Amazon Music’s spatial audio now works on any headphones

It'll be easier for Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers to listen to music with spatial audio starting today. You can now use any headphones to listen to songs with Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality Audio via supported devices.

Those include iOS, Android, Echo Studio, some other Alexa Cast devices and Sony soundbars and home theater speakers with 360 Reality Audio support. Later this year, you'll be able to stream Amazon Music's Dolby Atmos tracks to Sonos Arc and Beam (Gen 2) soundbars through the Sonos app.

Amazon switched on spatial audio in Amazon Music in 2019. It's now available to Unlimited subscribers at no extra cost and it'll be on by default. Earlier this year, Amazon rolled HD and Ultra HD music into the standard Unlimited individual, family and student plans, rather than asking users to pay extra for those tracks, as was previously the case.

Until now, Amazon's spatial audio has only been available on a limited selection of devices, including Echo Studio and Sony's SRS-RA3000 and SRS-RA5000 speakers. So, bringing the feature to a wider selection of headphones should mean far more people are likely to try it.

Apple Music also started offering spatial audio this year with Dolby Atmos. However, that streaming service has at least one trick Amazon does not: dynamic head tracking for spatial audio using AirPods Pro or AirPods Max.

via Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

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