Spatial audio on Netflix has been rolled out for over 700 titles for Premium subscribers. The “immersive cinematic sound experience” creates a wider soundstage on two-speaker stereo setups to emulate surround sound. The feature is available only to subscribers of Netflix’s $20 per month Premium plan.
The feature doesn’t apply to users with advanced home theater setups that support Dolby 5.1 or Dolby Atmos. It creates a wider soundstage on stereo speaker setups to emulate surround sound. The feature is now available on more than 700 top-watched Netflix titles, including Stranger Things, The Watcher, Wednesday, and Knives Out: Glass Onion.
The feature uses Sennheiser AMBEO technology to enhance stereo audio with an immersive surround sound experience that does not require surround sound speakers or home theater equipment. It initially rolled out the feature in July 2022 for Stranger Things but is now making it available to more titles.
Users should not confuse the feature with Apple’s also-named Spatial Audio. Apple’s version actively processes incoming audio to create a 3D environment on any modern iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV with operating system version 15.1 or later installed.
Apple’s Spatial Audio feature will take advantage of Netflix’s new spatial audio files. Although, if a more advanced audio file is available in the Netflix title it will default to that instead.