Macbook Air M1 Spatial Audio Issues

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Macbook Air M1 Spatial Audio Issues

Just purchased a M1 Macbook Air to hopefully replace my aging iPad. One of the main reasons I wanted it is so I can get Spatial Audio/Dolby Atmos running like on my iPad with my Airpods Max. So far getting limited success (Spatialize Stereo only) on most streaming services and wanted to see if this is normal behavior:

Apple TV App - works fine and able to receive Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio
Safari - no matter what streaming service I try nothing is switching to Dolby Atmos it only does Spatialize Stereo. Tested Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max all with videos that do Atmos on my ipad .
HBO Max app - this app does work and enable Dolby Atmos but due to being an iPad app only shows 4:3 and doesn't take advantage of the bigger screen of my MBA
Apple Music - heard there is a bug where you need to download tracks, have not tested yet

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated or if I should just stick my iPad for now when streaming Spatial Audio enabled content.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Dec 23, 2021 8:20 AM

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Answer 1

MVegas21

Community Specialist

Dec 24, 2021 8:49 AM in response to J_Dom1nator

Thanks for participating in the Apple Support Communities, J_Dom1nator.

We understand that Spatial Audio isn't working as expected. Let's see how we can help. Just to confirm, was your MacBook Air introduced in 2021 as noted in the "What you need" section of this article: Listen with spatial audio for AirPods and Beats?

If so, create another administrator account and test to see if the feature works. This will help with isolating the issue: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.

Cheers.

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Macbook Air M1 Spatial Audio Issues

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