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Two years ago, Microsoft launched the Windows Sonic spatial audio platform for Xbox One and Windows 10.
Alongside that launch they rolled out a $15 Dolby Atmos for Headphones app that took the internet by storm, offering full Dolby-approved spatial audio that supported both game and movie playback. This year, Microsoft also launched DTS Headphone: X on their gaming platforms, and that’ll also set you back $15.
However…
Alongside those big-name branded sound packages, Microsoft built their own headphone virtualization on the same technological backbone: Windows Sonic for Headphones.
And it’s completely free.
If you own an Xbox One or a Windows 10 PC, you already have easy access to Windows Sonic. It’ll work with any pair of headphones. It’ll upmix 5.1/7.1 game audio content to spatial audio for headphone playback, and also supports full object-based spatial audio in the small list of games that feature that type of sound.
So much of the focus on Microsoft’s spatial audio system was stolen by Dolby Atmos that I sometimes forget about their excellent free counterpart.
It’s had a lot of updates over the last two years, and I think it sounds great and now works seamlessly. All you have to do is turn it on and then never think about it again. Games should automatically detect that you have a virtual surround system and spit out the correct type of audio. On PC, this works almost all the time. On Xbox, it can be a little bit hit or miss, and it seems to change with OS software revisions. I’ve charted these console troubles in the past within this article.
But again, hey it’s free!
I’ve been playing Need for Speed Heat this week on PC with Windows Sonic turned on, and it’s been such a great experience. The overall sound signature is very close to listening in raw stereo, with no obvious sculpting or aggressive EQ muddying up the sound with artificial bass.
