Last year I wrote a five-star review of an iTunes plug-in called SRS iWow, saying that it:

…magically processes music you play in iTunes so it sounds much better regardless of the speakers or earphones you use. It makes crummy speakers or earphones sound significantly better and makes good speakers or earphones sound fantastic.

After I wrote that review I started to wonder why I could only enjoy the SRS iWow magic in iTunes. Why couldn't I experience all of its sound-enhancing goodness in, say, DVD Player, Safari, or my favorite games?

I still think SRS iWow is awesome, but it still only works in iTunes. Fortunately, a new program called Hear, from JoeSoft, offers even more kinds of audio enhancements than SRS iWow, and instead of only being available in iTunes, Hear works in every program on your Mac. Plus, Hear lets you control the volume and quality of the audio of each program independently, so you can fine-tune (or mute) the sound of any or every application you use.

And you can fine-tune the heck out of your audio in Hear's 13 individual panels -- General (shown below), EQ, Mixer, 3D, Ambience, FX, Maximizer, BW, Limiter, Space, Fidelity, Speaker, and Sub.

Or, if you know nothing about audio or don't care about tweakage, there are myriad presets for any type of audio you can imagine:

Presets followed by an H are optimized for headphones; presets followed by an S are optimized for speakers.

For those, like yours truly, who prefer to tweak every little detail of their audio experience, the aforementioned 13 panels give you plenty to work with. For example, the EQ panel offers two ways -- sliders or curves -- to adjust its 10 bands:

The 3D panel lets you add simulated depth to audio, which is a rather nifty effect if you ask me:

The Speaker panel lets you adjust bass and cabinet resonance, boost your mids, correct phase reversal, and flip the left and right channels:

One of my favorite features is the Mixer panel's ability to turn the DSP (digital signal processing) on or off, as well as adjust (or mute) the volume for each application. In the figure below I've muted the sound for the Finder and Skitch, lowered the volume for Skype, and am listening to Pandora using Hear's Music - Pop preset, in Safari. (And it sounds freakin' awesome!)

I love being able to enhance the sound of Pandora and other audio from the Web, but what I really love is the way games sound when enhanced by Hear. And, of course, it works with iTunes (and DVD Player, and QuickTime Player, and everything else I've tried it with so far).

The Bottom Line

Like SRS iWow, Hear makes crummy speakers or earphones sound significantly better and makes good speakers or earphones sound fantastic. But unlike SRS iWow, Hear's magic isn't limited to iTunes. Don't take my word for it -- download the 30 day demo and hear the difference yourself. But be forewarned, once you've used it for a while you'll have a hard time living without it.