Some Sonos speakers will finally support Apple Music’s Dolby Atmos tracks
Sonos and Apple Music have teamed up to bring Dolby Atmos support to some of the best wireless speakers and best soundbars on the market today.
Announcement from Sonos (opens in new tab) means the Sonos Arc soundbar, the more budget-friendly Sonos Beam (Gen 2), and the recently unveiled Sonos Era 300 speaker all support spatial audio through Apple Music, which is powered by Dolby Atmos, in the Sonos app. When you use one of these Sonos speakers to listen to an Apple Music track for which an Atmos version is available, you can take full advantage of the more immersive format.
Technically you could use an Apple TV 4K (2022) to listen to Dolby Atmos music on the Sonos Arc or Beam via an HDMI port, but this is the first time you can beam it there from your phone – until now that was reserved for the Apple HomePod 2 (and original HomePod, though you can’t buy those anymore).
Sonos’ announcement doesn’t come with an expected date when this will be available, but the Sonos Era 300 launches on March 28, 2023, so we’re hoping around that time. When TechRadar asked Sonos about this, it simply told us support was coming, but couldn’t say when.
When you listen to Spatial Audio-supported tracks on Apple Music, the music sounds like it envelops you, with different instruments at different points in space, rather than simply blasting out of your speakers or earbuds.
To take advantage of the support, all you need is one of those speakers, an active Apple Music subscription linked to your Sonos account, and a track with a Dolby Atmos mix. Apple Music offers playlists of compatible songs and albums, or you can rely on apps like Music Library Tracker on iOS.
Tools like Music Library Tracker, mentioned in the article above, can scan your Apple Music library to find songs that support Dolby Atmos, and can even create a playlist of only immersive songs. Considering that Apple’s in-app system isn’t always the best for highlighting which tracks do or don’t support spatial sound, Music Library Tracker can be a huge time saver, and in our experience it’s worth the little effort ($ 2.99 / £2.99) expenses.