Chorus vs SoundSource: which one do you actually need?

The short version

These two apps overlap more than the gap in price suggests, so the choice is not really about which is better. It is about how much of the job you need. Both will group your outputs and both will treat individual apps separately. SoundSource keeps going after that, into equalisation, effects and plugin chains, and that extra capability is genuinely useful if you want it. Chorus stops at the routing, which is why it costs what it costs.

Chorus vs SoundSource at a glance

What Chorus is

Chorus is a native macOS menu-bar app for the devices already attached to your Mac. It groups outputs so several of them play as one, with a single volume that actually moves the sound rather than a slider that has quietly stopped working, and balance between the devices in the group so a quiet speaker can be brought up to meet a loud one.

Around that sits the rest of the job. You choose your input in the same panel. You send individual apps to different outputs, so a call can stay on your headphones while music plays across the room. You save the arrangements you use and switch between them with a keyboard shortcut, and your volume keys drive a whole group instead of one device. Chorus notices devices as they connect and disconnect and adjusts, which matters if you unplug a display at the end of the day. If you want to drive it from elsewhere, it automates through Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.

There is no driver and no kernel extension. Chorus uses the audio grouping macOS already has, so nothing is installed into the system and dragging the app to the Trash leaves your Mac as it was. It is $4.99 once, free for 30 days with no account and no card details, and one licence covers up to three Macs. It needs macOS 13 or later and runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon.

What SoundSource is

SoundSource, from Rogue Amoeba, is the larger of the two apps and does more. It handles output groups and per-app control in the same way, and then adds the parts Chorus does not have at all: an equaliser, audio effects, and support for Audio Unit plugins, so you can build a proper processing chain over whatever your Mac is playing.

That is a real difference, not a marketing one. If you want to tame a boomy pair of desk speakers, add a touch of correction to headphones, or run a plugin you already trust, SoundSource does something Chorus cannot. It is now at version 6, and it is priced accordingly at $49, with a $25 upgrade path for existing owners. If you want the full toolkit, it is the right buy and the price is fair for what you get.

One thing worth clearing up, because the two get mixed up: recording is not SoundSource's job. Rogue Amoeba's recording app is Audio Hijack, a separate product.

Where Chorus wins

• The price, for this particular job. $4.99 against $49 is roughly a tenth, and if grouping and routing is all you need, you are not paying for the rest.
• It is small and it stays out of the way. One menu-bar panel covering outputs, inputs and per-app routing, with nothing else to learn.
• Setups on a keyboard shortcut. Save the arrangements you actually use, then switch between them with a shortcut, or from Raycast, Shortcuts or Stream Deck.
• It follows your desk. Devices are picked up as they connect and dropped as they go, so a group survives the daily unplugging.
• Nothing installed into the system. No driver, no kernel extension, and no trace left behind when it goes.
• Three Macs on one licence, and 30 days free before you decide.

Where SoundSource is the better buy

• An equaliser. Correct a room, a pair of speakers or a set of headphones, which Chorus has no answer to.
• Audio effects and Audio Unit plugins. Build a chain over your Mac's sound and use the plugins you already own.
• You are not giving up the basics to get the extras. Output groups and per-app control are in there too.
• It is the more capable app. Version 6, from a Mac audio developer with a long-standing reputation, and worth the money if you will use what it does.
• A $25 upgrade if you already own an earlier SoundSource, which changes the maths considerably.

The free option, and where it runs out

Before either app, it is worth knowing that macOS can already do part of this. Open Audio MIDI Setup, create a Multi-Output Device, tick the outputs you want, and they will play together. It costs nothing.

If none of that bothers you, the free route is a perfectly reasonable answer and you should take it. Both paid apps exist because, for most people, it does bother them.

So which should you pick?

Pick Chorus if the problem is practical: two displays that should sound like one, a mic you keep having to reselect, a call that belongs on headphones while everything else plays out loud, and a setup you would like to change with one keystroke. That is the whole job, it is $4.99, and you can try it for a month before paying anything.

Pick SoundSource if you want to change how the sound is, not just where it goes. An equaliser, effects and plugin support are worth real money to the right person, and if that is you, the extra is well spent.

Plenty of people will read that and know immediately which one they are. If you are not sure, start with the free trial of Chorus, since a month is long enough to find out whether routing was the whole problem.

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