BRAVE NEW WORLDS

For this edition of "Sound Investments", Augustman ponders whether Spatial Audio is the future of music and the devices that can take advantage of this new format

- JONATHAN HO 

THOUGH I ENJOY GOOD SOUND, I don’t consider myself an audiophile in particular, primarily because a large number of people can’t really tell the difference between a lossless audio file and a compressed audio file. It requires super high-end equipment and the truth is: The problem with “fidelity” is that the listener usually doesn’t know exactly what the original instrument or voice sounded like when it was being recorded. Unless you were in the studio or the venue where the performance took place and heard it acoustically (and not through a microphone and speakers), you can’t know how close to the original the reproduction is. Enter Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.

Like it or not, it’s the future of music: It offers music lovers a more discernible and readily identifiable way of listening to music – everyone can visualise the Eagles and where each instrumentalist is sitting as they play “Hotel California”. In fact, in a special release on Spatial Audio as part of Apple Music in May 2021, it was announced that “since launch, the number of monthly Spatial Audio listeners has more than tripled, with more than 80 percent of worldwide subscribers enjoying the experience, while monthly plays in Spatial Audio have grown by over 1,000 percent”.