Spatial audio not available on MacBook Air m1?

I have a new 2021 MacBook Pro and my spatial audio is greyed out as well. HOWEVER, when I enable Atmos in the Apple Music preferences I hear it change to spatial audio even though it still shows greyed out. It sounds just as bad as the spatial audio from my iPad. Can you tell I am not a fan? Loss of volume and echoey. So I don't know what is happening but seems like a bug that is remains greyed out.

Hi -are you on the latest MacOS? and have you tried saving a "made for spatial audio" song to your library and then downloading from there to your M1 Mac and playing it ? I found that that worked for me- if the sound does not sound great from the Mac , ( which it should) try using an approved SA headset like AirPod Pros...

I am on latest OS. I have no interest in downloading music. I have AirPods Max and they work fine on iPad Pro with Apple Music and ATMOS. I don’t like the sound of spatial audio there either. Too low and echoey. All I was saying was that even though I can’t choose spatial audio on the MacBook Pro, as it is greyed out, it sounds exactly the same as spatial audio through my iPad Pro. Like crap. That makes me think it is activated on the MacBook even though it is greyed out.

Even I had the same problem until today when I authorised the computer.

To do that,

open Apple Music -> Account -> Authorisations -> Authorise this computer

Enter your iCloud password

This was exactly what I have done unknowingly and now Spatial Audio is now supported on my M1 MacBook Air 😁😉

I hope this could probably resolve the issue!

They replied to me on Twitter saying it's "expected behavior"; that spatial audio is exclusively available on the new MacBooks Pro. They've sent a support page link that was updated to say it's only available in the new Pros...

What strikes as odd is that this was available on the MBA M1 before and it is still available on old phones like the iPhone 7, but apparently the M1 chip is not good enough for it... It's just Apple being Apple and killing functions in order to sell new and more expensive products.

I have just contacted Apple Support, the specialist that spoke to me told me that this issue is a bug with the apple music app and that there is an update for this coming out today or tomorrow. The specialist also advised to try to unpair the device, forgetting the device and repairing it to see if it will work.

Additionally, a fresh install of the apple music app may also remedy this issue. These two suggestions have not worked for me.

Apple support is known for being a bit clumsy and not very helpful when things get out of hand... Here's the link for the tweet where they told that it is exclusive to the new MacBook Pro "presented in 2021". https://twitter.com/AppleSupport/status/1463892503145426947?s=20 Hope this solves your curiosity about the reply and let's hope they're wrong and an update come up fixing all this =)

I stumbled upon this problem as well today, but I also figured out why. If I aren't playing any audio, I will have this Spacial Audio on "not available". If I open Spotify, it remains not available. If I open YouTube, it will suddenly become available. In other words, it all depends on whether the media you're using is supporting Spacial Audio the moment you're playing it.

So for some reason I am only able to get Spatial Audio via my Airpods Max when using the Apple TV App. I only get Spatialize Stereo when using Safari which is frustrating cause I primarily want to use my M1 MBA to watch movies in Spatial Audio.

Any tricks to have Safari switch over to Spatial Audio?

I am having this exact same issue 12/27. Still not fixed apparently. Tried all the fixes mentioned here and elsewhere online. Works great on iPhone. Similar to other comments here as well, the Apple TV app also works properly. My hunch is that there is a problem with Apple Music somewhere. But yes, I have the greyed out "not available" icon and I am playing the same content that works as spatial audio on my iPhone. I am following this for a fix soon. I like to use the Apple Music app on my mbp. Which I am using a 2021 16" M1 Pro Max with Apple Air pod pros. It should be working.

Guys I have 2021 16" M1 max and have the same issue where Spatial Audio is greyed out in the AirPods Max menu. BUT I can 100% confirm spatial audio IS working. I still get the Dolby symbol when a song is playing indicating spatial audio. ADDITIONALLY, if I go to preferences and turn OFF spatial audio I can hear it change back to normal and the volume gets louder which is a clear indication that spatial audio is off. I also lose the Dolby symbol. Moreover when I turn it back on I get the symbol back and I can hear it is back to spatial audio. The Spatial Audio remains greyed out in the AirPods Max menu. So I think this is a bug under the AirPods Max menu but it is in fact working. Anyone else please confirm. on yours.

I just purchased the AirPods 3, but seeing how far back this issue goes, it will not be fixed any time soon, it seems. I'll simply return these things tomorrow; the sound is too mediocre to tolerate without Spatial Audio. Some people report it working on Youtube. Wth Apple!? Shouldn't it be the other way around??

I had a case opened and have just received a response back from the engineers that this is expected behaviour but have given no reason why. Absolutely ridiculous you can't stream spatial audio on Apple Music on a MacBook but can on an iPhone and/or iPad. Madness.

I wonder whether Dolby Atmos is different to Spatial Audio.. the same way Dolby Digital is to HDR... i.e. you can't change any settings with Dolby Digital as it's auto configured for your TV picture. Maybe it's the same with Dolby Atmos.. it's a fixed setup according to the protocol and thus Spatial Audio isn't an option you can enable/disable manually. It's whatever Atmos says it is.

Whoa. That’s absolutely bananas. I’m going by the apple store tomorrow to see if i can trade these things in. Not only is the fit poor in the ears (hurts after an hour or so) but this lack of support is absurd. I was waiting for an OS patch for this as a bug, but now that I know it’s not going to be supported, I’m over it as a feature.