Spatial audio issue

[mxrider88]

Hi everyone, I am on iOS 14 and latest AirPods Pro firmware. Watching Apple TV plus, ted lasso for example, with spatial audio enabled I can hear a clear difference. If I turn my head I can hear the audio shifting but if I move the phone the audio does not change location.

Example:

1- phone in front of me, I turn my head to the right and I hear the voice coming from the left airpod. All good.

2- looking at my iPhone, I love it to the right, the audio doesn't change, I move then my head towards it and I hear the audio coming fron the left airpod even if I have the phone in front of me.

Basically the iPhone position is not recorded/updated.


Tried to reset the AirPods already. Any idea of what it could be? Not really up for a software reset on the iPhone...

Thanks!

 

[kellte2]

Same issue on the iPhone X. Not sure if it’s a technical hiccup or just expectations that aren’t in line with reality. Fairly underwhelming, as it only pans left to right (for me).

 

[mxrider88]

According to what they say here that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Go at 2min

It doesn’t work like that on my iPhone

 

[Ralfi]

Basically the iPhone position is not recorded/updated.

Yeah this is what confuses me. I’ve got the “Follow device” setting enabled, yet moving the device doesn’t move the audio positioning.

The way it works currently makes me think the original phone-to-head position is recorded & it treats that as where the phone is, so even if you move the phone, the audio stays there...Which doesn’t “follow“ the device.

& that the only way to reset the device location is to line up the phone-to-head positioning again, as you did when you turned your head to face the device again.

 

[dcbiro]

I've had a similar experience. It would be nice to establish what the exact behavior should be.

Here are two things I noticed:

1. The positioning does eventually update to correspond to where you moved your phone, but not instantaneously. It's also sometimes not so accurate and I end up re-centering by pressing pause and then play again
2. If you face a certain direction for long enough and don't move, it will register this as the new neutral position. I guess the heuristic here is that they expect you to be facing the screen most of the time

 

[Ralfi]

If you face a certain direction for long enough and don't move, it will register this as the new neutral position. I guess the heuristic here is that they expect you to be facing the screen most of the time

Watching the Apple Event in Spatial Audio & I’m still finding this happening.

I guess they assume you’ve looked away for a certain period of time (are distracted enough to move visual focus but can still listen) & want to improve the sound for you...