Everything You Need To Know About Apple Spatial Audio

What is it? How do you get it? Apple’s 3D audio tech for Apple Music and movie soundtracks explained

During its WWDC keynote briefing in June 2020, Apple announced something that really piqued our interest and sounded like a potential game-changer: spatial audio. Almost two years on and this 3D audio technology has really gained traction in the Apple world.

Essentially Apple’s take on Dolby Atmos for Headphones and Sony’s PS5 3D Audio, Apple spatial audio is designed to deliver surround sound and 3D audio through headphones – and in optimal fashion through the AirPods 3, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats Fit Pro.

The feature first arrived for movies and TV shows as part of iOS 14 in September 2020, and then it was released on Apple Music on 7th June. Since last summer, spatial audio has been extended to tvOS for use with the new Apple TV 4K (in conjunction with Beats Fit Pro and AirPods, Pro and Max) and it can now also be used with Macs powered by the company’s latest M1 chip.

So how do you get Apple spatial audio? How does the implementation differ between movies and music? And how does it compare to Dolby Atmos? Answers to those questions are right here, folks…

What is Apple spatial audio?

Apple spatial audio takes 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos signals and applies directional audio filters, adjusting the frequencies that each ear hears so that sounds can be placed virtually anywhere in 3D space. Sounds will appear to be coming from in front of you, from the sides, the rear and even above. The idea is to recreate the audio experience of a cinema.