after mono, stereo, surround, here is 360 degree 3D

It is the new creation of the co-inventor of the MP3 format, German engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg. Its objective: to ensure that in headphones, we can have exactly the same listening experience as in real life.

There’s something new in terms of sound. We knew about stereo. Then came surround sound which completely envelops us, like in the cinema. Now here is 360 degree 3D sound. Imagine that you are listening to a concert through headphones. If you move towards the group, the sound will increase. If you move away, it will go down. And if you turn your head towards one of the instruments, you’ll hear it right in front of you. With this 360-degree 3D sound, you will have the exact sensation of being physically present in the space where the concert was recorded.

But isn’t that already what Apple and Bose are offering with Spatial Audio? This is what they would like to propose but it is far from convincing. They just follow the rotation of the neck to readjust the stereo. But if we bend down, if we move forward or if we stand against the wall, the result doesn’t change. Whereas with this new technology, we could add sound to an entire museum and we would hear a different sound in front of each work in the exhibition. The ultimate audio guide! On the music side, this would make it possible to offer recordings with the particular acoustics of a place, reproduced identically: a famous recording studio or a legendary concert hall, for example.

Baptizing it, a marketing challenge

Unfortunately, this technology does not work with current headsets. A sensor will need to be added to them to be able to track the listener’s position in space. Which will be a first obstacle. And then, like all new developments in acoustics, to benefit from it, you will have to rely on new recording techniques. This is the difficulty of innovation in this sector. The formats are multiplying: Auro 3D, Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, Spatial Audio… And despite their qualities, they often have the worst difficulty in establishing themselves. That of Karlheinz Brandenburg has the advantage of being the only one able to reproduce, identically, the sound of a place in headphones. But it’s also the only one not to have a name. He will therefore also have a lot of work on the marketing side.