How to activate windows sonic: from stereo to 7.1 in windows 10?

Many of you are Windows users and also PC gamers, but it is possible that not so many of you know the Spatial Sound option that they included in one of so many Windows 10 updates. As usual, we don't always look at what exactly the update has, But today we are going to tell you what Windows Sonic is and how it works.

Windows spatial sound can be activated for both Windows 10 and XBox One. The peculiarity that activating it gives us is not only an optimized surround sound but also vertical sonic perception (up and down).

Index of contents

Where is Windows Sonic available

• In Windows 10 with the update "Fall Creators Update" (2017). Universal Windows Platform (applications) for Windows. Xbox One.

How to activate it

There are two possible methods: the fast and the long. The first one is good for when we have just put on our helmets and we want to directly play or listen to music, but it is also convenient to know the basic origin route to make modifications.

Direct method

In the desktop toolbar, we must right-click on the volume icon. Among the available options should appear Spatial Sound (Windows Sonic for headphones) and activate it.

In theory, when doing this for the first time, we should display the properties tab of the speakers and in it mark Spatial Sound.

In the first update of 2017, we should also check the Enable virtual 7.1 surround sound box, but this is a step that has been skipped with subsequent patches to speed up the process for the user.

Indirect method

We should start by going to Control Panel> Hardware and Sound> Sound. In the playback tab you can see drivers that act on Windows sound, such as your audio card, speakers or microphone.

We recommend that while you configure this part you have a song on to listen to it well on the speakers or preferably the headphones. So you can notice the differences instantly and make adjustments accordingly.

You will have to select your headphones if they are available or the default audio device and press Properties and go to the Space Sound tab. Once in it you can check that the selected format is Windows Sonic for Headphones.

How does it work

This system consists of defining both real and virtual audio sources with a total of 17 predefined static channels. As soon as it is active, Windows synthesizes the audio from the stereo and makes some changes to the frequencies.

Conclusions

We have tried it and the only thing we perceive is that the mid and low frequencies are heard further away than the high frequencies. Windows Sonic creates a slight sense of space, but it's far from a real 7.1, or a 5.1.

There are gaming headphones that offer the possibility of 7.1 in Windows 10 through Windows Sonic, but the difference that we can notice in them will depend more on the quality of the drivers of the headset itself than Windows.

If you have stereo headphones like us, we recommend you try it and tell us your impressions. Personally, it has not seemed something so substantial that each time we connect the headphones we must go and activate the tab. In fact, we perceive the bass closer and deeper in conventional stereo.