Amphi Hi-D uses beamforming tech and machine learning to work out where you are and deliver more immersive spatial audio to your ears.
This even works on stereo speakers and soundbars.
Spatial audio is an increasingly big deal in gaming: it's a feature you'll often find in the best gaming headsets. And now a new technology has launched to bring the full-on spatial audio experience to soundbars, monitors and PC speakers, even if you only have a stereo pair. That's particularly good for gamers who need to hear where their enemies or important items may be located.
Amphi Hi-D has been developed by UK firm Audioscenic, and according to its creators, it's an H that could be as important as Hi-Fi, Hi-Res or HDR.
For gamers, it promises "an unprecedented and fatigue free gaming experience" that delivers true audio immersion.
What is Amphi Hi-D, and why should you care?
Audioscenic isn't in the manufacturing business, it designs tech that it then licences to hardware firms such as Acer, MSI, Cirrus Logic and Razer. Its Amphi Hi-D is beamforming technology that's designed to deliver a very precise and immersive audio experience.
Beamforming is a technique that positions audio in a 3D space by adjusting the signal that goes to each speaker. For example, it might slightly delay the signal to one speaker in order to make it sound further away, or adjust the frequencies of multiple speakers so they don't interfere with one another.
There are various different flavours of spatial audio technology but they all work in much the same way. Audio sources – instruments, players, ambient audio and effects – are positioned in a three-dimensional space that your headphones or speakers then attempt to reproduce, and in order to do that well, they need to know where you are.
That's why you're increasingly seeing head tracking in the best earbuds and headphones – it ensures a better, more accurate spatial audio experience.
With Amphi Hi-D, your hardware uses a machine learning-driven system to sense your position, adjust the audio accordingly to reduce unwanted audio reflections, and then frequencies being delivered by each of your speakers.
The key here will be compatibility. In order for Amphi Hi-D to take off it needs to work with existing audio standards. So it's reassuring to see THX among the list of "ecosystem partners" as well as gaming hardware firms.
You can find out more about the tech on the Audioscenic website.
