Head tracking of iOS 15 x spatial audio makes "chair round and round" fun

In the major OS updates "iOS 15" and "iPad OS 15" that Apple launched on September 21, the company's completely wireless earphone "AirPods Pro" or wireless headphones "AirPods Max" will be used for spatial audio. You can now enjoy using "Dynamic Head Tracking". When I listened to it, I forgot the time and kept spinning in the gaming chair.

Dynamic head tracking tracks the movement of the head with earphones / headphones, and when the direction of the head is changed, the direction (localization) of the sound changes accordingly. As a result, the sense of presence of spatial audio, which is "a music experience that is wider, clearer, richer, and more immersive than stereo," is said to be further enhanced.

Requires AirPods Max (left) or AirPods Pro (right) for dynamic head tracking

To use it, you need a device with iOS / iPad OS 15 installed on iPhone 7 or later, AirPods Pro / Max, and a contract with Apple Music. With these environments in place, by default, if you're using AirPods Pro / Max, Apple Music will play spatial audio with dynamic head tracking.

This time, I tried dynamic head tracking on both AirPods Pro and AirPods Max using the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2021 model) updated to iPad OS 15.

"Spatial audio" can be turned on / off from the control center. Automatically turns on when playing a compatible song on AirPods Pro / Max

As mentioned above, when you play Apple Music spatial audio music on AirPods Pro / Max, dynamic head tracking is automatically turned on, so you don't need to make any additional settings. All you have to do is attach earphones / headphones and play spatial audio compatible music. If you want to turn off the 3D audio itself, press and hold the volume bar in the Control Center and then tap "3D Audio" to turn it off.

For the audition, we used the official Hige Dandism album "Editorial", which was also used in the advertising campaign for spatial audio by the company's Dolby Atmos. If you put it on the iPad Pro on a desk, sit on a chair and start playing it, the sound with a sense of depth unique to 3D audio will spread. The sound echoes from the front, including the vocalist Satoshi Fujihara's singing voice.

Then, if you turn your head to the right, the sound will be heard from the left ear, which is close to the iPad Pro, as you move. On the other hand, only the echoes of vocals, piano, guitar, etc. arrive from the right ear far from the iPad Pro. I turned to the right and turned my back to the iPad Pro, and this time the sound echoed from the back of my head.

Spatial audio using dynamic head tracking changes the sound localization clearly and accurately, so it feels as if you are turning your body while enjoying a live concert in a music hall. At the time of audition, I was sitting in a gaming chair that can rotate 360 ​​degrees like an office chair, so when I forgot the time, I kept spinning. By the way, I didn't feel a big difference in tracking accuracy between AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.

What surprised me was when I kept facing a direction other than the front for a certain period of time. If you keep facing the same direction for a certain period of time, it seems that the place that should be recognized as "front" on the device side has changed, and the sound localization has moved to the front that you are facing now. The same was true when the iPad Pro, which was operated on the lap, was placed on the desk on the left side, and although the localization moved to the left for a few seconds, it was immediately reset to the front. I didn't have to do something like "calibration" every time I changed my posture or the position where I put the device, so I was able to easily immerse myself in the music, which was also a factor that I couldn't stop using the gaming chair "Kurukuru".

When I walk around the house with the iPad Pro held aside, the way I hear it does not change when I change the direction of each body, but when I move only the head to the left or right without moving the body, the localization changes. It seemed that dynamic head tracking could be used without problems even on devices such as the iPhone that can be carried in a pocket.

For songs that do not support spatial audio, the item "Stereo spatialization" is displayed.

This dynamic head tracking can also be used for stereo music that does not support spatial audio. If you press and hold the volume bar in the control center and then turn on "Stereo spatialization", you can enjoy a "spatial experience" even with non-spatial audio music.

When I tried it with YOASOBI's latest song "Taisho Roman", which does not support spatial audio, the point that the localization changes according to the movement of the head is the same as the song compatible with spatial audio. Place the iPad Pro in front and turn right to hear the sound from the left, and turn left to hear the sound from the right.

However, probably because it was pseudo-spatialized, the sound that reached the ears far from the device did not have the reverberation of spatial audio, and the overall sound spread was not felt.

Earphones and headphones other than AirPods Pro / Max do not display the "Spatial Audio" or "Stereo Spatial" items in the Control Center.

If you connect earphones or headphones other than AirPods Pro / Max (this time Anker's completely wireless "Soundcore Life A2 NC"), you can turn on Dolby Atmos from the settings, but there is an item of "spatial audio" in the control center. Do not show. Of course, head tracking was not available either.

According to Apple, Apple Music's spatial audio has already been experienced by more than 40 million people and has been viewed in billions of times. Playback of spatial audio is growing rapidly in Japan as well, and it is so popular that it ranks among the top three countries in the playback of compatible content. The mechanism of dynamic head tracking, "the position where the sound can be heard changes according to the movement of the head", has a clear and easy-to-understand effect when experienced, and even if it is said to be "a music experience that increases the sense of presence" with spatial audio, it comes to mind. Even those who thought "no" should be able to realize it. If you have a compatible device, you can use it just by updating the OS, so please give it a try.