Sony’s 360 Reality Audio is a high-resolution music format that aims to make the music you listen to sound more immersive and realistic.

Developed by Sony in partnership with a number of major record labels, it’s designed to sound like music is coming from lots of different directions, instead of the standard left and right you’d hear in traditional stereo – putting you in the middle of a 360-degree soundscape.

With more and more devices supporting spatial audio now, how does Sony’s 360 Reality Audio work and what do you need to hear it? We’ve got everything you need to know.

How does Sony’s 360 Reality Audio work?

Sony’s 360 Reality Audio uses something called object-based audio – the same as Dolby Atmos – which means that when the sound that’s being recorded is encoded, it saves extra data, called metadata, describing the placement of the microphone in a 360-degree 3D soundfield.

In other words, the microphone recording the violins – let’s say – has data attached saying it’s at the front left of the recording studio while the microphone covering the trombones notes that it’s towards the back, on the right. Oh, and if the trombones are on a higher platform than the violins, that extra height is encoded in the position, too. The format supports up to 64 channels, and can pinpoint every element of a track with absolute precision.

This extra data means that when you’re listening to the music, it should sound more like the way the music was originally recorded, with a greater sense of reality – as suggested by Sony’s name for this system.

It doesn’t just apply to music – a gunshot in the background of a music track could be an object and given its own place in the soundfield. Even the sounds of an audience can be captured in live performance to add authenticity to a live recording.

How can I listen to Sony 360 Reality Audio?

In order to listen to Sony 360 Reality Audio you will need some compatible kit and services that support the format, depending on how you want to listen.

A compatible source is the first step, and tracks that are mastered, or remastered, to play this format are supported on Tidal and Amazon Music HD. It’s also available via nugs.net, a service that specialises in recording concerts live – which could be an especially cool thing to listen to on this format. In all cases, you’ll need a paid-for subscription to hear the right tracks.

At the time of writing, the two biggest streaming services, Apple Music and Spotify, don’t support the format. Spotify doesn’t have any spatial audio tracks just yet, and Apple uses its own Apple Spatial Audio format.

Do I need new hardware?

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  Sony/Pocket-lint

  Sony WH-1000XM5

  An amazing all-round package that sounds simply incredible, Sony’s flagsip noise-canceliing headphones are pretty much as good as it gets.

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  Sony/Pocket-lint

  Sony WH-CH720N

  The budget over-ears don’t feel as premium as the more expensive XM5s, but they sound great and do very little wrong for their price.

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  Sony/Pocket-lint

  Sony WF-C700N

  Sony’s budget true wireless buds offer noise cancelling, IP4 waterproofing and up to 15 hours of battery life with a lightweight fit.

Perhaps the best thing about Sony 360 Reality Audio is you don’t need to buy any new kit unless you want to listen through speakers. That’s because Sony says its platform will work with any headphones. Any.

Sure, you’ll get better results with better cans but the magic is done in the encoding, not the headphones.

Sony points out that if you are listening via some of its own headphones you can get an enhanced result (obviously). That’s through its free Sony Headphones Connect app which personalises the audio to your ear and personalised sense of hearing. The app is downloadable on iOS and Android.

It works by taking a photograph of your ear on your smartphone (tip: get someone to help you so you get the position of your ear in the photo just right) and working out from that exactly how you hear. It then optimises the playback for your personal hearing.

Sony now has an extensive range of certified headphones, including their ever popular WH-1000XM5 and even their unusual SRS-NS7 wireless neckband speaker.

The full model list can be found here – but you can be pretty sure that if you’re buying Sony’s headphones, they’ll support the enhanced functionality. Even at the budget end – the WH-CH720 noise-cancelling headphones and the WF-C700N true wireless earbuds support the format.

What speakers are compatible?

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  Sony/Pocket-lint

  Sony SRS-RA5000 360

  The Sony SRS-RA5000 is built to show the best of Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format, with three upfiring speakers to produce a truly immersive sound.

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  Amazon/Pocket-lint

  Amazon Echo Studio

  The Amazon Echo Studio is a powerful, 360-degree speaker, with all the smarts of Alexa built in. It was updated recently too, and now sounds even better.

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  Sony/Pocket-lint

  Sony HT-A7000

  The Sony HT-A7000 delivers an unrivalled and fully immersive sound from a simple all-in-one soundbar. That’s why it won our Soundbar of the Year 2022 award.

While most headphones support the format, if you want to play music in Sony 360 Reality Audio through a speaker then you need one with the right chip embedded in it. You will also need to play music over Wi-Fi, not Bluetooth, so this isn’t something you’ll be able to enjoy out and about.

The first to be released was the Amazon Echo Studio, a one-unit smart speaker, but Sony has continued to partner with other brands to create certified playback devices. So far, there’s the Sennheiser AMBEO Soundbar and an AV processor from McIntosh, the MX123.

Sony has, of course, released a range of compatible speakers. The range includes the SRS-RA5000 and RA3000 wireless speakers, as well as the HT-A7000 and HT-A5000 soundbars and the HT-A9 surround system.

Not all spatial audio speakers are created equal though, and a format war is beginning, between Apple’s Spatial Audio, Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Reality Audio. That means speakers like the Sonos Era 300 and Apple’s HomePod don’t support the format – so you will need to check before you buy.

What tracks are available?

At launch, Sony had 1,000 songs in the new format. As of 2022 that stood at 7,000, with more being added all the time. These include artists such as Mark Ronson and Pharell Williams plus classic tracks from the likes of Billy Joel and Bob Dylan.

How much does it cost?

You’ll need a high fidelity subscription to one of the supported services below, other than that, it doesn’t cost you a thing to listen on headphones.

• Tidal – HiFi Plus $19.99/?19.99 per month
• Nugs.net – HiFi $24.99 per month
• Amazon Music HD – $8.99/?8.99 per month for Prime members / $10.99/?10.99 for standard users

Is Sony the only system to use object-based audio?

No, there are others already in place, the most well-known of which is Dolby Atmos. The Dolby Atmos Music service is a rival music platform which also aims to offer a realistic surround sound experience. The same is the case with Apple Spatial Audio. The three formats are not compatible so studio engineers will be kept busy as more tracks are remastered for the new platforms.