The two biggest audio trends of 2023 were open-ear earbuds and spatial audio. They weren’t new – both were already gaining traction a few years ago – but this was the year that brands big and small jumped into new products and they became ubiquitous.
What was once niche is now mainstream, and that acceleration is expected to continue through 2024.
spatial audio
Spatial audio is a strange term. We’ve been talking about it for years. Dolby Atmos is spatial audio for commercial and home theaters, but it wasn’t until Apple introduced it as a headphone (and earbud)-based experience that people started using it for casual conversations.
These conversations center around the sources of spatial audio (primarily streaming services) and the products needed to listen to spatial audio (headphones, earbuds, soundbars, etc.).
On the services side, Apple’s commitment to spatial audio (and Dolby Atmos Music as the primary music spatial audio format) is so strong that it offers artists and labels the ability to create Dolby Atmos Music versions of their songs and albums. He reportedly offered to pay people to upload it. Go to Apple Music.
I have some strong concerns about Apple’s decision. I got some feedback from other people here. — but it shows that Apple cares about this immersive 3D audio experience. You don’t necessarily have to buy an Apple product (or subscribe to Apple Music) to listen to spatial audio, but Apple is betting you’ll do it anyway because it makes it easy to listen in classic Apple fashion. I am.
Apple Music doesn’t charge extra to access Dolby Atmos Music content (or lossless, high-definition audio), but that could change once the streaming service gets a significant amount of spatial audio tracks. Amazon Music’s subscription price also includes Dolby Atmos Music, but Tidal does not. If you want to access high-definition lossless, Dolby Atmos Music, or Sony 360 Reality Audio (another spatial audio format), you’ll need to subscribe to the company’s HiFi Plus subscription tier. That’s nearly double Tidal’s standard $11 per post. Monthly subscription fee.
The big elephant in the spatial audio room is Spotify. We’ve been waiting (and waiting) for years for Spotify to launch its oft-rumored Hi-Fi subscription tier. The idea was to follow Apple Music, Amazon Music (and most other services) and create a new, more expensive subscription that included lossless audio and perhaps high-resolution audio.
But Spotify may be waiting for spatial audio to become big enough to become the focus of a new demographic, beyond just lossless audio. Not everyone can hear or appreciate the difference in lossless audio, especially when listening with basic earphones. But most people would agree (like it or not) that spatial audio is a distinctly different listening experience. Spotify’s adoption of this format in 2024 will be a momentous event for the music industry.
Meanwhile, headphone, earbud, and speaker makers are taking spatial audio overdrive in 2023, doubling down on support for 3D experiences.
Head tracking (a method by which headphones and earbuds create a more realistic spatial listening sensation by trapping some musical elements in a space according to head movements) is a technology that was introduced in Sony’s flagship wireless earphones WF, released in 2023. -1000XM5, and Sony also added a firmware update that will install it on the WH-1000XM5 headphones.
Not to be outdone, Bose has done the same with its 2023 QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. So was Jabra. And one plus. And beets.
I’m still not a big fan of spatial audio through headphones or earbuds, but given the momentum this technology has, it’s inevitable that more personal audio products will offer spatial audio in 2024.
There’s no doubt that speakers are a great way to listen to spatial audio for both music and movies, but creating these products requires greater technological advances. In 2023, Sonos set the bar extremely high with the launch of the groundbreaking Era 300, the first non-soundbar speaker to offer Dolby Atmos Music. JBL’s Authentics 500 will also support Dolby Atmos Music in 2024, and we expect more companies to follow suit. My guess is that Bose, Sony, Sennheiser, Bowers & Wilkins, Bang & Olufsen, and others are already hard at work developing spatial audio products, and that they will be available in 2024.
open ear earphones
You may not have realized that when Bose debuted. With the arrival of the Bose Sport Open headphones in 2021, a whole new category of products was born: open-ear earbuds. 2023 saw companies big and small come out with the official version of Bose: earphones that allow you to listen to music while hearing the sounds around you.
While Bose failed to garner much attention (it abandoned the Sport Open less than 24 months after its launch), companies like Shokz, Soundcore, Oladance, and 1More have created comfortable (and practical) ) Proving that there is a lot of value in having earphones. Enough to wear all day long.
We expect to see more open-year models in 2024. Sony was one of the first companies to experiment with this design, but its innovative LinkBuds proved too uncomfortable and unsafe for many users. I think Sony will try again with a more traditional design this time.
So far, Jabra, Audio-Technica, and Technics have resisted open-ear calls, but they probably won’t hold out for long. It would also make sense for Beats to take on the open-year category. The brand has long been popular with athletes thanks to the success of the PowerBeats Pro, and many open-ear designs use the same earhook shape as Beats earbuds, making this a natural extension of the company’s strategy. Masu.
When it comes to shape, there will be more experimentation. Huawei decided to experiment with the ear clip design with the FreeClip earphones. I wonder if there are other ways to make the open-ear method work, especially if it provides better sound quality. This is one of the drawbacks of a completely open design.
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