Personalized Spatial Audio Explained: A Deep Dive into Immersive Sound

When you press play, you expect sound to fill your ears, but what if it could fill your space? Spatial audio creates a three-dimensional soundscape with audio from in front, behind, above, or to the sides. From cinematic sound effects to layered music production, spatial audio brings a level of depth and realism that fits naturally into film, music, and gaming.

This guide discusses details on Apple Spatial Audio, as well as Personalized Spatial Audio. As of June 2025, this guide has been restructured, and more information about newer software releases such as iOS 18 and iOS 26 beta will be added.

For years, stereo and surround sound have shaped how we hear music and media. Stereo splits audio into two channels: left and right. It’s simple and familiar, but it lacks depth and vertical movement. Surround sound uses multiple speakers placed around the room to create directionality, typically in front, beside, and behind the listener.

Unlike traditional stereo, which plays left and right, spatial audio creates a three-dimensional soundscape with audio from in front, behind, above, or to the sides. Spatial audio goes further, using software to simulate full 3D space including height, distance, and movement. It can create an immersive sound field from just a soundbar, a pair of headphones, or even built-in speakers.
And unlike surround setups, spatial audio doesn’t require a fixed listening position.

When you watch or play a supported show, movie, song, or game, or make a FaceTime call on your device, AirPods 3, AirPods 4, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max use Spatial Audio and head tracking to create an immersive theater-like environment with sound that surrounds you.

Understanding Spatial Audio Technologies

Spatial audio is a broad category of 3D sound technologies. Dolby Atmos is one specific format that uses object-based mixing to place sounds in space. It's one way to deliver spatial audio.

Not all content is created with spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos or 5.1/7.1 surround. However, Bose devices with TrueSpace technology or Immersive Audio can enhance standard stereo content by adding a spatial effect, even when the original mix isn't spatial.

Surround sound uses multiple speakers to create horizontal directionality. Spatial audio simulates full 3D sound, including height and depth, using advanced processing techniques. It can deliver a more immersive experience through headphones or speakers, even without a multi-speaker setup.

Many spatial audio formats, like Dolby Atmos for Headphones or Apple’s spatial audio, work with standard stereo headphones by using software-based binaural processing. However, headphones like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Earbuds use head tracking and special tuning to make sound feel more natural and stable, so it stays in place as you move and feels more lifelike all around you.

Head tracking makes spatial audio feel more natural by adjusting the sound based on your movement.

How to setup Personalized Spatial Audio on your iPhone

Personalized Spatial Audio: Tailoring Sound to Your Ears

One of the quieter announcements of iOS 16 back in June was that Apple is introducing a "Personalized Spatial Audio" feature as part of the software update. This feature literally scans your ears using the iPhone's 3D sensor that's part of its Face ID system, so that it can customize its audio for the shape of your ears.

Personalized audio is a big thing among the best wireless headphones right now, with products such as the NuraTrue putting it front and center, while products like the Sony WH-1000XM5 offer an optional adjustment for your ears if you dig into their settings.

The idea with personalized audio is that if headphones or earbuds tune their sound to the shape of your ears, then they'll remove some detail imperfections you get from reflections and other interference. In theory, that means more precise, realistic, and dynamic performance.

You can use your iPhone X or later to create a representation of your ear and head shape for Personalized Spatial Audio. Your Spatial Audio profile customizes audio to better match how you hear sound, and syncs across your Apple devices with iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, macOS 13, tvOS 16, or later, where you’re signed in to the same Apple Account.

Setting Up Personalized Spatial Audio

To create a Personalized Spatial Audio profile, you will need an iPhone 10 or later.

Tap on your AirPods at the top of the settings list.
You will be asked to complete the front view capture.
After you complete the front view capture, you will be asked to complete the right ear capture.

There is no one way to complete this from my testing. My recommendation is to hold the phone out in front of you, and then turn to the left. Then, you will turn your head to the right and left until it works. That’s the best advice I can give you. Next, repeat that all over again but this time for the left ear capture. Same advice as before, you kind of have to figure it out as you go. Apples “turn your head left” and turn your head right” messages play seemingly randomly.

After you complete the set up process, Personalized Spatial Audio is ready!

To learn more about how to set up Personalized Spatial Audio, see the Apple Support article Listen with Personalized Spatial Audio for AirPods and Beats.

Stopping Personalized Spatial Audio

Wear your AirPods, and make sure they’re connected to your device.

Do one of the following:

iPhone or iPad: Go to the Settings app , then tap the name of your AirPods near the top of the screen. Tap Personalized Spatial Audio, then tap Stop Using Personalized Spatial Audio.
Mac: Go to the System Settings app , click the name of your AirPods in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down), then click Stop Using Personalized Spatial Audio.

To use Personalized Spatial Audio again, you can set it up on your iPhone.

The Ear Scanning Process

Apple's approach is, in typical Apple fashion, a very technically advanced approach, while trying not to feel like it is. Some companies handle personalized sound by playing you sounds and asking what frequencies you can hear during a focused test; Apple does it by making a 3D map of your ears, which only takes a few seconds, as long as you do it right.

You'll find the ability to run the Personalized Spatial Audio program by going Settings > Bluetooth, selecting your AirPods (when they're connected), and then choosing "Personalize Spatial Audio". It looks like Apple will also pop up an invitation to try it when you connect your AirPods, but I was already going straight there to do it, so I kind of skipped that.

First, you'll be asked to scan your face, in the same way as you do when you set up Face ID. Then, you'll be asked to hold the phone up with the front camera facing one ear and then the other.

No surprise, this is the hard part, but Apple's process is fairly slick. The idea is to hold the phone facing your ear, then slightly turn your head left and right… but obviously, you can't see the screen. So when you hold the phone up, it'll make a noise when your ear is in a good spot. Turn slightly and it'll make another noise when it's happy with the rotation; turn the other way and it'll make another noise. You're done with that ear.

The problem is successfully getting it to make all those noises. You can't see where you're going wrong. If you're not getting it, it's hard to tell why. I went through the process quite a few times, just to see if I could crack a reliable technique… and I did.

The trick was to hold the phone about six inches from your ear. This really seemed to be the sweet spot. It's tempting to hold it further away, but at six inches each scan took barely a few seconds because I was never really able to put my ear in the wrong spot unless I really tried to screw it up.

That personalized ear profile is on your phone (and will be shared with other iOS 16 devices, so it's the same everywhere), and you can get listening.

Controlling Spatial Audio and Head Tracking

On iPhone or iPad

You can control Spatial Audio and head tracking for each supported app in Control Center.

If you have AirPods Max (USB-C), you can also use Spatial Audio and head tracking when you connect to your device with a USB-C cable (your device must have iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, or later). See Connect AirPods Max with an audio cable.

Wear your AirPods, and make sure they’re connected to your device.

Open Control Center, touch and hold the volume control, then tap Spatial Audio at the lower right.
Tap one of the following:
- Off: Turns off both Spatial Audio and head tracking.
- Fixed: Turns on Spatial Audio without head tracking.
- Head Tracked: Turns on both Spatial Audio and head tracking. The audio you’re listening to will sound like it’s coming from your iPhone or Mac.

The settings you choose are saved and applied automatically the next time you use that app. For example, if you tap Fixed while listening to a song in the Music app , the Fixed setting is automatically used the next time you play a song in that app.

To disable head tracking for all apps on your iPhone or iPad, go to the Settings app , then tap Accessibility. Tap AirPods, tap the name of your AirPods, then turn off Follow [device].

On Mac

You can use Spatial Audio and head tracking to make supported shows, movies, and music sound like they’re coming from all around you (on Mac computers with Apple silicon and macOS 12.3 or later). You can turn Spatial Audio and head tracking on or off for each supported app.

If you have AirPods Max (USB-C), you can also use Spatial Audio and head tracking when you connect to your Mac with a USB-C cable (on Mac computers with macOS 15.4 or later). See Connect AirPods Max with an audio cable.

Wear your AirPods, and make sure they’re connected to your Mac.

Click the AirPods icon in the menu bar.
If the AirPods icon isn’t in the menu bar, go to the System Settings app , then click Menu Bar in the sidebar. Below Menu Bar Controls, select Sound . (You may need to scroll down.)
Choose one of the following below Spatial Audio:
- Off: Turns off both Spatial Audio and head tracking.
- Fixed: Turns on Spatial Audio without head tracking.
- Head Tracked: Turns on both Spatial Audio and head tracking. This allows the sound to follow the movement of your head.

On Apple TV 4K

You can customize the Spatial Audio settings for each supported app using Control Center on Apple TV 4K. You can also turn head tracking on or off for all apps. (tvOS 15.1 or later required.)

Wear your AirPods, and make sure they’re connected to your Apple TV 4K.

While watching a movie or TV show or listening to music, open Control Center, then navigate to the AirPods icon at the top of the screen (next to the time display).
Navigate to Spatial Audio, then select an option.

The settings you choose are saved and applied automatically the next time you use that app. For example, if you turn on Spatial Audio while using the Apple TV app with your AirPods, Spatial Audio automatically turns on the next time you use the app with your AirPods.

To disable dynamic head tracking for all apps on Apple TV 4K, double-click on the Siri Remote, then go to the Settings app .

Personal Experiences and Analysis

I love the idea behind Personalized Spatial Audio, and Spatial Audio as a whole. Personalized Spatial Audio does make the audio more immersive. Do I think it’s 100% perfect? In previous versions of iOS 16 and all currently available versions of iOS 17 and later, there is a slight high frequency boost which makes high frequencies sound sharp, but this went away in iOS 17.0 beta 2 after creating another HRTF.

One thing that I’ve been noticing is that things sound very up close with personalized spatial audio turned on compared to regular spatial audio. Normal spatial audio feels much more immersive. I like the way spatial audio as a whole makes regular stereo content in Apple Music and YouTube have a sense of depth.

Everyone’s head is not the same, so spatial audio will work better or worse by default for some people. There was an old app called Waves NX which would let you play your music through 3-D sound.

According to Wikipedia, “A head-related transfer function (HRTF), also known as anatomical transfer function (ATF), or a head shadow is a response that characterizes how an ear receives a sound from a point in space. This allows reflections of the sound to bounce off of walls in a virtual room giving the effect of the audio being in a living room or studio/theater.

For example, an app called Boom 3D which is designed for playing music and podcasts as well as radio stations through has a large virtual room. If you heard a short kick drum, it would sound like it was in a big room.

While personalized spatial audio is free for all iPhone users, apps like boom3d are locked behind Pay Walls or hard to cancel subscriptions. (Trust me, I know. If personalized spatial audio is turned off, the virtual room changes completely and is nothing like the room that personalized spatial audio uses. Other changes include the amount of the virtual room used on dolby Atmos signals on apple music being lessened.

Over the course of spatial audios whole entire existence, I have noticed that on dolby Atmos signals the virtual room varies a lot more than regular 2 channel content. I feel like there has been a boost in all sounds that are mono, or the mid channel. Adding this boost makes sounds that normally pan Out wider stay closer to the center which I feel like is the opposite of immersive. Regular spatial audio does not do this. If you were too over exaggerate the side channel on the other hand (not individual stereo channels) the audio panning would be over exaggerated. Apple should find a happy medium.

If you could use the renderer that non-personalized spatial audio content uses, the ideal experience would be a bit better.

What effect did it have?

I tried both AirPods Pro and AirPods Max with my new personal profile, and the result was the same in both: I heard very little difference.

I jumped straight into some of my favorite Dolby Atmos test movies and compared playing on an iOS 15 iPhone with playing from the iOS 16 device, and for the most part, the difference felt either non-existent or so minimal that I couldn't really tell you if one was 'better' than the other.

The most prominent difference was in The Matrix, in the bullet-time sequence. In Atmos, that's a real playground of sounds swooping around the listener, just like the camera swoops around Neo. I felt like the whoosh of the bullets was stronger when they were to the left and right of me with the Personalized profile active, but I was really trying to listen for differences. I wouldn't say it was a meaningful improvement.

Switching to Dolby Atmos music, I really couldn't hear anything noteworthy comparing playback from iOS 15 to iOS 16. I tried with and without head tracking, I tried all kinds of genres. It didn't happen.

However, this experience clearly isn't universal. Plenty of people online feel differently about it.

Analysis: are my ears too boring?

Why would there be such a difference of opinion between myself and others online about the effectiveness of the Personalized Spatial Audio adjustments?

Well, it's possible that I just have a very average set of ears. At least, average in how Apple calculates things.

Think of it this way: until Apple added personalization of the Spatial Audio algorithms, they still had to be designed for some kind of ears, right? What most companies do is create a model of the "average" ear (with lots of wriggle room around it), and design headphones that will sound good for that. The idea is it'll be as pleasing as possible for the largest number of people.

It's possible that I happen to have ears that are actually right in the sweet spot of how Apple had Spatial Audio work by default, meaning that I'm hearing minimal improvement from the personalized audio because it hasn't actually had to change very much.

The problem, of course, is that I can't know this for certain. In some ways, it'd be better if Apple pulled back the curtain here a little more than it does normally - perhaps after the Personalized Spatial Audio tests, it could give you a little stylized graph to suggest how it's going to change the sound.

It's also possible that this whole system will change more before iOS 16 is finalized and released alongside the iPhone 14 (and probably AirPods Pro 2) later in the year.

Enabling Dolby Atmos

If you are an Apple Music subscriber, you have access to Dolby Atmos music and lossless audio at no extra charge. This can work in tandem with spatial audio. This is the only feature that doesn’t require AirPods, but you will have to enable it.

If on an iPhone, open the Music settings.
Under Dolby Atmos, select Always On. This setting only affects Apple Music.

Dolby Atmos and spatial audio will now be on for supported songs. This is where you toggle the feature on. Turning it on for one app does not affect any other apps. Note, in iOS 17, tapping on spatial audio when no music is playing will take you back a screen.

Feature	Description
Spatial Audio	Creates a three-dimensional soundscape for a more immersive experience.
Personalized Spatial Audio	Customizes audio based on the user's ear and head shape.
Head Tracking	Adjusts the sound based on the user's head movement.
Dolby Atmos	A specific spatial audio format that uses object-based mixing.