Spatial audio not available on MacBook Air m1?

Yes true, it seems to be a bug.

The link from Brandon states it should work on macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212182

(it does for me in every other app except Apple Music)

On the other hand Macs are missing on this page: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211775 (which the Apple Support on the phone just referenced and then tried to explain that Macs are not supported yet)

Hello,

Just wanted to add that I have the same problem on my mbp M1 and airpods pro. Spacial audio is grayed out when playing dolby atmos content on Apple Music. With TV+ it works, but I'm getting audio sizzling and crackling with spacial audio content.

Other audio content work fine and on the phone, everything works without any bugs on ios 15.1. So I suppose that it's a software problem with Monterey. I find it amazing that such a huge bug went through all the testing phase.

That’s not the issue. The issue i was reporting was possibly caused by the safari (or chrome) audio apis being used (getUserMedia) which tries to access the microphone and camera. When this happens, the quality of the audio in itunes for spatial audio tracks is severely regressed and degraded to the point that it sounds like old cell phone compression. Spatial audio is greyed out as an option for itunes all together for the headphones.

Ok, so I got some consistent behavior to report when tinkering with this. Loading music up does not always produce a consistent playback experience when using my Airpod3s, however I can consistently change the audio quality to "poorly compressed" and "regular stereo" by switching the tab in the sound preferences panel, which I had been doing when originally reporting audio quality issues. So that explains the super bad sound quality I was experiencing. I was probably on the input tab. I have not been able to get spatial audio to work with these airpods. I'll try "forget this device" and re-pairing them.

That might mean playing on the MacBook Pro through one of the headphones listed. I have a 2021 M1 iMac and it will play Spatial Audio through the built in speakers but NOT if I use my AirPods Pro or AirPods Max. Disappointed with that.

But if I play something in the TV app that is listed as Dolby Atmos, then I will hear in Spatial Audio also through the Pros and Max (in addition to the built in speakers).

Release note

Spatial Audio

- Dynamic head tracking is available in Music with supported AirPods on Mac computers with the M1 chip

- Customizable spatial audio settings for Off, Fixed, and Head Tracked are now in Control Center with supported AirPods on Mac computers with the M1 chip

Hello,

I found that if you download the Dolby Atmos/spatial audio supported songs you are able to listen to them with spatial audio. Maybe that could do the trick?

Hi, I have the same problem and I have done exactly what the guide says however it still doesn't seem to be working

As you can see from the picture, my AirPods show spatial audio as not available (greyed out as well), however the symbol of the song that is playing shows that I am playing in Dolby Atmos quality.

Ohk...So I encountered the same problem but the interesting part is Spatialise Stereo works when you are watching movie or a some YouTube but when I switch to music it doesn't work. I think it's an OS fault. Apple should fix this soon. As we know Apple Music is the best to experience Dolby Atmos with Spatial Audio.

I think it's a bug in the new MacOS Monterey update. Well still we can enjoy it during watching movies & YouTube videos. Actually it doesn't work when listening to apple music or Spotify. I hope they'll fix it with the upcoming updates.

That term "Spatialise Stereo" is what Apple uses - at least on iOS devices - to indicate when it is "spatialize" a stereo track through software to stimulate their Spatial Audio. Never saw this indication on my M1 iMac though. On the iMac, when I use my AirPods Pro I see the "Spatial Audio" greyed out also, but the sound sounds like Spatial Audio is working because I notice the difference - even through the APP - when I change the Music preferences for Dolby Atmos to OFF.

As of today, January 13th, at the Apple Store on my M1 Max Macbook Pro with Airpods 3 (not Airpod Pro) which also support spatial audio, the music app STILL does not support Spatial Audio running the latest OS and music app. I don't know if the Airpod pros ever really had this issue, but the Airpod 3s definitely do and continue to not support spatialized or spatial audio or however you want to say it. It's simply not supported on these.

I hope you guys are reporting this problem in feedback assistant app. :)

I've reported since September but it's looks like Apple don't have any action to this problem. I hope all of us can report this problem as much as we can to tell Apple to fix this problem