You don't have to believe it, it's been working since last October.
I understand your skepticism, but their implementation works and it's amazing.
Is it exactly like real life? Of course not. To address your points:
* Yes, you can absolutely locate sound sources within a few degrees, it's astonishingly accurate
* No, you can't really estimate sound distance. It's absolutely coming from outside your head, but all sounds like it's kind of just a generic 5 ft away or something
* Of course you can't walk around your environment blind with them, it's not trying to
You say the spatial perception isn't real, but it absolutely is. And I have no complaints about distortion -- yes obviously the waveform is different, but I perceive zero perceptual degradation in quality. It doesn't introduce any unwanted artifacts that I can notice, at least.
I highly suggest you try it with AirPods Pro and existing Apple TV+ content.
And remember, it's trying to simulate a real-life surround sound speaker setup. Not simulate real life itself. Movies aren't mastered to sound like real life, they're mastered to give a spatial audio component to the movie.
I understand your skepticism, but their implementation works and it's amazing.
Is it exactly like real life? Of course not. To address your points:
You say the spatial perception isn't real, but it absolutely is. And I have no complaints about distortion -- yes obviously the waveform is different, but I perceive zero perceptual degradation in quality. It doesn't introduce any unwanted artifacts that I can notice, at least.I highly suggest you try it with AirPods Pro and existing Apple TV+ content.
And remember, it's trying to simulate a real-life surround sound speaker setup. Not simulate real life itself. Movies aren't mastered to sound like real life, they're mastered to give a spatial audio component to the movie.