I've read many positive reviews regarding Hear so I decided to purchase it taking advantage of their Competitive Upgrade.
After a couple of days of testing it, listening both through headphones and speakers, I have to say that for listening to music this is terrible.
So far every song I've heard has sounded worse with Hear. It sounds artificial and overly processed.
I used a Sony 5.1 sound system and a few high quality headphones (Grado, AKG), and listened to jazz, blues, classical, pop, metal, rock, etc.
I started listening to music back in the day of vinyl and tapes. I could hear the difference when CDs first appeared, and they were rather mediocre. A few years ago I had a variety of MP3 players in my Mac, and I could also hear differences between them.
These days we have iPods, MP3s, and the "loudness wars." With some equipment, we can also boost the volume by simply pressing a button. In my Sony it's called GROOVE. I never use it.
I often record and mix music, and I know that after a while I need to give my ears some rest to avoid ear fatigue. It's bad enough to listen to modern recordings given the loudness wars, but to also use Hear is just additional punishment.
I'm giving it 2 stars since it's still in version 1 and hopefully it will improve, and because it sounds good as an effect for playing computer games. Having control over the volume of individual applications is also a plus. There's a lot of room for improvement, starting with a basic resizable widow. Perhaps adding some sort of Analyzer and automatic preset selection. Even in the 80s or 90s I used equipment that analyzed the music before it was played, and adjusted the eq accordingly. Changing settings for each song is awkward.
For those of you who want to use it when LISTENING to music, definitely try before you buy.
Others who are more casual about the music listening experience may feel that the novelty is actually an improvement in sound. For me it was terrible.