app. To me, it was more user-friendly and more configurable. Their site, support, and forum are all great.
I also like that they used a package installer so I knew exactly what was being installed. When you first launch Boom 3D, it downloads and installs another component. Not a fan of that technique.
Just my 2¢.
It simply improves the performance of onboard sound thru headphones and speakers in every way. It improves volume and clarity and special effects. There's simply no reason to hesitate in this inexpensive purchase if you care about sound from our machine at all.
Although this app sounds really great I give it 1 star for lack of a way to deregister then reregister on a new make. They say there is but there isn't on Mac OS 10.12.6. Customer service does nothing to fix the problem.
Sounds nice but I had to uninstall it as it takes over the Chrome browser shortcuts for zoom in and out which I use all the time. To steel shortcuts system wide like this without the option to disable/change them is not acceptable.
This thing keeps your computer from sleeping if it is running. It appears this has been a problem since around 2011, so don't hold your breath for a fix anytime soon...it's 2018.
I love good audio with small monitor speakers or if I am connected to my AirPods - wow, really great boost if you love good music or a good sound of a movie. I had also the pre-version (without 3D) and it was always a background smoothy working utility.
The software works pretty well on my MacBook Air, but I sure wish there was a way to change the keyboard shortcuts they use in Boom 3D. I work a good deal of my time in Lightroom 6, and when I choose Command-Shift-E to do an export, it gets blocked by a conflict with Boom3D. So I can't ever have Boom activated while working in Lightroom.
Having an issue with sound output from since I upgraded to High Sierra; the macbook pro will not play through the Epson PJ output (HDMI). Hopefully this is not connected to my recent upgrade to Boom 3D (which sounds amazing, by the way). Has anyone experienced similar incompatibility, and did you find a fix? Thank you.
Just came back on say how impressed with boom i am. I have a license for 1.0 and it still works in Sierra. Boom made my day originally as i had usb speakers which did not have volume control support in osx.. but today it shines as a brilliant system wide eq.. and doesn't distort like itunes.
I was going to upgrade to boom3d but the surround sound didn't feel that good and the bass distorted on sennheiser headphones for movies, even with all the settings down and no eq.. But its so good i heartily recommend getting the latest version for anyone who doesn't own it. (the handcrafted eq profiles haven't changed since 1). It would be an instabuy if the 3d engine was improved.. if it gets in the league of razer surround pro or the dolby algorithms im there.
I am a music professional so good sound is extremely important to me. I previously had Boom 2 and, while overall happy with it, I found the sound would sometimes get harsh and distort in certain applications when using it with speakers connected through an amplifier. I recently upgraded to Boom 3D and the sound has improved dramatically and seems to be much more consistent across various applications - iTunes, SmartMusic, Amadeus Pro, Sibelius, Safari, and all others sound great. The interface is much improved as well. I was expecting this to be an improvement for headphones but was surprised by how much better external speakers sound when compared to Boom 2. I'd also like to compliment the support I've received from the developers, who helped me when I was having issues getting the reduced upgrade price. They were prompt in their replies to me and we got my problems solved fairly quickly. I leave very few reviews but this application deserves my support - an easy 5 star choice.
Tried this, but Bongiovi DPS offers both a better experience and richer quality. I do like the integration of this, but in the end I'm really looking for a different presentation of the functionality.
The dev. says "If you often experience problems with the sound volume when watching movies or videos on the Internet, chat audio chat or simply listening to music, Boom is what you need."
O'RLY?
Well I didn't experience problems with the sound UNTIL I began using B3D.
Upon using it for the first time my response was WOW! - THIS IS AWESOME! Why doesn't Apple make their hardware sound like this?
But after a couple days I began noticing issues wherte some apps were super quiet while others were very loud. And sometimes the same app would be low one second and BLARING the next.
Then 2 nights ago I thought I was gonna be evicted after this happened:
I was watching an instructional vid on YouTube in Safari and the volume was low. It was about 8:56 pm when I closed the tab and opened Amazon in another. I went to a newly released CD's page to listen to samples.
And when it started playing it was HELLA F'N LOUD!!!!!!
I had NEVER played these laptop speakers so loud anywhere at anytime. I didn't even know they would play that loud.
I was so stunned by the deafening noise emanating from my speakers that I wasn't sure what to do. At first I grabbed my wireless keyboard and tried to hit the space bar as I do to pause videos in a player, but that only caused the page to scroll down and I could no longer see the track's stop button.
Then I started to reach for the mouse to scroll back up, and at last it hit me to turn off the speakers using the button nearby.
I was really shaken and cursing and expecting to hear shouts from other apartments. And there are houses right behind our building and the window was open, so I know those folks could hear it too.
So far I haven't talked to anyone in the building about it, but I'm sure glad it didn't happen at 2 am!!
If you decide to try this app, BE CAREFUL! It may sound kickass at first, but try it in browsers, iTunes, video players etc. until its trial period expires BEFORE deciding whether to buy it.
And BTW, how long IS the trial period? MU always fail to post that important detail.
The addition of the Boom Remote app on iOS (formerly Boom 2 Remote) is excellent! It's free and works with both Boom 2 and Boom 3D on Mac.
Thank you for the added Boom 3D playlist, shuffle and repeat functionality! The GUI is still lovely but a bit cryptic. So take your time getting used to it, and read the downloadable manual. I highly recommend Boom 3D!
The only oddity I ran into was that after updating to Boom Remote, my iPhone thought the app's name was still 'Boom 2 Remote'. The problem was merely the all-too-familiar delay of Apple's current OS offerings catching up with updated app metadata. Running the updated app cleared the iOS database name error.
Anyone knows if the latest version fixed the memory issue (coreaudiod using 1GB of my memory)? I have got a refund and my copy has expired. I would love to buy it again if the problem has been solved.
Most helpful
How would you rate Boom 3D app?
Read 206 Boom 3D User Reviews
I'm not sure if the bug is completely Boom's fault or if there's some bad juju with the app and Mojave 10.14.x, but I'm fed up with the crashing and the fact that the developers can't be bothered to respond to bug/crash reports.
I'd backgrade to the previous version if I could; had no problems with that version.
Otherwise, I generally have to leave it disabled. Save your money for the next big iteration of Boom 3D, folk, assuming they get the kinks worked out. And I'm not even speculating on the app's future path with Catalina..
If you listen to the radio through their new update the volume is suddenly screaming loud and very hard to control, so in the end I just uninstalled it. It became particularly unreliable when using a line out cable from the Mac Pro to the monitor speakers, but there are no issues when I simply use the system sound options.
If you bring up the screen recording interface (Command-Shift-5) and go under Options, choose your Microphone to be "BoomAudio". Start recording the screen and all your Mac audio will be included. This is an EXCELLENT replacement for all but the most powerful screen recording apps, including beloved defunct SnapzPro X, rest in peace.
Begin this month i had a skypecall with the helpdesk/maker of this software.
I have record also a short movie moment where you can hear what happens. i sent this to the helpdesk.
The problem is only with both Boom versions., and it's not there when Boom is off!
I had also a call with Apple helpdesk and they say it's a problem from the maker of Boom because it's only happens when Boom is on! The helpdesk checked also some settings.
Since that call with Boom helpdesk and earlier some emails they don't give me a solution for this problem.
I have tried many Apple options on my Mac.
In our skypcall they recognized this problem!
What should be a solution of this audio dropouts every 7 minutes?
System:
Macbook pro 2018
Mojave 10.14
If I want to upgrade, I will navigate to your website and do so. Half star rating due to nag-ware that never quits. I have purchased your software, now let me enjoy it in peace. One should not thank customers by nagging them 24-7.
The dev. says
"If you often experience problems with the sound volume when watching movies or videos on the Internet, chat audio chat or simply listening to music, Boom is what you need."
O'RLY?
Well I didn't experience problems with the sound UNTIL I began using B3D.
Upon using it for the first time my response was WOW! - THIS IS AWESOME! Why doesn't Apple make their hardware sound like this?
But after a couple days I began noticing issues wherte some apps were super quiet while others were very loud. And sometimes the same app would be low one second and BLARING the next.
Then 2 nights ago I thought I was gonna be evicted after this happened:
I was watching an instructional vid on YouTube in Safari and the volume was low. It was about 8:56 pm when I closed the tab and opened Amazon in another. I went to a newly released CD's page to listen to samples.
And when it started playing it was HELLA F'N LOUD!!!!!!
I had NEVER played these laptop speakers so loud anywhere at anytime. I didn't even know they would play that loud.
I was so stunned by the deafening noise emanating from my speakers that I wasn't sure what to do. At first I grabbed my wireless keyboard and tried to hit the space bar as I do to pause videos in a player, but that only caused the page to scroll down and I could no longer see the track's stop button.
Then I started to reach for the mouse to scroll back up, and at last it hit me to turn off the speakers using the button nearby.
I was really shaken and cursing and expecting to hear shouts from other apartments. And there are houses right behind our building and the window was open, so I know those folks could hear it too.
So far I haven't talked to anyone in the building about it, but I'm sure glad it didn't happen at 2 am!!
If you decide to try this app, BE CAREFUL!
It may sound kickass at first, but try it in browsers, iTunes, video players etc. until its trial period expires BEFORE deciding whether to buy it.
And BTW, how long IS the trial period?
MU always fail to post that important detail.
Thank you for the added Boom 3D playlist, shuffle and repeat functionality! The GUI is still lovely but a bit cryptic. So take your time getting used to it, and read the downloadable manual. I highly recommend Boom 3D!
The only oddity I ran into was that after updating to Boom Remote, my iPhone thought the app's name was still 'Boom 2 Remote'. The problem was merely the all-too-familiar delay of Apple's current OS offerings catching up with updated app metadata. Running the updated app cleared the iOS database name error.