Apple iOS 16 will include Ear scanning technology to improve Spacial Audio!

[AdamG]

Honestly, this scanning thing seems more like a data hoard for their next IEM and headphone designs (an ergonomic goal). Imagine eventually some day, half of the smartphone user-base provided you with a 3D scan of their ear shape, the amount of accurate and appreciable averaging for the sake of ergonomic design would be highly useful.

That’s a dreadful and yet astutely probable thought. Damn!

 

[theREALdotnet]

How this could possibly do anything of value for Airpods for example is beyond me (and honestly, even Airpods Max). For the Max, you can maybe throw together some mumbo jumbo in-house nonsense they got going for pinna activation (but that would mean they've done any actual research of merit considering this concept). But then I don't see how that becomes irrelevant seeing as how you can't get deep in-ear scans?

I think it’s pretty obvious. On order to generate spacial cues that work for you, information about the shape of your head and pinnae is required, because this is what generates those cues to a large extent. Your hearing system has learned to interpret all those reflections and diffractions from your head and ears.

It seems remarkable that Apple has apparently figured out a way of translating the measured shapes (from essentially just looking at them, albeit perhaps with Lidar) into filters that need to be applied to the sound when it is injected into the ear canal directly – as opposed to wafting past your pinnae. Not sure what the state of the art is in this field, but I haven’t seen it done elsewhere.

 

[mkt]

I think it’s pretty obvious. On order to generate spacial cues that work for you, information about the shape of you head and pinnae is required, because this is what generates those cues to a large extent. Your hearing system has learned to interpret all those reflections and diffractions from your head and ears.

It seems remarkable that Apple has apparently figured out a way of translating the measured shapes (from essentially just looking at them, albeit perhaps with Lidar) into filters that need to be applied to the sound when it is injected into the ear canal directly – as opposed to wafting past your pinnae. Not sure what the state of the art is in this field, but I haven’t seen it done elsewhere.

Genelec has something similar (HRTF from video) that results in a plug-in (they charge for it)

Aural ID - Genelec.com

The ultimate in tailor-made headphone monitoring. Create your profile, download the plug-in, and enjoy a headphone listening experience you can finally trust.

www.genelec.com

 

[G|force]

I just knew someone would come along and say it was easy and sounds great! It’s the Internet after all

Not knowing what iPhone devices the above posters use, maybe it's a 'Phone 8 and Phone 12' thing? Hardware>Marketing>iOS

 

[Axo1989]

How this could possibly do anything of value for Airpods for example is beyond me (and honestly, even Airpods Max). For the Max, you can maybe throw together some mumbo jumbo in-house nonsense they got going for pinna activation (but that would mean they've done any actual research of merit considering this concept). But then I don't see how that becomes irrelevant seeing as how you can't get deep in-ear scans?

Also, I'm not seeing how to toggle this for simply AB testing anywho? Or how this effects the already "adaptive EQ" occurring with their products anyway.

Honestly, this scanning thing seems more like a data hoard for their next IEM and headphone designs (an ergonomic goal). Imagine eventually some day, half of the smartphone user-base provided you with a 3D scan of their ear shape, the amount of accurate and appreciable averaging for the sake of ergonomic design would be highly useful.

I wasn't planning to ever use that emoji, but it's the one for the job.

 

[Axo1989]

I think it’s pretty obvious. On order to generate spacial cues that work for you, information about the shape of you head and pinnae is required, because this is what generates those cues to a large extent. Your hearing system has learned to interpret all those reflections and diffractions from your head and ears.

It seems remarkable that Apple has apparently figured out a way of translating the measured shapes (from essentially just looking at them, albeit perhaps with Lidar) into filters that need to be applied to the sound when it is injected into the ear canal directly – as opposed to wafting past your pinnae. Not sure what the state of the art is in this field, but I haven’t seen it done elsewhere.

I'd say definitely using LiDAR, aka the hi-def version of their "TrueDepth" setup that also enables FaceID.

Spoiler: Edit: yep, they are explicit about that

 

[Peluvius]

That’s a dreadful and yet astutely probable thought. Damn!

Is it that much different to a manufacturer modifying designs based on warranty defects? As long as the data is de-personalised all that is going to happen is the next gen of buds will fit better. My issue with this (if it is what they are doing) is that this should be declared.

 

[Axo1989]

Updated to iOS 16 thanks to this thread as a reminder and ran the personalised spatial audio process. I have a fairly low threshold for AI shenanigans and will direct a stream of invective at a computer without much provocation. As there was none of that it must have gone pretty well. I guess the implicit challenge of managing better than the average ASR boomer helped with motivation.

And yes, it would be disappointing to go through it all as an apostate then discover you need Apple Music, but as that's my main source, no drama here. No easy way to AB as others have noted but it sounds fine on AirPods Max. I basically use spatial audio for most everything as I dislike in-head soundstage, so I'm predisposed to like it.

Is it better than before? Absolutely. There's a palpable sense of palatableness, a tip-of-the-tongue "there" that's more there now than there then, an illuminated holographic "is" that transcends "was" or "if" or "why" or "why not" (also Blood Supernova just made me jump out of my skin: how many dB up was that?) Am I absolutely sure? Absolutely not, what else can I say ...

Edit: forgot to say, iPhone (mine is 11 Max, so it's getting on in years) worked up a sweat scanning my ears. Throwing lots of those LiDAR dots at my pinnae I expect.

 

[restorer-john]

Maybe I'll scan my cat Julio's ears and get a compensatIon curve that gives me hearing up to 70kHz?

 

[theREALdotnet]

Maybe I'll scan my cat Julio's ears and get a compensaton curve that gives me hearing up to 70kHz?

Imagine if you could scan his eyes to compensate for your (relatively) poor night vision

I wish I could scan my rabbit Buster’s… um, never mind.

 

[Peluvius]

Listening using my Airpod pro's with the new "spatial" active, sounds better to me. I don't use them for music listening generally, they still don't sound as good as the WF XM4s to me and neither are close to my TinHifi IEDs. I am expecting the new Pro's this week/early next week....hopefully an improvement.

I also have listened using Tidal streaming and Apple music and it sounds better through Apple music to me (to the same track, Master on Tidal, lossless on Apple). iPhone 13 Pro. I have no way to measure any of this so all very subjective of course.

Here is the detail that comes up when you finish scanning your ears. They may keep some metadata (reading the fine print this is not specifically excluded) but your image detail is not available to Apple.

 

[RichB]

My experience with spatial audio, since is watching the Apple TV4K and Rumble,
I find the directivity effect is overdone. When I turn my head, the emphasis on the ear that is too strong and not natural.

I attempted to create a personal profile but failed to get a ear scan. I’ll try again but, this time, using a mirror.

- Rich

 

[Audiomn]

My experience with spatial audio, since is watching the Apple TV4K and Rumble,
I find the directivity effect is overdone. When I turn my head, the emphasis on the ear that is too strong and not natural.

I attempted to create a personal profile but failed to get a ear scan. I’ll try again but, this time, using a mirror.

- Rich

I thought the same thing. FYI, you can change the spacial effect from Head Tracked to Fixed.

 

[RichB]

I thought the same thing. FYI, you can change the spacial effect from Head Tracked to Fixed.

Yes, I have turned it off, hopefully, the custom feature will be better.
It would be nice to have a strength option, low, medium, high or something.

- Rich

 

[Audiomn]

Yes, I have turned it off, hopefully, the custom feature will be better.
It would be nice to have a strength option, low, medium, high or something.

- Rich

I agree. Fingers-crossed.

 

[Peluvius]

I thought the same thing. FYI, you can change the spacial effect from Head Tracked to Fixed.

The Head tracked sounds weird but it is very clever. I think the sound changes are too strong but it might be more enjoyable/realistic if the changes were more subtle.

 

[Audiomn]

The Head tracked sounds weird but it is very clever. I think the sound changes are too strong but it might be more enjoyable/realistic if the changes were more subtle.

Yeah, the first time I used it, I was in a riding lawnmower and the sound stage was set to somewhere left of me. I thought my headphones were broken.

 

[DSoreal]

How this could possibly do anything of value for Airpods for example is beyond me (and honestly, even Airpods Max). For the Max, you can maybe throw together some mumbo jumbo in-house nonsense they got going for pinna activation (but that would mean they've done any actual research of merit considering this concept). But then I don't see how that becomes irrelevant seeing as how you can't get deep in-ear scans?

Also, I'm not seeing how to toggle this for simply AB testing anywho? Or how this effects the already "adaptive EQ" occurring with their products anyway.

I feel your skepticism and personally think that Atmos "music" in general is a gimmick (2 ears 2 speakers?) . Basically, the immersive algorithm is simulating a room like an advanced reverb. I think the idea of scanning your head isn't necessarily to map the ear canal but rather to map the head inside of the virtual room and add that to the simulated experience. I can say that subjectively, I was surprised to notice a difference. While it's very likely that this could be in my head, I did approach my listening tests as a skeptic. It's also not something that I can see measuring any other way than a subjective test.

 

[12B4A]

I tried this out a month or two ago with Apple's selected list of demo music (Atmos Essentials or something like that) and it sounded like a better, more sophisticated "woweee it's 3Deeee" effect. While out walking around with AirPods Pro gen1, it made the music on my own playlists wander around directionally so I turned it off.

I recently tried it again for watching Atmos stuff on Apple TV with APP gen2 and it's a completely different but better story. While missing out on the tactile testicle bass sensation, it delivers the rest of the HT immersion of a movie/show: height information, front soundstage, volume dynamics, and unmistakable dialog clarity. This is a really good effect for just a pair of wireless earbuds. It makes me curious if the quality of the effect would be better on APMs.