Best Mac volume app for movie and TV watchers
Streaming on a Mac has three classic problems: the video is too quiet even at full volume, dialogue gets buried under music, and the volume keys stop working when you plug into a TV. Here's what fixes each.
Short answer
- Quiet videos and a TV over HDMI: Faders. Boosts any app to 200 % with a limiter and makes your volume keys work on HDMI displays. $5.99 once.
- Dialogue hard to hear: SoundSource or FineTune. You need an EQ to lift voices, and Faders doesn't have one yet.
- Free: FineTune, if you're on macOS 15.
What movie and TV watchers actually need
- Boost. Some streams and downloaded files are mastered quietly. Going past 100 % on just that app helps, but cheap boosts distort. Look for a limiter.
- Volume keys on a TV or monitor. Over HDMI or DisplayPort, macOS greys out the volume and the keys show a crossed-out speaker.
- Clearer dialogue. An EQ that lifts the voice range does more for this than raw volume.
- Notifications that don't blast over the film. Per-app volume lets you turn Messages and Slack down while the movie stays loud.
Browsers play every tab through one audio process, so you can't set a different volume per tab. Netflix in Safari and YouTube in another Safari tab share one slider. Using a different browser or the TV app for one of them gets around it.
The picks
Faders
$5.99 once at launch ($15.99 regular) · macOS 14.2 or later · Made by us
Faders boosts any app to 200 % and runs a limiter in the boost zone, so a quiet film gets louder without crackling on explosions. Plug into a TV or monitor over HDMI or DisplayPort and your volume keys work again, with an on-screen indicator, using software volume that works with any display. Browsers show up as one row instead of a dozen helper processes. What it can't do is EQ, so it won't specifically bring dialogue forward.
Good
- Boost to 200 % with limiter
- Volume keys on any HDMI/DP display
- Browsers grouped into one row
Not so good
- No EQ for dialogue (planned)
- No AirPlay streaming
- No free trial
SoundSource 6
$49 once, free trial · macOS 15 or later · Faders vs SoundSource
SoundSource has a 10-band EQ per app, Volume Overdrive and Magic Boost, HDMI/DisplayPort volume keys, and AirPlay streaming to Apple TV, HomePod and Sonos. If you watch on a Mac but listen on a HomePod pair or Sonos, or you want EQ to pull dialogue forward, this is the most capable option.
Good
- EQ for dialogue
- AirPlay / Sonos streaming
- Boost + TV volume keys
Not so good
- $49
- Needs macOS 15
FineTune
Free, open source · macOS 15 or later · Faders vs FineTune
Per-app volume, 2x/3x/4x boost, a 10-band EQ with presets, AutoEQ for your headphones and a loudness leveler that evens out loud and quiet scenes. For TVs, it controls monitor speaker volume over DDC, which only works if your display supports it; Faders' software volume works with any display.
Good
- Free
- EQ + loudness leveler
- Big boost
Not so good
- Needs macOS 15
- TV volume needs DDC support
SoundDial and Sound Control
SoundDial $12.99, macOS 14.2+ · Sound Control $15, macOS 11.4+ · vs SoundDial · vs Sound Control
SoundDial boosts to 200 % and has a 10-band EQ, but HDMI volume keys aren't listed. Sound Control has per-app EQ and “virtual volume” for HDMI TVs and DisplayPort monitors, and runs on much older macOS. Either is a reasonable pick if you want EQ on Sonoma.
Side by side
| Faders | SoundSource | FineTune | SoundDial | Sound Control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $5.99 | $49 | Free | $12.99 | $15 |
| Boost past 100 % | ✓ 200 %, limiter | ✓ | ✓ 2x–4x | ✓ 200 % | Not listed |
| Volume keys on HDMI/DP | ✓ any display | ✓ | ✓ via DDC | Not listed | ✓ |
| EQ for dialogue | — (planned) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AirPlay / Sonos | — | ✓ | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Per-tab browser volume | — | — | — | — | — |
| Minimum macOS | 14.2 | 15 | 15 | 14.2 | 11.4 |
“Not listed” means we couldn't find it on the app's site. Checked October 2026.
Free things to try first
- Turn on dialogue settings in the app. Some streaming apps and TVs have a “dialogue enhancement” or night mode.
- Use your TV's remote. If the Mac is plugged into a TV, the TV's own volume still works, even when the Mac's keys don't.
- Check the player's volume. A browser video player sitting at 50 % is a common culprit.
Questions
Will boosting damage my MacBook speakers?
Faders' limiter stops the boosted signal from clipping, which is what causes harsh distortion. As with any loud audio, back off if the speakers rattle.
Does the extra latency throw off lip sync?
Apps you adjust get about 60 ms of extra latency with any tap-based mixer. Most people won't notice it in video; if you do, leave the video app at 100 % and lower the other apps instead.
Can I make Netflix louder than YouTube in the same browser?
No. No app can, because all of a browser's tabs share one audio process.
Make quiet videos louder, and your TV's volume keys work.
Faders is $5.99 once at launch. If you need an EQ for dialogue, SoundSource or FineTune is the better fit today.
Related
Sources
- SoundSource product page (EQ, boost, HDMI volume keys, AirPlay)
- FineTune on GitHub (boost, EQ, loudness leveler, DDC)
- SoundDial on the Mac App Store
- Sound Control (EQ, virtual volume)