JoeSoft's Hear mission is to take the pure audio flowing through a Mac--movie soundtracks, music tracks, and game audio--and alter it in a variety of ways with the end result being something that's more pleasing to the listener's ears. For some purists, this kind of enhancement is considered cheating because it augments the intended experience. But to others who are not offended by such sugar coating, there's a lot to be gained from Hear 1.0.3.

The effects

Hear enhances audio by letting you apply a range of effects via a paned interface. Unlike SRS' $30 iWow iTunes plug-in, which features a bare-bones interface, Hear is quite configurable through its 13 tabs. Within those tabs you find, among many other things, controls for modifying EQ, enhancing 3-D space, and applying limiting and compressor effects (for limiting volume peaks and generally smoothing out volumes). In the General tab you can switch on and off most of the major effects (as well as all of Hear's effects at once so you can compare its sound to the original) and apply general effects such as bass boost and reverb. Within the Mixer tab you can change the volume of each running application--helpful when you don't want an e-mail alert sound to drown out the music you're listening to--as well as enable the Hear effects on a per-application basis.

Auditioning the presets

Although you're welcome to venture in and tweak each effect, you may find it tedious to work through Hear's 13 tabs. You're better off starting with the program's presets. Organized into Defaults, Effects, Games, Movie and TV, Music, and Speech groups, you can select presets from either a pop-up menu in the Hear window or the program's File menu. Each group includes a variety of presets. For example, when you choose the Movie and TV group, you can choose Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, News, Romance, Science Fiction, or Talk Show (with two variations for each of these presets).

Such fine distinction is silly. What makes a preset more appropriate for Fantasy than Science Fiction is beyond me. These are suggested starting points only, and it's absolutely worth your while to walk through each preset--regardless of what it's called--to find the ones that best suit your taste and gear.

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