Spatial audio is confusing. The term gained momentum following its use by Apple and even at that time it was confusing, mashing together immersive multi-channel audio, lossless audio and head tracking in the same announcement. A number of brands have followed that lead, including Google with the Pixel Buds Pro.To help you get started, here’s everything you need to know about spatial audio on the Pixel and the Pixel Buds Pro.
What do you need to get spatial audio?
To experience spatial audio with head tracking, you’ll need to have the Pixel Buds Pro. These are designed to support spatial audio on the Google Pixel phones. It is supported through other headphones from an audio point of view, but if you want the head tracking it’s the Pixel Buds Pro you’ll need.
Google Pixel Buds Pro
Designed with long battery life in mind, these sleek wireless earbuds last up to 11 hours on the go, or last up to 31 hours with the charging case.
Many other headphones support spatial audio. After all, it’s not a complex technology and before anyone had come up with the phrase “spatial audio”, headphones (both wired and wireless) were doing a good job of giving you great immersive audio.
Beyond the Pixel Buds Pro, you’ll need a compatible handset and there you have more choice, as it includes the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 models.
Google Pixel 7 Pro
Pixel 7 Pro builds on the foundation of the Pixel 6 Pro, offering a more refined design, stunning camera performance and clean software.
How to turn on spatial audio
You’ll have to have the latest Android version, so the first thing to do is see if your phone needs an update. Head into settings > system > system update.
Then, to enable spatial audio on your phone head to settings > sound & vibration > spatial audio and turn it on.
Secondly, you need to ensure it’s turned on for your headphones, in this case thePixel Buds Pro. To do this, you’ll need to have the Buds Pro connected to your phone, and then head to settings > connected devices and tap on the settings for the Pixel Buds Pro.
Within this menu you’ll find the options for spatial audio, including head tracking. Here you can turn on both features, or opt to turn off head tracking if you don’t want it.
If you’re using other headphones, you’ll also find the spatial audio option, but not the head tracking part.
What apps and services work with spatial audio on the Pixel?
You’ll notice that Google is supporting spatial audio in movies rather than music, which might come as a surprise. The confirmed supported apps include:
Finding spatial audio content on your Pixel
Of course, you’ll need to find content that supports spatial audio - or rather is offering 5.1 or higher encoding. This is where things get a little tricky, as not all content does - and the setting in the apps will make a difference - you don’t get a pop-up on the display or anything like that.
Starting with YouTube, there are a number of demos you can try, but the best thing is to head into the settings for YouTube and “enable stats for nerds”. This will allow you to play a video and tap into the settings and turn on stats for nerds at the bottom of the menu. Then you can see the audio format - and if it says EC-3, then it’s giving you that spatial audio.
In YouTube, note you’ll also have to select one of the higher resolutions - don’t leave it in auto, because you might just be playing a lower-resolution version of the video and that includes a lower-res audio track.
For Google TV you might find you own movies that will give you spatial audio, but again in the settings menu you’ll find the option to “enable 5.1 soundtrack when available”, which you’ll want to make sure is ticked. Mad Max Fury Road has been used as aDolby Atmosdemo since release, and here there’s a noticeable difference when listening to it with spatial audio turned on.
Netflix is supported, but there’s no real way to identify content. GiveSnowpiercera go: it has very noticeable immersive audio on your TV and that carries through to your mobile device too. Not all movies that offer Dolby Atmos on your TV offer it in the mobile app.
Disney+has quite a selection and we found that much of the Marvel stuff works nicely, but again, there’s no real way to identify what you’re listening to. Everything seems to be labelled as 5.1 at the moment, but all the latest stuff sounds great.
Try turning spatial audio on and off to hear the difference
Apps that support picture-in-picture do you a favour here, because you can swipe out of YouTube or Netflix and head into your headphone settings while the audio still plays. This will let you turn off spatial audio so you can hear the difference. There’s a distinct pause when it switches audio format, so if spatial audio is available, you’ll experience that audio pause when switching.
If you’re just listening to stereo, you may flick the switch as much as you like and there’s no pause and no difference in the sound quality. Sadly, for apps like Disney+, once you swipe away it will pause, so you can’t hear the live switching effect.
The aim of head tracking is to allow the audio to come from a fixed direction. It gets around the problems of someone moving their head and the soundstage shifting with them. When listening to music that doesn’t matter, but when you have a screen in front of you, it can make listening more natural to have the sound coming from where the screen is.
In reality, for movies, it doesn’t make a huge difference, but it’s much more important for virtual reality, where the audio needs to be fixed to the position its supposed to be coming from.
On the Pixel with Pixel Buds Pro, head tracking is a nice addition rather than something we’d say was essential. Google isn’t supporting this head tracking for other audio at the moment and we think that’s a good move, as having the sound swirl around you when your head is moving isn’t a great experience. At the same time, some might find that shifting sound with head movement isn’t what they want, in which case you might want to switch it off.
What is spatial audio like?
Spatial audio on the Pixel with Pixel Buds Pro - or indeed other headphones - sounds noticeably different to regular audio when watching movies. It’s clearer and more detailed with a wider, more immersive, soundstage so it just sounds better. This is immediately apparent when watching movies through those supported services - it just sounds better. This is the real driver behind spatial audio and why it’s worth your time - if you watch a lot of content, this gives you a much better audio experience.
Can you tell when something is not in spatial audio? That’s more difficult. When comparing spatial audio to regular audio, it’s immediately obvious, but if you fire up a movie and start watching, you’re unlikely to find it unwatchable because there’s no spatial audio support.
What is spatial audio?
Spatial audio is used as an umbrella term and there are a number of different interpretations. At its core, spatial audio is about widening the soundstage and delivering a more immersive audio experience. That includes object-based directional audio as you’d get from a surround sound home cinema system.
It’s likely that the term “spatial audio” was adopted to avoid referring to branded experiences: Dolby Atmos is the big name you’ll have heard about, initially from home cinema (whereDTS:Xis a rival format), but also from the increasing interest inDolby Atmos Music.
When it comes to music the likes ofSony 360 Reality Audiois another common format, but just because something supports spatial audio doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to support all the different formats.
The other side of spatial audio is about directional awareness. Formats like Dolby Atmos is all about putting you in the centre of the soundstage, so there are things happening all around you, including above and behind. This is why spatial audio has found itself bundled into head tracking, as this is all about positional audio, relative to you as the listener.
