Why are my AirPods Pros tracking my head movements in macOS???

[usagora]

Edit: restarting temporarily fixes the issue for a few minutes, then it's back to horrible audio and unwanted head tracking.

And how the heck do I turn this off? If I click on the AirPods icon in the top menu bar, it says that Spatial Audio is not available (but it's checked and grayed out). The AirPods are definitely tracking my head - I can clearly hear the sound pan from one ear to the other has I turn my head. I don't want this at all. It's happening even with QuickTime or QuickLook, not just in the Music app.

Mac Mini M1 - macOS 12.6
AirPods Pro 1st generation

Oh, I should mention that when connected to my M1 Mini, the AirPods Pros will completely crap out after a minute and audio will start distorting/skipping and sound like there's a low pass filter active. Disconnecting and reconnecting doesn't help. Never happens when connected to my iPhone 13PM or my 2019 Intel iMac (nor does the head tracking issue occur).

 

[a.y.n]

Control Spatial Audio and head tracking

Turn on or off the immersive Spatial Audio surround sound experience available on AirPods 3, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

support.apple.com

set it to "fixed" or "off".

if the option is grayed out, you might have to play something with spatial audio to see it, and then you can turn it off.

 

[usagora]

Control Spatial Audio and head tracking

Turn on or off the immersive Spatial Audio surround sound experience available on AirPods 3, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

support.apple.com

set it to "fixed" or "off".

if the option is grayed out, you might have to play something with spatial audio to see it, and then you can turn it off.

Restarting fixed it and I was able to turn it off:

EDIT: Nope, already messed up again (see next post)

 

[usagora]

Well, I spoke too soon. Audio is crapping out again and it's back to:

So very, very weird. Can't be my AirPods because they work fine with my other 2 Macs. Can't be an M1 issue because one of those other 2 Macs is also an M1. Can't be my version of macOS because all 3 Macs are running the same version. Can't be the apps I'm listening to audio in because I use them on all 3 Macs (Finder, QuickTime, Music, iMovie, GarageBand, Chrome, etc.). Also, other speakers/headphones are fine.