At Home
Discover immersive music from your own couch, learn how to set up your space and dive into curated playlists.
Sound has always wanted to move: not just forward in a line from speaker to ear, but around, above and through. Immersive music restores that sense of space, letting a recording breathe in three dimensions rather than two. A home listening space offers the most complete experience, since it allows full control over how sound is placed and reproduced in the room.
How to set up at home
Headphones offer the most personal and portable way to experience immersive sound, delivering a three-dimensional listening experience with nothing more than a pair of earbuds or over-ear headphones. As a result, it's likely the most widely used way to experience immersive sound today. Streaming services such as Apple Music, Amazon Music and Tidal render Dolby Atmos music for headphones directly in the app, so any pair will do. Headphones with built-in motion sensors add head tracking, which keeps the soundstage anchored in place as you move. [How to set up spatial audio and head tracking on AirPods]
Soundbars:
A simpler, space-saving alternative that recreates height and width through side- and upward-firing drivers and signal processing, without extra wiring across the room. It won't match the precision of a full speaker system. [Read more in the knowledge hub]
Smart speakers:
Speakers that connect to your Wi-Fi and play without cables between them, like Sonos, Amazon Echo Studio or Apple HomePod. Put two or more in a room and they work together as left and right, or front and rear, adding a width and separation a single speaker can't. Some models add height with upward-firing drivers, others simulate it through software, so the effect varies a lot per model, and some support Dolby Atmos, the most widely available immersive format. They're usually less precise than a system built around an AV receiver, but an easy way to start. [Read more in the knowledge hub]
HiFi:
The most accurate way to experience immersive audio, using height speakers alongside a traditional surround layout, powered by an AV receiver that decodes immersive formats. It takes more wiring, investment and planning than the other options. [Read more in the knowledge hub]
