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Provides: Fuller, wider sound for your Mac
Developer: AstoundStereo
Requirements: Mac OS X.5.1 or greater, G5 or Intel processor, 1GB RAM or greater, Stereo audio output
Version Reviewed: 1.2
Retail Price: New: $39.95

AstoundStereo will improve the audio coming out of any application on your Mac: iTunes, iMovie, Quicktime files, Flash files, the web, anything that produces audio. Once started, you can forget it, but you won't forget the sound.

About 25-30 years ago, I had a small boombox that had a Loudness button to boost the base. It also had a "Wide" button that offered a fuller, deeper sound that didn't have the dynamics of stereo; it was much larger than stereo. When the Wide button was off, you could easily tell the sound was coming from the boom box, but when you pressed the Wide button, it became much more difficult to pin-point the direction from which the sound was coming. Curiously, the Wide button disappeared from the commercial market. I've never seen it in another machine since.

I immediately thought about that wide button as soon as I started up AstoundStereo for the first time. I wish I knew the physics that were taking place when this thing is activated, but aside from pushing the treble and bass notes and providing a "reverb" effect, AstoundStereo is doing other things with the stereo that really provides a very unique and distinctive listening experience.

When I first installed AstoundStereo, I started out enjoying some Norah Jones on my iTunes, and very quickly my smile turned into a frown when I heard some dreadful over-impedance. It was bad. The first thing I did was to start playing with the volume, and then the Equalizer in iTunes. Not getting any satisfaction, I finally did the unusual for a Mac user, I turned to the User Guide. Installed on your computer, within the AstoundStereo folder that's placed in your Applications folder, is an HTML file: the "AstoundStereo User Guide.html." Toward the bottom of this guide is a comment: "If you use Apple iTunes, turn off iTunes Sound Enhancer. From within the iTunes Preferences, select the Playback category. Uncheck the Sound Enhancer option. "

As soon as I unchecked the iTunes' Enhancer option, most of the over-impedance went away. The main problem was obvious, AstoundStereo was enhancing enhanced sounds. Unfortunately, not completely. In some works, such as "Family of Bones" by The Roches, I found I had to set the enhance level to the minimum amount (see the image below to see the level setting in AstoundStereo) to not have over-impedance but still take advantage of the enhanced quality of AstoundStereo. Apparently, The Roches do some sound enhancing on their music by default, and this effects the quality of the sound being enhanced by Astound Stereo.

The curious thing about the conflict with iTunes is that that the Enhance option is checked by default in iTunes. The difference in quality after un-checking this option was so significant that I cannot understand why this warning/comment is not more prominent at AstoundStereo's website and in their literature. I would go so far as to say that there should be some indicator within AstoundStereo that sensed if that option was checked and warned the user to turn it off. [I am not sure it would be wise to set up a feature in an application to actively manipulate the Preferences in another application.]

I make a big deal about this issue because the rest of the review might not have been written were I not to have caught this. The good news is I did, so let me continue...

After installing AstoundStereo (and after a restart of your computer) the primary duty of the user is to turn it on or off from the Preference Pane in the Control Panel. Once selected, the interface is pretty straightforward as seen below.

As you can see, you can turn it on or off, change the amount of the effect, select the sound output, and choose to show the Menubar Shortcut. The Shortcut is also very minimal. The AstoundStereo Preferences will take you to the Preference Pane (seen above) from the Control Panel, and the User Guide brings up the aforementioned User Guide. If you disable AstoundStereo, the menubar shortcut goes away. I did not like this because I appreciated the extra access to the Mac's System Preferences. I like redundancy.

The only other interface option is in the Hot Keys tab where you can accept the default settings or set your own keyboard options to control the amount of effect without having to open the System Preferences. These do work, but I do not tend to use hot keys in too many applications because I have enough hot keys to remember and because in some of my often-used applications there are not many free keyboard options left. It would be a nice addition if the Menu Shortcut also provided the "Increase Expansion" and "Decrease Expansion" option. This would be for those who would like some level of access but do not want to remember yet one more hot key but still would like some access to the controls.

The reason why you may want to set the amount of the effect is that with some music the effect may be too much, while other music may warrant more effect. This is partly why there are options to reset the effect on the fly via the hot keys. If you are listening to a single album, it might be worth the time to fine-tune the amount of the effect. But if you are listening to a random Playlist, such an anal-approach to fine-tuning is something that would obviously deter from my listening enjoyment. I did find the "middle" setting just fine for most of my music.

One other test I was able to make is to compare the effect on different quality speakers. At home, I have a very nice set of computer speakers. At work, I have some very, very, very cheap speakers. Curiously, the over-impedance I heard at home was not as obvious at work. It's important to keep in mind that while AstoundStereo did make the cheap speakers sound better, they did not make the cheap speakers sound good.

You will probably want to readjust your Equalizer in iTunes (Window (menu) -> Equalizer). My only suggestion is to play around with the the drop-down menu options until you find one that sounds best with your system. The good news is that anything you select is not WRONG. Sound, like music, is in the ear of the beholder.

In addition, you will probably want to turn your volume down a bit because AstoundStereo tends to increase the effective sound volume.

If you go to their website and look at the Support page, you will see a number of issues that might effect you. Most of the problems are identified with some short term solutions and the promise that future updates should resolve the issue(s). On one hand, it's good to see that they are aware of the problems and are being open in regards to the problems. I wish more software manufacturers were as open. On the other hand, it's disappointing to see so many issues. The good news is that in the time I've been working with and playing with AstoundStereo, I've not encountered the vast majority of them. Obviously, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

In short, AstoundStereo works. It will improve the sound on your computer regardless of the type of speakers you have or the audio you listen to. It will not improve your speakers; only your pocketbook can do that. But to get better sound from what you have, for $40, it's a bargain. On the other hand, AstoundStereo needs to deal with the over-impedance issue. While it's possible to set the level once for full albums, it's not practical or realistic for the user to raise and lower the level while listening to a mix of music. Fortunately, since it's only at version 1.2, there is a lot of room to grow. There is a free 30 day trial, so check it out.

___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.