easy listening
CLUNKY SURROUND SOUND SYSTEMS HAVE EVOLVED INTO A 360° EXPERIENCE
Home sound systems are becoming more immersive than ever before. While you might know the concepts of pinning sounds around you from your traditional surround sound systems, new spatial technologies are elevating this idea, while making set-ups easier and more efficient. Here’s a beginner’s guide to what can be referred to as immersive, 3D or spatial audio, depending on the system you choose.
What’s different
Spatial audio is, in essence, surround sound, and many examples of it use Dolby Atmos, an audio format designed originally for cinemas. However, where classic surround sound set-ups have required multiple speakers on different channels, it’s now possible to recreate the effect with a much more limited set-up, sometimes just a single soundbar. Think of spatial audio like a sphere of sound rather than directional. It’s even possible to include sound from overhead without requiring a ceiling speaker, as soundbars with upfiring speakers can bounce certain sounds from the ceiling.
What it sounds like
In this sphere, certain sounds can be pinned around you. That means, when someone runs past the screen in the film you’re watching, the sound can travel and make it sound like they’re running past you, in a realistic way. Likewise, when a plane flies overhead or a helicopter takes off, that sound will come from above (if you’ve got the right set-up, that is).
What to watch
The key to spatial audio is having content that has been created in the right format for this sound technology. The most common format is still Dolby Atmos, and you’ll find a number of films that support it on any given platform, whether it be Netflix, Prime or Disney+. You should find a symbol indicating whether the content is Dolby Atmos compatible and you’ll likely need to stream in whatever Ultra HD format the platform has.
Spatial audio and music
The real evolution of spatial audio comes in the form of listening to music, a new frontier for surround sound, where it has been best listened to in stereo until now. The likes of Sony 360 Reality Audio, for example, can pin different instruments around the sound sphere, making it sound like you’re sitting in the midst of an orchestra. Again, in general this requires music content that’s been recorded in a certain format to work, so
only particular songs or artists may be available to listen to in spatial audio, no matter your set-up.
Creating a spatial audio set-up
Spatial audio can be added and integrated into an existing multi-speaker set-up relatively easily, but Dolby Atmos is also pretty standard these days in high-end soundbars, such as the Bose Smart Soundbar 900 or Sonos Arc (pictured). If you’re buying a new TV, Dolby Atmos can come built-in, but to really make the most of spatial audio, you’ll want some sort of external speaker set-up.
Listening on headphones
Spatial audio has been adopted into headphones, too. Apple’s Spatial Audio technology, with its Airpods Pro and Airpods Max, is capable of immersing users in this 3D soundscape when using IOS. Other headphones can still work with other spatial audio technology.