FxSound 1.2.13.0 Final

FxSound is a small Windows app that sits between your programs and your speakers and makes everything sound better.

It is free, it is open source, and there is no paid version hiding behind a paywall.

That last part is worth saying out loud, because plenty of sites still advertise something called FxSound Pro.

The app runs quietly in the background and processes every sound your PC makes, so one set of adjustments covers your music, your films, your games and your video calls at the same time. You can download FxSound and be listening to the difference in about a minute.

What FxSound Actually Does

Windows sends audio straight from your apps to your speakers with no processing in between. FxSound inserts itself into that path as a virtual audio device, adjusts the sound, and passes it on.

Because it works at the system level, it does not care which program made the noise. Netflix in a browser tab, a game running full screen, a Zoom call, a local file in a media player - all of it goes through the same processing.

The practical effect is loudest on cheap hardware. Laptop speakers, budget headphones and old desktop speakers all lose detail at the top and bottom of the range, and FxSound pushes some of it back.

It Is Free, And There Is No Pro Version

FxSound was a paid product for about twenty years, first as DFX Audio Enhancer and later as FxSound Enhancer. The developer made it free in 2022 and released the source code in 2023.

So the current app has no trial, no licence key, no locked features and no upgrade path. Everything in it is available to everyone.

The Four Effects, In Plain English

The main window gives you a graphic equalizer and four effect sliders. The equalizer is the familiar one, and the effects are where most of the character comes from.

• Fidelity - adds back some of the high-frequency detail that compression strips out of streamed and downloaded audio. This is the one you notice most on Spotify and YouTube.
• Ambience - widens the sound so it feels less like it is coming from two points. Useful on headphones, subtle on speakers.
• Surround Sound - pushes that widening further, adding a sense of space around you. Easy to overdo.
• Dynamic Boost - lifts the quiet parts without letting the loud parts distort. This is the setting that helps most with mumbled dialogue.

There is also a bass control, which does what you expect. If you want to see the layout before installing, there are screenshots of what the interface looks like.

Which Versions of Windows It Runs On

FxSound 1.2 runs on Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7, in 32-bit and 64-bit builds. There is a separate ARM64 build for Windows on ARM machines.

Windows 7 support is real rather than theoretical - the developer fixed a Windows 7 startup problem in 1.2.4.0 and has kept it working since. It is not officially tested there any more, so treat it as best effort.

There is no Mac version, no Linux version and no Android version, and the developer has said the mobile operating systems will not allow the kind of system-wide audio processing FxSound depends on.

Works With Whatever You Already Use

Nothing needs configuring per application. Once FxSound is running, every program on the machine is already going through it.

That includes browsers, so Spotify Web, YouTube and Netflix are covered without you doing anything. Desktop players are no different.

• VLC and Windows Media Player for everyday video and audio files.
• foobar2000, MusicBee and AIMP if you keep a proper music library.
• Winamp, BS.Player and GOM Player for the older favourites.
• mpv for something lightweight, or our online web player when you are just checking a file quickly.

Getting It Running

1. Run the installer and let it add its virtual audio device. Windows may show a driver prompt.
2. Open FxSound and pick your real output device from the dropdown at the top.
3. Choose a preset that matches what you are listening to, then adjust from there.
4. Leave it running. It minimises to the system tray and starts with Windows by default.

If you hear nothing after installing, the output device is almost always the reason. Open the dropdown and select the headphones or speakers you are actually using.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

The tell is simple. If you already know what a parametric filter is and you want to type your own settings rather than move a slider, FxSound will feel like a toy inside a week.

For that, Equalizer APO with the Peace front end gives you unlimited filters, per-device configuration and text-file control, at the cost of a much steeper start. Our Equalizer APO and Peace walkthrough covers the setup.

If your interest is surround rather than clarity, ATSurround Processor and DTS Audio Processing approach it differently.

And if you are chasing the spatial audio built into Windows rather than a third-party app, that is a separate route entirely.

What Changed Recently

The 1.2.10.0 beta was the last set of changes the developer published notes for. It was mostly device handling and hotkey fixes rather than new features.

• Command line options now apply to an already running instance, and a new option launches FxSound minimised to the tray.
• Output device switching by hotkey works again when FxSound is off, and individual hotkeys can be cleared with the Delete key.
• Fixed the bug that let invalid hotkeys be registered in the first place.
• Bluetooth devices removed in Windows are now dropped from the device preference list, and several device detection failures are fixed.
• Fixed a hang when reading the audio mix format, and a delay that blocked startup when minimising to the tray.
• Equalizer band sliders now refresh when you change the number of bands, and a user-set mute is no longer overridden.
• Icon visibility fixed in the ARM64 build, Finnish language support added, Persian translations corrected.

Quick questions

Download FxSound 1.2.13.0 and see what it does to your speakers, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.