I know many music recordings available in surround 5.1 for SACD that still create a strong impact, and many more live concert recordings available on DVD and Blu-Ray, which carry little more than ambience in the surround speakers, that are still great "immersive" experiences, even without the height speakers. The real impact comes from the combination of a well-planned production and the correct speaker setup and audio system.

Likewise, I have attended mind-blowing sessions playing Dolby Atmos content in correctly configured rooms, and they could be convincing not only with the Mad Max: Fury Road movie, but also with new Dolby Atmos remixes of originally recorded material.

And yet, I continue to search intensely for new immersive music available in Spatial Audio and/or Dolby Atmos that is truly new and completely different. Able to persuade anyone without requiring explaining or a dramatic A/B demonstration. I couldn't yet find any spatial audio music that shows why that would be "mind-blowing" or much better than stereo. And if some tracks do sound slightly more impactful or ———(choose your adjectives) it happened when played over speakers, not headphones.

I have had conversations with many industry professionals about immersive audio and spatial audio, and I find that most of them have the same questions... and no answers. There is not enough marketing that can save the empty strategy of trying to sell "spatial audio" or Dolby Atmos content on earbuds, laptops, or even single source omnidirectional speakers.

I have written multiple articles for audioXpress and The Audio Voice, expressing my dissatisfaction and concern about hyper-inflating the promises of "spatial audio." And I have always been an enthusiast of multichannel surround for scripted content, while remaining skeptical about the need for 5.1 in most forms of live broadcast - but at least the broadcast community enabled 5.1 audio to become a standard, which later benefited emerging streaming content services, such as Netflix.

Likewise, I have been writing for years about the need to move away from left/right and left/center/right configurations in professional sound reinforcement and live performance sound - an area that fortunately is consistently evolving into a spatial/immersive design. Professional audio now offers the complete mixing concept and the right processing tools, now that the required computing power is available. I am convinced that, as soon as live music returns in full force, immersive audio will be the new production standard.

In contrast, helping to blur the lines in the conflation of the current spatial audio hype is the fact that many speaker companies in the consumer space seem to be determined to promote single omnidirectional speaker sources as "tridimensional." Described as a magical technology that will allow us to "see and touch sound" and generate a "field of sound" in mid air.

At a time when the audio industry is benefiting from tremendous breakthroughs in computerized modeling and simulation tools that allow us to predict transducer design more accurately than ever, when we have new transducer topologies and materials allowing better linear behavior than ever was possible, and when we now have sensors and the processing power to truly control sound sources and manipulate acoustics, it doesn't help that we convert real progress into marketing gibberish for unwary consumers.

I am a strong believer in the potential of immersive and object-based audio to properly convey the spatial information and change the paradigm in sound reproduction. But more time will be needed until content adjusts to the new format requirements - and that includes experimentation into recording and mixing music for those formats - and we are not there yet.

We will also need more time to realize the promise of binaural spatial audio on headphones even for scripted content (e.g., movie soundtracks in Dolby Atmos). Apple is very close with its head-tracking solution and processing engine, sustained by its ability to control the complete ecosystem of hardware and software. And we certainly need to convey that same content over speakers to be really immersed. Instead of trying to generate 3D from a single electroacoustic source, companies should not be afraid to explore the potential of wireless audio to connect multiple speakers. We have all the technology needed to effectively sell Spatial Audio with what we already know works well.

Lifestyles have evolved. The listening experience is no longer predominantly the living room stereo system. Sound became "portable" with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and even wirelessly streamed directly to devices on the range of broadband cellular networks. While we have traditional radio as a platform to enjoy music in the car and outdoors, modern music streaming services are able to adapt to technology innovation much faster and are ready to support distribution of new music formats.

We need to follow that agility to innovate also on the hardware side, and offer speaker systems that are effective, and convenient for consumers, delivering REAL spatial/immersive/3D audio reproduction. That includes rethinking not only speaker design but the whole electronic design - amplifier platforms, network wired or wireless connectivity, and DSP - in order to convert every speaker into a part of the whole spatial/immersive/3D audio rendering and reproduction system. For professional applications, we will need single-cable PoE solutions to the speaker, and for consumers we will need fully wireless solutions (e.g., WiSA).

In our September edition of audioXpress, focused on speaker technology, we discuss efforts from manufacturers to improve on the "100-year-old loudspeaker technology" by introducing completely new approaches to transducer design. The result everyone expects is to completely alter the experience for consumers. But - for 98% of those consumers - the reality of those efforts, when isolated as conventional speakers systems, will be just another sound source. And given the tolerance we can observe from people listening to music with smartphone speakers, or tiny cheap-plastic Bluetooth speakers, it would be very challenging to convince them that they need something better. To change anything, it needs to be convincing at the very first impression. Subtlety will not work here.

This might be completely foreign for those of us who understand the challenges of audio reproduction, and don't mind paying thousands of dollars for audio systems that provide that extra 10% of audio goodness. And it’s even more inconceivable for those 2% of ultra-high-end enthusiasts willing to invest the price of a new car for a new electronic contraption that provides that extra 1% of fidelity, spaciousness or whatever.

No one will ever be totally happy with what they have and everybody wants to experience something new, but in the end - as we can see from the vinyl resurgence – it’s mostly about the emotional connection, and good all stereo music recordings can be pretty enjoyable for the vast majority of human beings.

The promise of “spatial audio” or something else, combining multichannel, object-based, or higher-order ambisonics (HOA) generated content is possible, but it requires starting with new forms of content, and probably adjusting designs to lifestyles. And that will require time. I believe that loudspeaker innovation would be able to carry on the flame to sustain those efforts a bit longer, as required.

audioXpress | Voice Coil | LIS 

audioXpress features great articles, projects, tips, and techniques for the best in quality audio. It connects manufacturers and distributors with audio engineers and enthusiasts eager for innovative solutions in sound, acoustic, and electronics.

Voice Coil, the periodical for the loudspeaker industry, delivers product reviews, company profiles, industry news, and design tips straight to professional audio engineers and manufacturers who have the authority to make powerful purchasing decisions.

The Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook is the most comprehensive collection of listings on loudspeaker material in the industry. Purchasers and decision makers refer to the guide for an entire year when making selections on drivers, finished systems, adhesives, domes, crossovers, voice coils, and everything in between.