Spatial Audio Not Available on MacBook Pro M1 with AirPod Max

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Level 1

12 points

Spatial Audio Not Available on MacBook Pro M1 with AirPod Max

Just bought Logic Pro to run on my 2021 14" M1 Mac with Montery 12.6 installed. When I click on the headphones icon in the menu bar to turn on spatial audio for my AirPod Max I see Spatial Audio Not Available in gray letters. When I fire up the Spatial Audio demo in Logic it tells me I need to have binaural headphones installed. I've gone through the various suggestions that pop up on when you search the web and nothing works. It does work on my iPhone. What can I do to get this going? I assume I don't need to have an Apple Music subscription to use this feature on my computer.

iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021, 2 ports)

Posted on Oct 5, 2022 7:21 AM

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Answer 1

c_luc9

Community Specialist

Oct 6, 2022 6:06 PM in response to Travik6

Travik6,

Thanks for the additional information. To help further isolate potential causes for this behavior, see if this continues to be an issue when you restart your Mac in safe mode:

How to use safe mode on your Mac

Also, testing in another user account can help determine if this may be user or account related settings causing this issue. Here's how you can create a new user for testing:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Keep us posted with the results.

Best Regards.

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Answer 2

DerekM87

Community Specialist

Oct 8, 2022 1:59 PM in response to Travik6

Travik6,

From here, given the isolation you've done to it being an issue specifically in Logic, we'd recommend contacting Apple Support to speak with a Logic specialist.

They'll be in the best position to assist further. See contact options here:

Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 3

Travik6 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 6, 2022 5:40 PM in response to Lee_ms

Thanks for your reply. I don't think this is a Logic problem. Spatial audio is grayed out in the AirPod Max settings from the menu bar as shown below so I think it is at the os level. I've tried it with logic running and I've gone through the settings in Logic Lil Nas spatial audio demo file and they line up with what's suggested in the Set Up Logic for spatial audio link you sent me, but my computer still won't allow me to use spatial audio.

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Answer 4

Travik6 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 8, 2022 1:52 PM in response to c_luc9

I made a little progress. I purchased an Apple music subscription and spatial audio works with Apple Music on my MacBook. I had thought that when it is grayed out in the menu that it wasn't available at the system level, but when I load a track in Music that uses spatial audio it becomes available. So it must be a Logic problem.

Atmos is on, I've set the buffer to 512 and the sample rate to 48K, and I've tried the Atmos and Apple renderers.

I've been going through various pages/videos on setting up Logic for spatial audio but all I hear is my tinnitus and the spatial audio stays grayed out in the menu.

I've seen a post on reddit claiming that bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth for live spatial audio and the cable doesn't transmit audio but other reviews say that 10.7.3 makes this available. I'm up to date on everything so it seems like it should work.

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Answer 5

Lee_ms

Community Specialist

Oct 6, 2022 3:07 PM in response to Travik6

Hi Travik6,

We recommend checking out the Set up Logic Pro for spatial audio mixing resource. If the issue persists you can reach out for additional support for Logic here: Get Support

Take care.

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Spatial Audio Not Available on MacBook Pro M1 with AirPod Max

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