Spatial Audio File

Where did all the time go? Time, flowing like a river. Time is on my side (yes it is). Time to play B-sides. Are you eye-rolling at all my lyrically borrowed time comments yet? Anyway, it’s high time to take stock of what we’ve heard and what we’ve learned this past calendar year, seeing how a) time flies, and how b) time is indeed all around us—just like the best Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos mixes are, in fact.

With all this time sensitivity in mind, it seems to be the exact right time (last one, I promise) to comprise my Top Ten list of the best immersive audio tracks of this past year. As always, I’ve thoroughly spec’ed and checked all of the tracks I’ve selected here by way of my personal deep-dive listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. You’ll find each and every one of them amidst the cavalcade of Made for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks within the ever-expanding immersive audio libraries on Apple Music Unlimited, Amazon Music, and Tidal.

Enough with all the time-wasting—here are my choices for the ten best, thoroughly immersive audio tracks of 2022, which are, in reverse order from 10 to 1. . .

As the lead track for this week’s Spatial Audio File is very much a cosmic experience by its very nature, it served as a nice parallel for how truly great Atmos mixes can put you in a different listening space altogether—one that’s fully enveloping and takes you on a journey outside of your normal, day-to-day environmental confines. Frankly, any time music can take you somewhere you usually aren’t is something that’s a-ok in my book.

As per my usual SAF M.O., each of these five tracks has been quite thoroughly test-driven aurally via personal deep-dive listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. It’s hardly difficult to tell by now that I quite enjoy engaging with the very best offerings of Made for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks found within the ever-enlarging Apple Music library in any listening experience locale I can.

That said, this week’s five-spot of cosmically cool and universally immersive tracks are. . .

One thing that struck me as a most interesting common thread connecting the five tracks I’ve chosen for this week’s all-new Atmos recommendations here in your trusty Spatial Audio File column is how, to get the most out of these mixes, you really need to listen to them with your eyes closed and your head swaying along with their respective rhythms. Hence, these five finely Atmos-ified cuts are best experienced while on the beach and/or in your personal listening space, and not necessarily when you’re driving a vehicle. (You have been duly warned!)

As per usual, each of these tracks has been quite thoroughly test-driven aurally via personal deep-dive listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. Fact is, engrossing myself in the very best offerings of Made for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks found within the burgeoning Apple Music library always tend to make the vibes of my week much cooler overall.

With that said, this week’s quintet of eyelid-gazing and ear-canal-fulfilling fully immersive tracks are. . .