Hear for Mac Is Discontinued: The Best Alternatives in 2026

By GRANT_WORKS · Updated 20 June 2026 · Levels

Short version: Hear is gone. It was a 32-bit system-wide EQ and sound enhancer, and it has not run on a Mac since macOS Catalina killed 32-bit apps back in 2019. Here is what actually happened, and what to use now depending on what you used Hear for.

Is Hear still available for Mac?

No. Hear, made by Prosoft Engineering (and originally by Joesoft), is officially discontinued. A few specifics, because the search results are muddy:

• It is 32-bit. macOS Catalina removed support for 32-bit apps in 2019. Hear stopped launching on any Mac running Catalina or later, and that is every supported macOS today.
• There is no Apple silicon version. It was never rebuilt for 64-bit or for M-series Macs. On a modern Mac it simply does not run.
• The product page says so. Hear's own page lists it as discontinued, and there is no working buy button.

What Hear actually did

This matters, because picking the right replacement depends on which part of Hear you actually used. Hear was not a volume mixer. It was a system-wide audio enhancer that sat between your apps and your speakers and reshaped the sound. The feature set looked roughly like this:

• A graphic equalizer plus a parametric EQ for tuning frequencies.
• 3D, ambience, and "space" effects to widen or reshape the soundstage.
• A maximizer / fidelity booster meant to make audio feel louder and fuller.
• Per-application sound presets, so you could apply different enhancement settings to different apps.

So when people say "I want Hear back," they usually mean one of two different things. Most mean the EQ and the effects. A smaller group mean something closer to "I just wanted to control how loud each app was." Those are two different products now. Let's split them.

The best Hear alternatives in 2026

If you used Hear for EQ and sound enhancement

This is what most Hear users are really after: the equalizer, the bass, the 3D widening, the "make it sound better" knobs. The honest like-for-like replacements are EQ and enhancer tools, not volume mixers.

eqMac is the obvious first stop. It is free, open-source, and gives you a real system-wide equalizer. It does not replicate Hear's entire bag of 3D and ambience tricks, but for the core "I want to shape the sound" job, it is the easiest yes. Cost: zero.

Boom 3D is the closest thing in spirit to Hear's whole pitch. You get a system-wide EQ, a volume booster, and 3D surround effects. If you liked Hear because everything sounded bigger and richer, Boom 3D is the natural successor. It is paid, but it is the one that feels most like Hear.

SoundSource (from Rogue Amoeba, around $49) goes further than Hear did in one respect: it gives you a per-app EQ and per-app volume and audio routing, all from the menu bar. It is the premium pick. If you want both the EQ side and serious per-app control in one app, this is it. We wrote a longer SoundSource alternative comparison if you want to weigh it against a cheaper, volume-only option.

If you used Hear to tame and balance app volumes

Now the other group. Some people never really cared about EQ. They used Hear's per-app presets to do something blunt and practical: turn the loud app down, keep the quiet app up, and stop one app from blasting over everything else. If that is you, you do not need an enhancer. You need a per-app volume mixer.

That is Levels. Plainly: Levels does per-app volume and mute. It is not an EQ and it is not a sound enhancer. We are saying that loudly on purpose, because the last thing you want is to buy the wrong tool twice. Levels will not reshape your bass or widen your soundstage. What it does:

• A volume slider for every app. Music, a video call, a browser tab, a game: each gets its own level. You're listening to one thing, and the other six apps finally get the memo.
• A mute button per app. Silence the background app without quitting it or hunting through its settings.
• A focus hotkey. Hit ⌘⌥M and every app except the one in front goes quiet. Great for calls, recording, or just thinking.
• Saveable profiles. Set your "work" mix or your "gaming" mix once, then recall it.

And the parts people ask about up front: no driver or kernel extension (it uses Apple's built-in Core Audio process taps), it runs on-device with no account and no telemetry, and it is a signed, notarized direct download. It needs macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon, there is a free 14-day trial, and it is $9.99 one-time. Not a subscription. If you mostly want to manage how loud each app is, our guide on how to control app volume on Mac walks through the whole thing.

How to pick

Quick decision guide, no fluff:

• You want EQ and you want it free: eqMac.
• You want Hear's "everything sounds bigger" feel: Boom 3D.
• You want per-app EQ plus volume plus routing, and you'll pay for the best: SoundSource (around $49).
• You don't care about EQ, you just want to tame and balance app volumes with a focus hotkey: Levels ($9.99).

The honest test: if your real complaint about your Mac was "it doesn't sound good enough," you want an EQ tool. If your real complaint was "one app is always too loud and drowns out the rest," you want Levels.

FAQ

Is Hear still available for Mac?

No. Hear by Prosoft Engineering (originally Joesoft) is discontinued. It is a 32-bit app, and Apple removed 32-bit support in macOS Catalina back in 2019, so it has not run on a modern Mac since. There is no Apple silicon version and no working buy button on its product page. If you find a site still selling it, be careful: residual traffic for Hear tends to leak to sketchy download-mirror pages, not the real thing.

Why did Hear stop working?

Hear was a 32-bit application. macOS Catalina (2019) dropped support for 32-bit apps entirely, so Hear stopped launching on any Mac running Catalina or later. It was never rebuilt as a 64-bit or Apple silicon app, and the developer discontinued it.

What replaced Hear on Mac?

Nothing is a one-to-one replacement, because Hear bundled several tools. For its graphic and parametric EQ and sound effects, the closest options are eqMac (free system-wide EQ), Boom 3D (EQ plus a volume booster and 3D surround), and SoundSource (around $49, per-app EQ, volume, and routing). If what you actually wanted from Hear was to balance and tame app volumes, Levels does per-app volume and mute for $9.99.

Is there a free Hear alternative for Mac?

Yes. eqMac is a free, open-source system-wide equalizer for macOS. It covers the EQ side of what Hear did. It does not include Hear's full suite of 3D and ambience effects, but for free system-wide EQ it is the obvious starting point.

Does Levels do EQ like Hear?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Levels is per-app volume and mute, not an equalizer. It gives every app its own slider, a mute button, and a focus hotkey that silences everything except the app in front. If you want Hear's EQ and sound enhancement, use eqMac, Boom 3D, or SoundSource. If you want to tame loud apps and balance levels between apps, that is what Levels is for.

The honest bottom line

Hear is not coming back, and the mirror sites pretending otherwise are not worth the risk. If you loved Hear for its EQ and effects, start with eqMac (free), step up to Boom 3D, or go all-in on SoundSource. If you realize that what you actually wanted was to stop fighting with app volumes, that is the narrow, honest job Levels is built for: per-app sliders, mute, and a ⌘⌥M focus hotkey, for $9.99 with no driver and no subscription. Try the free 14-day trial, and if it earns its keep, buy it once and move on.