FxSound Reviews 29

Great at first - but hijacks all the settings. I used to use this for my spin class I teach. It stopped working (crash and then sometimes work) and I tried changing outputs - it wouldn't let me. It kept trying to use FxSound. I could *not* use realtek. Even when I uninstalled it, it still tried to set it as the default - so even the uninstall isn't really uninstalling.

When I first started using this program, it solved a lot of my sound-related problems and I was happy. The fact that you kept it completely free and open-source was also its great specialty. Updates kept coming from time to time, with some improvements or occasional glitches, but this last update has completely trashed the user experience. Now, this program has made a mess of my entire system.

Previously, in its settings menu, we could select our preferred device or even set newly connected devices as the preferred default, but some "great" developer wasn't happy with this convenience of ours and turned the entire settings into a pile of garbage. Earlier, the equalizer could be tuned very well, but in the attempt to modify it to an "engineer level," this donkey of a developer has made using it a living hell. The hassle of selecting the device every single time, plus the headache of managing the sound.

I used to think only humans could be developers, but now I realize that perhaps donkeys, oxen, and owls also develop programs, and they have nothing to do with a human's user experience. Today I realized why we humans invented swear words.

It's better than nothing when it works but don't used to it working. 1. For no reason it will stop working. 2. Every time there's a Windows update you get to go mess with it and try to get it working again. 3. Troubleshooting requires digging deep and manually changing about 20 settings and it still may not work. 4. Constantly reverts to a speaker choice that does not work and requires manually selecting the one that does work. 5. One of the ways it stops working results in a timed 'blip' noise coming from your speakers at a regular intervals about once per minute. It is a POS and it's enough to drive you completely crazy. Avoid it like a plague.

a very nice and versatile eq with simple controls.
each band can be specified for a certain frequency.
made my neutral studio monitors sound like a fine tuned stereo system.
something i should mention, is the problems im having with switching to other devices.
when i switch to my headphones it doesn't let me through the task bar, so i need to switch devices directly through the eq itself, and to turn off my audio interface to be able to switch to headphones.
other than that, very nice eq that can make any speaker sound better.

It is a great tool for improving the audio output on windows laptops. My Asus laptop had really bad speakers. Watching movies was a terrible experience. They sound good, now the speakers are loud and crisp.

I run a pair of Kanto Ren speakers and thought they sounded underwhelming but these equalizers turned things around for me. Definitely check them out if you're looking to improve the audio from your headphones or speakers.

Garbage. Do not download it. It is buggy and a piece of trash. Don't bother. Save yourself the headache.

I love this program. I love you too

Nothing you download from the internet can improve your sound experience, it all comes down to the hardware you're using. If your motherboard is old, then it's going to have an old soundcard.. Just buy a better motherboard or an external sound card. Please do not download this

Completely messes with windows audio setup and doesn't revert the changes when uninstalling.

virustotal VirlT antyvirus detected that it has trojan

I love this software, I use it with 3 different headsets and a bluetooth speaker and I had no problems. Cant understand the bad reviews.

Like many other reviewers I installed FxSound on Win 11 and it worked great at first. Then I had to replace a hard drive but had everything cloned to the new drive. After I reconnected everything back all my other devices worked except for FxSound - or rather speakers did not work. No matter what I did with settings nothing worked until I uninstalled FxSound. I am still looking for equalizer but do not want to risk any more. After looking through other reviews I see that my experience was in line with others. The average score is 3.2 at this point. Would you buy an item on Amazon with this score? I never look at anything below 4.5 so this is a verdict, at least for me. Nice idea but poor implementation, unfortunately.

CAUTION, DO NOT USE!

I installed it and it was fine. When I uninstalled it, the main speakers stopped working. I reinstalled it and they started working again. Suddenly, they stopped working again. That was over a week ago, I've tried all kinds of options and it just doesn't work on my PC, even though the speakers work when connected to another PC or device.

The application messed with my audio constantly, causing it to cut off. It changed the headphones it equalized, also minimized my applications to change a preset by itself.

I purchased a radio and hired this company to install it they charged just about $1000.00 and the backup camera doesn’t work, steering wheel Controls don’t work Told me if I want them to work the radio won’t work what did I come here for?

The only software that I'm happy I bought a lifetime subscription to.
I can not live without this piece of audio enhancement anymore ever since 2018-2019 or even earlier.
When I heard about it going free, I was thrilled instead of annoyed for paying for it, because I know my subscription also helped it become free for my friends to use.

breaks your sound regularly, have to completely close out of it and reopen to see new inputs/outputs, less obtrusive to just change it manually through settings.

I haven't found any other EQ/DSP that combines the same level of sound quality and ease of use.
I like:
Tight, powerful bass
Complex bass lines
The hi-hat
Crystal clear highs
Powerful soundstage and presence
Separation with purpose
I don't like:
Strong vocals and mids.
Boomy bass.
Turning up the highs and having every "ess" sound pierce my eardrums.
Having presence, soundstage, and separation ruined by any of the above.
Fiddling around with parametric equalizers. They're great for audio engineers and those who should have been audio engineers. Also good for those who can't adjust their audio without some kind of visual cue.

FXSound is super easy to use, and sounds great.

Any professionally recorded music you buy has already been tweaked by a panel of audio guys or gals who do this for a living. Every now and then a whiz kid comes along who pioneers something amazing, or is exceptionally good at their job- Alan Parsons, Phil Spectre, and Brian Wilson, to name a few- but even your average studio guy knows way more than you (and certainly me) and had the advantage of working with the recording artist to realize some kind of vision (hopefully). At the end of the day, or beginning of the track, I just want to tweak the sound a little bit to compensate for my lack of Sennheiser studio headphones and high-end loudspeakers in an acoustically perfect room. That's not a lot to ask for- maybe three or four bands, if I can choose the frequencies. FXSound offers nine bands, with adjustable frequencies, from 86Hz to 16kHz. And they can be adjusted with the mouse wheel. Since each band can be set to an individual frequency, increasing or attenuating the gain on each frequency doesn't translate to much of an increase or decrease in loudness (volume). There are a ton of presets too. I click through them to hear the difference, but I know what I like and how to get there, so I don't ever use them.

FXSound has some DSP goodies, too. Specifically, "Clarity, Ambience, Surround Sound, Dynamic Boost, and Bass Boost." What are these? In the simplest of terms, they combine parametric equalization values and decibel gains/cuts. They help... shape the waveform. But their names should give you a clue about what each of them do acoustically. There are plenty of tutorials online if you're staring at "Clarity" or "Bass Boost" and still can't figure out what they do after moving the slider through its entire range of motion, and listening with your EARS.

FXSound is completely free, never asks for money, and doesn't serve a single ad. Their solution to piracy was to take the Microsoft approach- flood the market with free Windows for EVERYBODY! I don't know how they make money... There is a single "Donate" button in settings, and I'm guessing they have other products I'm not aware of. Regardless, in this day and age, truly free software that works extraordinarily well, and is devoid of ads, is a rarity.

I use FXSound primarily with Musicbee, the best music player, tagger, and music manager for Windows, period. Occasionally, I download various VST plugins, like Bluecat, TDR Nova and SlickEQ and play around with them until I get bored. I really like one called... lkjb_luftikus. It's German, I think. The best thing about these plugins is that they have visually stunning interfaces- better than FXSound, actually- but I don't watch music, and none of them sound any better (to my ears) than FXSound, and they all have more of a learning curve requiring a lot more time to get to the tonal qualities I like my music to have- tight bass, blended and muted vocals, and clear highs, while retaining soundstage, separation, and presence. A gentle,"V" curve across your bands will acheive this, if you like the same sound.

If you're installing on a Windows machine, just follow Windows' clear and intuitive guidance regarding sound devices, inputs, outputs, default devices, default communications devices, and whether or not you should allow apps and programs to "take control" over THIS device.

Just kidding. Ignore Windows, and use the FXSound installer. It's painless. Just be aware that in terms of um, terminology, Windows will consider FXSound as both a "sound device" AND a speaker. Windows might also consider FXSound as headphones, if you're using a 1/8th inch analog jack. It's perfectly ok to use this on your not Sennheiser or not high end loudspeakers in your not acoustically perfect room. Depending on your configuration and hardware, you'll have to set FXSound as a "default device" and whatever native sound device your computer is presently using (Realtek, or something like it) as the "default communications" device."

tl;dr- FXSound is one of the best truly free softwares out there. It's simple, sounds great, and doesn't serve ads.

I just started using it and I'm absolutely amazed at the quality. For a free program you can't beat it. It's enhanced movies and games to the point where I have fallen back in love with my pc. I would recommend to at least give it a try if you feel your lacking in the sound department.