AirPods, Apple's wireless headphones, have been a resounding success since their launch. Over time, the company has been improving the features and functionalities of these devices. One of the aspects they have paid special attention to is the quality of sound.
While comfort is subjective, acoustics are a more objective matter that can be studied and improved. With this in mind, and intending to offer us the best possible sound quality, Apple has developed a feature in iOS 16 that allows us to optimize the spatial audio of the AirPods.
Custom Spatial Audio on Our AirPods
The optimization of spatial audio to suit our needs is possible thanks to the iPhone X's or later TrueDepth system, which can accurately measure the size and shape of the ears and the overall size of the head. This allows the system to optimize the spatial audio to sound its best.
With the AirPods in our ears and connected to the iPhone, all we have to do to activate and configure this functionality is to follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app on our iPhone.
- Tap on [Name]'s AirPods.
- Tap on Custom Spatial Audio.
- Press on Customize Spatial Audio.
- Tap on Continue.
- Press on Start Front View Capture and scan our face just as we would set up Face ID.
- Press Continue.
- Tap on Start Right Ear Capture.
- We will hear a sound when the ear is well seen, after hearing it we turn our head, not the iPhone, to the right and, after hearing another sound, to the left. One more sound will confirm that we have scanned correctly.
- Repeat the process with the left ear.
- Press OK.
Once these steps are completed, the AirPods will be optimized with a personalized equalization that adapts to the shape of our ears and the size of our head. An adaptation that is also supported by the internal microphones of the AirPods, which collect information on how we hear the music we listen to.
With all certainty, just as if we think about how to connect our AirPods to the Mac, we will notice a before and after when listening to music with the spatial audio activated. The system will respond with greater precision to our movements and the whole experience will take us to the center of the musical action. And all thanks to our AirPods having a mathematical model with which to give us the best possible sound quality.
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