First, let me mention that I am pretty buggy about my music. Years ago I used to work for what was then the largest retailer of music in the World and now I have a part-time job working with an audio application for the Mac that generates ambient music. My music "library" is over 4 TB (4000 GB) and more than 150,000 songs. In my home I DO NOT have a CD or DVD player, no amplifier, pre-amp, receiver or even a radio. All of my music and video comes from my MacBook Pro connected via optical audio cable (TOSLink) to my Klipsch 5.1 ProMedia powered speaker system. For over a year now I have been very happy with this set up and everyone who visits is quite blown away by it.

Now let me say that when I first saw the ad in MacLife magazine for Hear, I sort of chuckled and was about to turn the page. Just before I did so, I saw there was the endorsement by Chris Breen. For those that do not know this name, he is the main editor for Macworld Magazine, as well as being their chief audio expert writer. This alone made me decide to try the HEAR product.

The first time I launched HEAR and gave it a try, the results were immediate! Before that moment, I thought that I had my Klipsch set up sounding as good as they could in my living room. The difference was so amazing that I could not believe it at first. But within a few minutes of playing, I was wondering why I had put up with my Klipsch speakers sounding as they did for the first year I had them. For the very first time since I have had these Klipsch speakers, now I can shape the sound and control how the vocals from a stereo audio file come out from this 5.1 surround sound system. Now I am getting results that are much more what I have been wanting for.

Now I am able to get the rear speakers "kicking" like I want and I have stereo music playing more like true quadraphonic music, which is what I am after. 5.1 is really more for movies and the like. Now rather than the vocals seemingly getting funneled to the center speaker, I can have HEAR spread the vocals out between the right and left speakers, as well as front and rear. It has been less than a week that I have used HEAR so far, so I am still playing with it, but I have found that it is best to use various settings to match the various types of music you play. But that probably holds true for any such audio hardware or software that shapes audio.

The Ambient Music generation application SonicMood certainly sound much better in my living room when I use HEAR. Without HEAR I am not able to get much response to my rear speakers, even with the Sound Motion feature. As soon as I engage HEAR with SonicMood, there is a noticeable positive difference. Suddenly I am surrounded with chirping crickets and ambient music. HEAR just seems to kick in the quadraphonic effect that somehow is not happening without HEAR.

When it comes to all the music that I listen too, I am finding that no matter what genre it is, it sounds better when HEAR is engaged. But as I said, sometimes there is a better setting to use than the one that is being used at the moment. HEAR is too complex to have only one general setting for all music. Or at least, I have not found the “sweet” perfect single setting yet, but I know that I will always be using HEAR now with all my music.

Last night was our monthly CoMUG meeting, which is held in a 300 seat auditorium. I took my Klispch 5.1 system out of my living room and set it up in that auditorium yesterday afternoon. During the meeting I demonstrated SonicMood, Hear and showed everyone how to play YouTube full screen on your living room big screen TV or monitor. During those three demos the HEAR application was in use. This is the first meeting at the NCAR auditorium since 1978 that has had KILLER audio! The quadraphonic effects of SonicMood was outstanding. The fact that I was able to push plenty of volume and excellent sound from the rear speakers in the back corners of that hall was because of HEAR. When I demonstrated HEAR, we played the Beatles “Because” from the Love album and the separation was awesome. I saw many members close their eyes and really take in the music. Then I rocked them with the classic “Welcome to the MAChine” by Pink Floyd. I always have to use a Pink Floyd song when demo’ing audio. (And when I am checking out sound systems.)

We have many audiophiles and audio experts within our Colorado MacIntosh Users Group and there were many skeptics attending the meeting. Now they are all trying HEAR with their audio systems too! The product HEAR is outstanding. If you use your Mac as your main music source or its an important source for music, if you have what you think is a good to great sound system connected to your Mac, then you owe it to yourself to at least try HEAR. There is a free, full version to try for 30 days without obligation! It is a no brainer, you got to try HEAR! For me, HEAR provided instant gratification and it will remain an important key to my sound system.