The spatial audio feature on the-1000xm6 is surprisingly good

Sony’s WH-1000xm6 is my pick for the best premium headphone of 2025. When I reviewed him, I found that he was excellent in almost every category. But in a way I think Sony can also improve these magnificent compartments (apart from the price lowering), making them more user friendly. When I was testing them, I could not find out how to use their version of spatial audio, emergent movie mode that makes it sound like audio is coming from you. So I reached Sony to find out.

Sony has her own name for spatial audio

Sony called her spatial audio feature a “360 reality audio upmix”, but it is essentially the same thing: the headphones raise the audio that you are hearing and process it to make it a 3D-lick (or spatial audio) effect. This means that you can hear things that are not to be immersive and the headphones will try their best to make them a sound. And they do this very well.

How to turn on spatial audio on WH-1000xm6

Credit: Daniel Oropeza

To turn on the 360 reality audio upmix feature, open the Sony app and go to the “My Device” in the main menu. Under listening mode, select “cinema”. That’s it. There is no indication within the app that you are now using 360 reality audio upmix feature, but you will be able to hear the difference immediately. This is more obvious when you draw a film with Dolby from a streaming channel like Netflix (or like youtube audio tests This one, which will look great on your phone,

While the 360 reality audio upmix feature will never match the True Sound Sound, it does a great job in upmixing non-Empire Sound. I am pleasantly surprised how well it does-I want Sony that Sony will make her app more user friendly, so it was easy to find.