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Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

Why would I want this in any situation except VR, where directional audio is actually paramount to my enjoyment of the medium?

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Because it adds another dimension to the sound you're experiencing and gives you a whole new appreciation for the medium.

This combined with binaural audio should be the future of audio storytelling.

Give this a try with any normal headphone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

The barber shop is not spatial audio. It's a static stereo mix, and a terrible example of how the medium actually functions. I know what good spatial audio sounds like, too: I've used 6DOF with headphones and fancy Atmos filters, and it works great in VR. Everywhere else though, it's just distracting.

We have lost the stems to probably 95% of all music ever made. If all of our old music sounds bad in spatial audio, how will it ever hope to become the new standard?

It literally has invoked a wow from everyone I've shared it with in real life.

I'm glad you've had a much better experience, but lol this doesn't mean this is bad.

The pretentiousness in your comment is outstanding.

smoldesu is pathologically anti-Apple, so the fact that this thread related to Apple instantly guaranteed their pissing and moaning, dismissive response. Don't take it as a sincere argument.

I've never seen someone get so mad about another person's opinion before. You don't have to reply, and HN even lets you downvote my comments if you really think they're that detrimental to the overall narrative. Otherwise though, I don't really know what to tell you. Maybe there's a blocking/filtering extension that could help you if I'm being that disruptive to your daily browsing.

There are many composers out there who work in the electroacoustic and computer music spaces, whose pieces are primarily scored for ambisonic playback systems.

Hearing these works for oneself in a proper listening environment, such as Virginia Tech's The Cube [0], can be a life-changing experience. It certainly was for me.

[0] https://icat.vt.edu/studios/the-cube.html

That looks like an extremely impressive venue (‘…wavefield synthesis…’ etc.). I’d love to visit! Many years ago I saw a concert featuring acousmatic/spatialized music performed by Dr. Robert Dow (and some other people who I forget the names of) in Edinburgh that blew me away... I’m not sure what the set-up he was using was/whether he was using ambisonics/how he had maybe customized/expanded on that standard (as I remember he had what looked like home-made speaker ‘trees’ set up above the audience’s heads, alongside loads of more conventional speakers…), but it sounded great!

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