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.
