Ah, but wait. Now I put my audiophile hat back on and pull back the curtain to reveal: it’s fake!
Yes, much of that magical soundstage is in fact manufactured by the headphones’ Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The same technology that enables Spatial Audio to work also allows Apple to artificially enhance the sense of space and re-balance the sound to remain steady and clean even at very high and very low volumes. Those dual H1 chips are working hard.
This is also where my review became very tricky.
When you’re dealing with DSP-based sonic enhancements—especially ones like this that are actively tuned based on the shape of your head, your environment, etc.—different people will very literally hear different things. Already, I’m seeing commentary from audiophile reviewers saying that the DSP is horrible, ruining the balance of music. And those people may well be correct for their listening environment. I can’t judge their experience because it’s so dependent on factors that can’t be controlled.
What does that mean? How is it fake?
> different people will very literally hear different things
How can anyone know if other people hear the same thing as them?
Ah, but wait. Now I put my audiophile hat back on and pull back the curtain to reveal: it’s fake!
Yes, much of that magical soundstage is in fact manufactured by the headphones’ Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The same technology that enables Spatial Audio to work also allows Apple to artificially enhance the sense of space and re-balance the sound to remain steady and clean even at very high and very low volumes. Those dual H1 chips are working hard.
This is also where my review became very tricky.
When you’re dealing with DSP-based sonic enhancements—especially ones like this that are actively tuned based on the shape of your head, your environment, etc.—different people will very literally hear different things. Already, I’m seeing commentary from audiophile reviewers saying that the DSP is horrible, ruining the balance of music. And those people may well be correct for their listening environment. I can’t judge their experience because it’s so dependent on factors that can’t be controlled.
What does that mean? How is it fake?
> different people will very literally hear different things
How can anyone know if other people hear the same thing as them?