


As long as you have STEREO headphones, even if they're not particularly good, you should be able to hear the difference. According to the company, it enables users to experience more immersive audio where the sounds 'flow around you, including overhead. So how does all this relate to your question? Easy. As mentioned already, 'Windows Sonic for Headphones' is the only spatial audio option available for free on Windows 11 because it is baked into the operating system by Microsoft. Introduced to Xbox One as well as Windows 10 devices, its free to use with any up-to-date console. This makes the content feel much more immersive and can, for instance, provide a tactical advantage in certain games, by for example allowing you to hear where enemies are coming from. Windows Sonic for headphones is Microsofts take on spatial sound. In other words, it tricks your ears into believing that the sounds you're hearing are coming from different directions and distances, by using tricks such as adding a delay (of a few miliseconds) between when you hear noises in each of your ears and adding subtle echoes. Yes, you see Windows Sonic doesn't improve the actual sound quality (for instance, it won't make music sound any better), what it really does is take multichannel audio from movies and games (that support surround sound), and simulate having a bunch of different speakers (like a home theater kind of setup) through neuroacoustics, but using only the two speakers that your headphones actually have (which is exactly what most expensive 'surround' headphones do).
