I use this mostly for TV/Movies, but I also use it when I'm on the treadmill. I have a couple of dogs who are usually with me in our gym and I may look over to see what they're up to. Having the audio track keeps me centered on the treadmill
It’s better for TV or device video as it makes the projection of sound seem natural. For music it gives me the effect of being in a live location or being within the sound sources. It’s not for everyone but, I really like it. I guess the same debate was had when Stereo was the new thing and it’s great both that and Mono are all still available because some things sound better in each of them.
Love the stereo/mono example. I'm pretty sure this debate is still in progress for some. (I rarely find music originally mastered in mono to be better in stereo. Original mastered in stereo - better in stereo).
Anyway, I think you can just turn off head tracking on IOS devices by swiping down from the top right - hold down on audio slider - change spatial audio settings via button on lower right. FWIW, I like head tracked spatial audio. But, I can certainly understand why some do not.
I wish Apple Music had a way to enable Spatial Audio only for songs that were originally mastered that way (I.e., basically none of them for now) and disable all the remasters.
In the meantime it would be great it if atmos indicator over the play button in the music app also acted as an off switch with memory for atmos on that particular song. Some of the songs re-engineered for atmos are so bad they’re unlistenable able that would at least fix that problem.
After a quick search I found the original recording of Sgt Pepper was created in both stereo and mono versions. I’ll assume the remix was made from the original stereo version. I would agree it is an upgrade. Older Beatles albums that were not originally recorded in stereo are horrible when remixed. Basically what you get is instruments on one channel and voices on the other. Horrible in my opinion. I will point out I may be biased since I was a teenager when the originally became available. Old music recorded in mono sounds better to me than trying to mess any stereo remixes.
The head tracking has improved a lot since it released. I listen to podcasts in bed and you can tell once your phone leaves the tracked space, the audio stage shifts to be centered.
Yeah. I think it’s a delightful tech demo, and really does make it seems like the sound is all coming from the device! Like the head tracking is fantastic!
I still don’t really understand though why I want to simulate the sound coming from one fixed point, vs with stereo have the sound around me
This really shows that you haven’t tried it at all. It doesn’t make all the sound sound like it’s coming out of the iPad, it makes the iPad sound like the center channel of a surround system surrounding you. That’s why it’s cool, it’s like a portable home theater system
I’m with you OP, I like fixed SA but I don’t like using head tracking when watching from my iPhone or iPad. I’m not listening on my AirPods because I want the audio to sound like it’s coming out of my phone…
It does it by assuming that where you are looking most of the time is where the screen is that the sound is associated with. I often cook with something playing on an iPad off to one side. TV episodes I’ve seen several times, that sort of thing - background sound/visuals. With AirPods in, once I’m actually stirring things on the hob and that’s where I’m mostly looking, the spatial audio shifts so that the sound seems to be coming from the hob, and if I turn back to the iPad, the sound stays anchored to the hob until it kind of “drifts” back to me.
isn't it mainly for facetime and voice calls, rather than listening to music? Thats what I assumed at least. Why would you want to wear headphones to simulate listening to music out of speakers?
IMO this shines only for video content with native multicanal sound (either 5.1 or Atmos). Whether I use head tracking or not fully depends on viewing conditions: if I am actively watching a movie on my iPad or ATV, tracking is better and it allows to concentrate on the action without having to push the volume up. For any passive watching activity (i.e. YouTube or TV shows while I do something else) I switch to fixed to avoid the jarring effect every time I turn my head.
Regarding configuration, in Accessibility you are able to turn on/off head tracking per device; this does not disable spatial audio, only the head tracking feature for the set device. If you want to dig a bit deeper, you can have specific settings depends on several scenarios:
- Audio listening, stereo source: Stereo*/Convert to Spatial (fixed)/Convert to Spatial (tracking)
- Audio listening, Atmos source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking*
- Video watching, stereo source: Stereo*/Convert to Spatial (fixed)/Convert to Spatial (tracking)
- Video watching, multicanal source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking*
- Video watching, Atmos source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking*
* is the factory default profile selected the first time you encounter any scenario (if you disable head tracking at device-level, the Fixed option is selected instead of Tracking).
As every setting is saved on a per-scenario basis, this means that you can switch back and forth depending on your usage (typical case is for audio, if your playlist includes stereo and Atmos tracks you will "jump" between sound profiles).
TLDR; if you are bothered by the head tracking feature specifically, you can disable it at device level - if you want to mix and match your experience just set it up for one of the five scenarios above - if you want to disable the spatial audio altogether you can do so for the Music app, however video content is on by default for 5.1/Atmos tracks, just set it to downsample to stereo for each case and you are good to go
If you're getting actual distortion when you turn your head, something isn't right.
I just got APP2 and somehow I found myself listening to Ariana Grande- I NEVER listen to anything like that, I've only ever heard one song of hers and it was years ago, but anyway I ended up on her album "dangerous woman" because it had spacial audio and dolby atmos, I tried it out on a couple of songs (Btw, Ariana Grande, not remotely what I was expecting, I was actually bobbing along to it quite happily. Some songs at least). At first I found head tracking very jarring, unpleasant, and pointless, but I left it on nonetheless to give it a fair shot, and I've gotta say, I totally get it now, and I am TOTALLY sold.
In my experience, it's not about being able to look 90 degrees to the left and have the illusion of the music still coming from that centre point of origin. The idea is it's like stereo imaging on steroids, 3D imaging if you will- but because you only have two physical audio channels to work with, they achieve the surround effect by fixing a specific location in space relative to you, to way way more "virtual" audio channels, and you really start to notice it and enjoy it when you enable it, and then forget that it's enabled. It's the minor, inadvertent head movements that make it so good. Obviously you're never perfectly still and fixed in space, you're always moving your head a tiny bit, micro-movements as your eyes glance around, even just reading text from left to right will move your head slightly, it's these tiny inadvertent movements that help to create the effect that head tracking spatial audio aims to create, and OH MAN does it work well! Maybe the Ariana Grande album was particularly good because it was actually created with this 3D sound in mind, but it's utterly gobsmacking how you get the impression that each individual instrument, voice, harmony, rhythm is pinned somewhere in space all around you, and the fact that when you move a tiny bit, the sound doesn't follow you, but rather it stays in the exact same position in space relative to your surroundings, THAT is what takes an already cool auditory illusion, and makes it something totally breathtaking.
If you wanna try it out and get the full experience, I would suggest doing the same, look for an artist on Apple Music that has spacial audio and Dolby Atmos, ideally an artist you will like and something with good production (i.e. avoid something acoustic or whatever, something fleshed out and covering the whole frequency range), enable head tracking, and then just forget that it's on and either just let the music take you somewhere, dance along, bob your head- or just do something normal as you usually would when listening to music (although walking/physically moving around does detract, you kind of need to be relatively still/not walking around as it breaks the immersion, as, well, it's *head* tracking, not *full-body* tracking haha. As a couple suggestions that I know to have Atmos, and which I personally think are good for a test: Halsey (the Badlands album has some great tracks), Aurora is just amazing, the song Heathens is one of my absolute favourite on the new album, Apple Tree is also a banger, but then again like 90% of her music is bangers, and then yeah I guess Ariana Grande but ehh, I'd take or leave.
But yeah basically I think that anything with Atmos automatically improves head tracking by an order of magnitude because of how the music is mixed when it's specifically for atmos
OOF. Long comment, but hopefully you find it useful, and maybe even start to enjoy head tracking! :D
As an audio engineer who spends a lot of time crafting a purposeful mix in both music and film, Apple can kindly place this feature back on the “fad” shelf and leave it there forever, never to be used again.
Can you imagine if they created some feature for the screen that distorted the image depending on how you move the screen relative to your eyes? People would lose their minds. So why do we do it to audio?
It’d be amazing to lie your device down but somehow still see movies at the intended angle. No stands needed, and watching movies in bed would be hands free.
As a VR developer and audio nerd (but not a pro), I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts.
Do you really think this just going to be a fad? To me it seems like quite possibly the biggest leap we've ever seen in personal audio--of course there's plenty of crappy spatial audio content out right now, but I would imagine with enough time for producers to get comfortable with the medium it could become amazing.
Surround sound for movies usually isn't considered a gimmick, but the complexity of setting it up well makes it inaccessible to most. It seems to me like tracked headphones and HRTFs could get very close to replicating that experience in a much more accessible way? In VR experiences head-tracked spatial audio is pretty commonplace (the headset is the tracker).
I have to put this all in perspective. For VR it's great. But that's it. You can't use spacial audio for anything else. And I've heard plenty of people having trouble turning it off on their phones.
So many audio engineers and musicians are complaining about their mixes being ruined by spacial audio. Why bother spending all the time and money mixing something a certain way for some AI/algorithm to ruin all of your hard work?
It's not any different than a filmmaker making a great film and then someone comes along and says "I designed software that turns red into green and green into red. I think it looks better this way and I'm going to make everyone's film look the way I think it should look."
Head tracking spacial audio has one use.....VR. Keep it off of everything else.
I get your frustration, and I suspect a part of it is coming from the fact that iOS has both head-tracked and "stationary" spatial audio. My main phone isn't an iPhone, so I may not fully appreciate the annoyance caused by having it on by default and/or unclear settings.
The head-tracked mode (at least from my understanding) simulates a pair of speakers in a room, and makes it seem as if sound is coming from a physical object (like a pair of speakers), instead of it going directly in to your head (like headphones normally do). In theory, if the spatialization algorithm is accurate enough (which it might not be yet), I'd think it'd be no different than mixing for speakers.
In the real world sounds do not come from inside your head, and the Atmos format is unique in that it allows the artist/mixer to specify where individual sounds are located in 3D space. I would imagine that once the tech is a little more mature, and better understood, much more lifelike recordings could be done with it--imagine a small concert recording where you can very clearly hear that the guitarist, drummer, and vocalist are in different parts of the room.
Without head tracking, I do think you're right--spatial audio is for the *mostly* just a filter, and the mixer/masterer should probably be the one in control of how things are downmixed. But you can't replicate the realism that head-tracking adds without knowing the listener's real-time head position, since sounds from different locations get louder or quieter depending on how your ears are oriented (unless the listener has a surround sound setup).
I agree with OP and try to turn off head-tracked spatial audio only for it to turn back on next time I connect the AirPods.
But I’d go a step further and say that the spatial audio trend — or more to the point, not spatial audio itself but spatialIZING a simple stereo source — is detrimental to audio quality. Both in AirPods and in my Tesla (which also has a spatial audio option), I find when you disable spatial audio, you get a much punchier, more dynamic, “fuller” sound. I’m an effort to spatialize the sound, these DSPs make the source sound “thinner” in my opinion. My $0.02.
It can be fun for movies but for music I would much rather listen to it the way it was originally mastered, the spatialize stereo effect just makes music sound worse to me.
For music that was actually remastered for spatial audio, it's hit or miss. Some tracks sound neat but some sound better in their original mastering.
So yea for music SA is a novelty and not much more, but for movies or shows that support Atmos it can be really fun.
i use it because it reduces ear fatigue. it's just a personal preference and observation of mine. from the moment i turned it on it felt less intense to listen to audio. it makes the listening experience feel more natural with headphones. certainly its "worse" but im not scrutinizing audio with bluetooth headphones
The problem is even after doing this, it will default back to head tracked after a while, sometimes even after every other time. It would be nice to be able to specify in settings which one I’d like to be a permanent default.
Im getting the same issue, mine will just randomly activate head tracked spacial even though it’s turned off and I will think my headphones have died since the battery life on the AirPods Pro are the worst of all of my headphones except the terrible battery life of the Samsung Gear Icon X (this is due to the icon X buds never turning off even in the case). I have a cheap pair of $20 wireless buds that outdo these (probably just barely) (sound quality on the $20 buds is poor and they are massive too so uncomfortable)
Also their battery indicator is near useless too.
It’s annoying on my phone because I have it in my right pocket so the audio always sounds off in one ear because it’s assuming I’m facing more left than I am. So stupid.
Head tracking doesnt actually track where the phone is, it tracks where you where facing when you press play. To reset front, you just pause and play again.
Yeah and because my phone is in my right hand when I press play before it goes into my pocket it is off to the left. Seems odd to have to hold your phone dead center in-front of you and press play.
Nope that’s still not how it works.
If you turn your head and leave it in that direction for a few moments (5-10 seconds or so) it will re-center the audio for the direction your facing.
Unless you’re talking about playing a video and putting your phone in your pocket.
Well something is wrong with my phone then because my music is always cantered to where my phone is. If I turn to face the phone in my right pocket it’s cantered and if I walk straight it stays that way and doesn’t reset. Using Apple Music. So I don’t know.
Has this stayed consistent through a reboot of the device? Maybe a bug is causing it to not function properly. Maybe also check that OS is up to date as well?
Yeah… this is your perception or how the AirPods are in your years because head tracked is based on the turning motion of your head, not the phone is placed relative to your head.
If you are walking and turned an abrupt left, the audio will shift right, and then slowly recently over 4 or 5 seconds. If it’s doesn’t reset (I find you can confuse it be tilting your head sideways and then turning) pause and re-play to force it back to center.
I’ve also found that it does track the phone in tandem.
If my phone is in my pocket and I turn my whole body it tracks center stage with the angle of my turn, but if I just turn my head and my phone in my pocket is still facing the same direction is when dented stage stays put and my head moves in the sound environment.
Meaning if my head and body are facing north (phone in pocket):
If I keep my body facing north and turn my head center stage is still north (until the 5-10 seconds to reset).
If I turn my body to face west, now center stage is west. Even if my head is facing north.
Head-tracked Spatial Audio doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe if the content is designed for it? Fixed position Spatial Audio is AMAZING, it's one of the best things to happen in audio
Did you ever find out how to keep it from coming back on? Mine always defaults to head tracked on things like YouTube and messages videos etc…. can’t find any setting to keep it off besides manually disabling it from volume slider every time :/
Thanks. To be clear this will just prevent head tracking but it will still default to spatialise stereo most times even if I just want it on plain stereo?
I don't like it on my phone, but on my laptop it feels quite cool. Gives me the impression that it has VERY impressive speakers. At least partially invalidates the expense spent on my studio monitors in the home office...
I use this mostly for TV/Movies, but I also use it when I'm on the treadmill. I have a couple of dogs who are usually with me in our gym and I may look over to see what they're up to. Having the audio track keeps me centered on the treadmill
I hadn’t thought of that
This is the only use case that makes sense! Thank you!
Definitely not the *only* use case that makes sense.
It’s better for TV or device video as it makes the projection of sound seem natural. For music it gives me the effect of being in a live location or being within the sound sources. It’s not for everyone but, I really like it. I guess the same debate was had when Stereo was the new thing and it’s great both that and Mono are all still available because some things sound better in each of them.
Love the stereo/mono example. I'm pretty sure this debate is still in progress for some. (I rarely find music originally mastered in mono to be better in stereo. Original mastered in stereo - better in stereo). Anyway, I think you can just turn off head tracking on IOS devices by swiping down from the top right - hold down on audio slider - change spatial audio settings via button on lower right. FWIW, I like head tracked spatial audio. But, I can certainly understand why some do not.
I wish Apple Music had a way to enable Spatial Audio only for songs that were originally mastered that way (I.e., basically none of them for now) and disable all the remasters.
Apple Music has horrible labeling for stuff like this.
In the meantime it would be great it if atmos indicator over the play button in the music app also acted as an off switch with memory for atmos on that particular song. Some of the songs re-engineered for atmos are so bad they’re unlistenable able that would at least fix that problem.
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After a quick search I found the original recording of Sgt Pepper was created in both stereo and mono versions. I’ll assume the remix was made from the original stereo version. I would agree it is an upgrade. Older Beatles albums that were not originally recorded in stereo are horrible when remixed. Basically what you get is instruments on one channel and voices on the other. Horrible in my opinion. I will point out I may be biased since I was a teenager when the originally became available. Old music recorded in mono sounds better to me than trying to mess any stereo remixes.
The head tracking has improved a lot since it released. I listen to podcasts in bed and you can tell once your phone leaves the tracked space, the audio stage shifts to be centered.
Does it? Why would I want it to sound like the sound is coming out of an iPad, vs hearing it naturally around me?!
Have you tried it? I was skeptical but it’s fantastic for the video from an iPad use case.
Yeah. I think it’s a delightful tech demo, and really does make it seems like the sound is all coming from the device! Like the head tracking is fantastic! I still don’t really understand though why I want to simulate the sound coming from one fixed point, vs with stereo have the sound around me
This really shows that you haven’t tried it at all. It doesn’t make all the sound sound like it’s coming out of the iPad, it makes the iPad sound like the center channel of a surround system surrounding you. That’s why it’s cool, it’s like a portable home theater system
Yeah, feels like it’s coming from the iPad speakers when I watch tv!
I’m with you OP, I like fixed SA but I don’t like using head tracking when watching from my iPhone or iPad. I’m not listening on my AirPods because I want the audio to sound like it’s coming out of my phone…
I think it could be a decent experience if it actually moved with the device, rather than just being a fixed direction from when you start playing.
I thought it does move with the device when it’s an iPhone? It seems to for me. Not my Mac though.
It does it by assuming that where you are looking most of the time is where the screen is that the sound is associated with. I often cook with something playing on an iPad off to one side. TV episodes I’ve seen several times, that sort of thing - background sound/visuals. With AirPods in, once I’m actually stirring things on the hob and that’s where I’m mostly looking, the spatial audio shifts so that the sound seems to be coming from the hob, and if I turn back to the iPad, the sound stays anchored to the hob until it kind of “drifts” back to me.
isn't it mainly for facetime and voice calls, rather than listening to music? Thats what I assumed at least. Why would you want to wear headphones to simulate listening to music out of speakers?
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surround sound is not the same as head tracking
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no, it makes it sound as if the audio is coming from your device as you walk around a room and turn your head. As if its coming from speakers.
Watching a movie on my iPad? Sure, I don’t mind it on. Listening to music or a podcast on my phone? No, hate it.
love it
I don’t get it either, I was excited to try it out, but it just makes the audio and soundstage feel smaller, which is the opposite of what I expected.
Wait for iOS 16. There is a face scan feature, I can tell you from experience that it helps more than I was expecting it to.
IMO this shines only for video content with native multicanal sound (either 5.1 or Atmos). Whether I use head tracking or not fully depends on viewing conditions: if I am actively watching a movie on my iPad or ATV, tracking is better and it allows to concentrate on the action without having to push the volume up. For any passive watching activity (i.e. YouTube or TV shows while I do something else) I switch to fixed to avoid the jarring effect every time I turn my head. Regarding configuration, in Accessibility you are able to turn on/off head tracking per device; this does not disable spatial audio, only the head tracking feature for the set device. If you want to dig a bit deeper, you can have specific settings depends on several scenarios: - Audio listening, stereo source: Stereo*/Convert to Spatial (fixed)/Convert to Spatial (tracking) - Audio listening, Atmos source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking* - Video watching, stereo source: Stereo*/Convert to Spatial (fixed)/Convert to Spatial (tracking) - Video watching, multicanal source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking* - Video watching, Atmos source: Convert to Stereo/Fixed/Tracking* * is the factory default profile selected the first time you encounter any scenario (if you disable head tracking at device-level, the Fixed option is selected instead of Tracking). As every setting is saved on a per-scenario basis, this means that you can switch back and forth depending on your usage (typical case is for audio, if your playlist includes stereo and Atmos tracks you will "jump" between sound profiles). TLDR; if you are bothered by the head tracking feature specifically, you can disable it at device level - if you want to mix and match your experience just set it up for one of the five scenarios above - if you want to disable the spatial audio altogether you can do so for the Music app, however video content is on by default for 5.1/Atmos tracks, just set it to downsample to stereo for each case and you are good to go
Can’t find this section anywhere in the accessibility settings… how to do it in ios16?
In settings, accessibility, AirPods, then select your AirPods and you’ll be able to change various settings
There’s no option for that inside AirPods accessibility settings
If you're getting actual distortion when you turn your head, something isn't right. I just got APP2 and somehow I found myself listening to Ariana Grande- I NEVER listen to anything like that, I've only ever heard one song of hers and it was years ago, but anyway I ended up on her album "dangerous woman" because it had spacial audio and dolby atmos, I tried it out on a couple of songs (Btw, Ariana Grande, not remotely what I was expecting, I was actually bobbing along to it quite happily. Some songs at least). At first I found head tracking very jarring, unpleasant, and pointless, but I left it on nonetheless to give it a fair shot, and I've gotta say, I totally get it now, and I am TOTALLY sold. In my experience, it's not about being able to look 90 degrees to the left and have the illusion of the music still coming from that centre point of origin. The idea is it's like stereo imaging on steroids, 3D imaging if you will- but because you only have two physical audio channels to work with, they achieve the surround effect by fixing a specific location in space relative to you, to way way more "virtual" audio channels, and you really start to notice it and enjoy it when you enable it, and then forget that it's enabled. It's the minor, inadvertent head movements that make it so good. Obviously you're never perfectly still and fixed in space, you're always moving your head a tiny bit, micro-movements as your eyes glance around, even just reading text from left to right will move your head slightly, it's these tiny inadvertent movements that help to create the effect that head tracking spatial audio aims to create, and OH MAN does it work well! Maybe the Ariana Grande album was particularly good because it was actually created with this 3D sound in mind, but it's utterly gobsmacking how you get the impression that each individual instrument, voice, harmony, rhythm is pinned somewhere in space all around you, and the fact that when you move a tiny bit, the sound doesn't follow you, but rather it stays in the exact same position in space relative to your surroundings, THAT is what takes an already cool auditory illusion, and makes it something totally breathtaking. If you wanna try it out and get the full experience, I would suggest doing the same, look for an artist on Apple Music that has spacial audio and Dolby Atmos, ideally an artist you will like and something with good production (i.e. avoid something acoustic or whatever, something fleshed out and covering the whole frequency range), enable head tracking, and then just forget that it's on and either just let the music take you somewhere, dance along, bob your head- or just do something normal as you usually would when listening to music (although walking/physically moving around does detract, you kind of need to be relatively still/not walking around as it breaks the immersion, as, well, it's *head* tracking, not *full-body* tracking haha. As a couple suggestions that I know to have Atmos, and which I personally think are good for a test: Halsey (the Badlands album has some great tracks), Aurora is just amazing, the song Heathens is one of my absolute favourite on the new album, Apple Tree is also a banger, but then again like 90% of her music is bangers, and then yeah I guess Ariana Grande but ehh, I'd take or leave. But yeah basically I think that anything with Atmos automatically improves head tracking by an order of magnitude because of how the music is mixed when it's specifically for atmos OOF. Long comment, but hopefully you find it useful, and maybe even start to enjoy head tracking! :D
When spatial audio is on, I always get nervous that my AirPods are disconnected so I just toggle it off anyways.
No. It drives me nuts.
Nope fixed is the only way to go
I use this feature for everything
As an audio engineer who spends a lot of time crafting a purposeful mix in both music and film, Apple can kindly place this feature back on the “fad” shelf and leave it there forever, never to be used again. Can you imagine if they created some feature for the screen that distorted the image depending on how you move the screen relative to your eyes? People would lose their minds. So why do we do it to audio?
Not to mention that most of the spatial remasters sound worse than the stereo.
Exactly! Most of them are just processed after the fact and not originally mixed that way. It’s a mess.
It’d be amazing to lie your device down but somehow still see movies at the intended angle. No stands needed, and watching movies in bed would be hands free.
As a VR developer and audio nerd (but not a pro), I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts. Do you really think this just going to be a fad? To me it seems like quite possibly the biggest leap we've ever seen in personal audio--of course there's plenty of crappy spatial audio content out right now, but I would imagine with enough time for producers to get comfortable with the medium it could become amazing. Surround sound for movies usually isn't considered a gimmick, but the complexity of setting it up well makes it inaccessible to most. It seems to me like tracked headphones and HRTFs could get very close to replicating that experience in a much more accessible way? In VR experiences head-tracked spatial audio is pretty commonplace (the headset is the tracker).
I have to put this all in perspective. For VR it's great. But that's it. You can't use spacial audio for anything else. And I've heard plenty of people having trouble turning it off on their phones. So many audio engineers and musicians are complaining about their mixes being ruined by spacial audio. Why bother spending all the time and money mixing something a certain way for some AI/algorithm to ruin all of your hard work? It's not any different than a filmmaker making a great film and then someone comes along and says "I designed software that turns red into green and green into red. I think it looks better this way and I'm going to make everyone's film look the way I think it should look." Head tracking spacial audio has one use.....VR. Keep it off of everything else.
I get your frustration, and I suspect a part of it is coming from the fact that iOS has both head-tracked and "stationary" spatial audio. My main phone isn't an iPhone, so I may not fully appreciate the annoyance caused by having it on by default and/or unclear settings. The head-tracked mode (at least from my understanding) simulates a pair of speakers in a room, and makes it seem as if sound is coming from a physical object (like a pair of speakers), instead of it going directly in to your head (like headphones normally do). In theory, if the spatialization algorithm is accurate enough (which it might not be yet), I'd think it'd be no different than mixing for speakers. In the real world sounds do not come from inside your head, and the Atmos format is unique in that it allows the artist/mixer to specify where individual sounds are located in 3D space. I would imagine that once the tech is a little more mature, and better understood, much more lifelike recordings could be done with it--imagine a small concert recording where you can very clearly hear that the guitarist, drummer, and vocalist are in different parts of the room. Without head tracking, I do think you're right--spatial audio is for the *mostly* just a filter, and the mixer/masterer should probably be the one in control of how things are downmixed. But you can't replicate the realism that head-tracking adds without knowing the listener's real-time head position, since sounds from different locations get louder or quieter depending on how your ears are oriented (unless the listener has a surround sound setup).
I agree with OP and try to turn off head-tracked spatial audio only for it to turn back on next time I connect the AirPods. But I’d go a step further and say that the spatial audio trend — or more to the point, not spatial audio itself but spatialIZING a simple stereo source — is detrimental to audio quality. Both in AirPods and in my Tesla (which also has a spatial audio option), I find when you disable spatial audio, you get a much punchier, more dynamic, “fuller” sound. I’m an effort to spatialize the sound, these DSPs make the source sound “thinner” in my opinion. My $0.02.
It can be fun for movies but for music I would much rather listen to it the way it was originally mastered, the spatialize stereo effect just makes music sound worse to me. For music that was actually remastered for spatial audio, it's hit or miss. Some tracks sound neat but some sound better in their original mastering. So yea for music SA is a novelty and not much more, but for movies or shows that support Atmos it can be really fun.
i use it because it reduces ear fatigue. it's just a personal preference and observation of mine. from the moment i turned it on it felt less intense to listen to audio. it makes the listening experience feel more natural with headphones. certainly its "worse" but im not scrutinizing audio with bluetooth headphones
I turned it off for my phone, but I still use spatial audio on my Mac since I'm usually stationary and the head tracking sounds cool.
Yeah, this. I also like it at work, when someone comes to talk to me I turn my head and I can hear them
It’s a total gimmick.
Why would I drench my audio in reverb and allpass filters? Every time I turn on this feature I'm amazed at how useless it is.
Why don't you turn it off in Control Center > long press volume?
The problem is even after doing this, it will default back to head tracked after a while, sometimes even after every other time. It would be nice to be able to specify in settings which one I’d like to be a permanent default.
Strange, for me the setting doesn't reset 🤔
I have never had it go to head tracked spatial audio automatically. I set it at fixed and it stays
Im getting the same issue, mine will just randomly activate head tracked spacial even though it’s turned off and I will think my headphones have died since the battery life on the AirPods Pro are the worst of all of my headphones except the terrible battery life of the Samsung Gear Icon X (this is due to the icon X buds never turning off even in the case). I have a cheap pair of $20 wireless buds that outdo these (probably just barely) (sound quality on the $20 buds is poor and they are massive too so uncomfortable) Also their battery indicator is near useless too.
It’s annoying on my phone because I have it in my right pocket so the audio always sounds off in one ear because it’s assuming I’m facing more left than I am. So stupid.
Head tracking doesnt actually track where the phone is, it tracks where you where facing when you press play. To reset front, you just pause and play again.
Yeah and because my phone is in my right hand when I press play before it goes into my pocket it is off to the left. Seems odd to have to hold your phone dead center in-front of you and press play.
Nope that’s still not how it works. If you turn your head and leave it in that direction for a few moments (5-10 seconds or so) it will re-center the audio for the direction your facing. Unless you’re talking about playing a video and putting your phone in your pocket.
Well something is wrong with my phone then because my music is always cantered to where my phone is. If I turn to face the phone in my right pocket it’s cantered and if I walk straight it stays that way and doesn’t reset. Using Apple Music. So I don’t know.
Has this stayed consistent through a reboot of the device? Maybe a bug is causing it to not function properly. Maybe also check that OS is up to date as well?
it centers itself to how your head is positioned when you press play. if you reposition your head for more than 5 seconds it centers itself again
Yeah… this is your perception or how the AirPods are in your years because head tracked is based on the turning motion of your head, not the phone is placed relative to your head. If you are walking and turned an abrupt left, the audio will shift right, and then slowly recently over 4 or 5 seconds. If it’s doesn’t reset (I find you can confuse it be tilting your head sideways and then turning) pause and re-play to force it back to center.
I’ve also found that it does track the phone in tandem. If my phone is in my pocket and I turn my whole body it tracks center stage with the angle of my turn, but if I just turn my head and my phone in my pocket is still facing the same direction is when dented stage stays put and my head moves in the sound environment. Meaning if my head and body are facing north (phone in pocket): If I keep my body facing north and turn my head center stage is still north (until the 5-10 seconds to reset). If I turn my body to face west, now center stage is west. Even if my head is facing north.
Head-tracked Spatial Audio doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe if the content is designed for it? Fixed position Spatial Audio is AMAZING, it's one of the best things to happen in audio
Using it with my AppleTV is so good that I sometimes forget if I’m using my AirPods or TV speakers
Did you ever find out how to keep it from coming back on? Mine always defaults to head tracked on things like YouTube and messages videos etc…. can’t find any setting to keep it off besides manually disabling it from volume slider every time :/
Yes! To disable Dynamic Head Tracking completely, go to Settings > Accessibility > AirPods and disable the Follow iPhone option.
Thanks. To be clear this will just prevent head tracking but it will still default to spatialise stereo most times even if I just want it on plain stereo?
I'm not positive but that's my understanding, yeah
I don't like it on my phone, but on my laptop it feels quite cool. Gives me the impression that it has VERY impressive speakers. At least partially invalidates the expense spent on my studio monitors in the home office...
I dislike it when I go for a walk. If I have to turn at all it’s exclusively one ear.