EQ Sonora

Sonora sits between macOS and its output, so music, films, games, calls and browser audio all pass through the same ten-band equalizer. There is nothing to set up app by app, and no plugin to install: it is not a VST or an AU, and it needs no DAW.

You drag the curve and hear it at once, with the live spectrum flowing behind it. An automatic preamp keeps a raised band from clipping, and a safety limiter sits second to last in the chain.

Beyond the equalizer there are 25 effects in five groups - dynamics, bass and tone, stereo, character, ambience - including a compressor, limiter, noise gate, de-esser, loudness, valve saturation, exciter, echo, chorus, phaser, and a karaoke mode that removes the centred vocal. Crossfeed and mono bass are there for headphones.

Fourteen space scenes (concert, stadium, club, cinema, cathedral, intimate room, underwater and more) are applied in one click and stay independent of your curve, so the two never fight.

Sonora also carries headphone correction for 736 models, with import of any curve from autoeq.app, and room correction measured with your phone: two microphone positions, so the phone's own response cancels out and what is left is the room.

Other things it does: one volume per app, listing only the apps that are actually playing; volume scenes that bring every level back at once; a phone remote over the local network with no app to install; and settings that follow your account between Macs.

Two interfaces come in the same download: a full three-column window, and a minimal panel that hangs under the menu bar icon.

The free plan keeps the equalizer and the presets forever, with no account and no card, plus 30 minutes a day with every feature unlocked.