Pioneer Sphera Review: Upgrading Your Car with Dolby Atmos

You’ve probably heard spatial audio in your living room or through your headphones, but what about in your car? The Pioneer Sphera is the first aftermarket head unit to integrate Dolby Atmos and true spatial audio, making it a standout in an increasingly narrow field of in-dash options.

The real name of the Sphera model is DMH-WT8000NEX, but behind it all is the Sphera brand, and its namesake is, of course, a play on words. Spatial audio is indeed a feature that can be applied in a virtual sense even without Atmos support, but what makes this system equally interesting is the precision it manages to capture from regular speakers.

It’s not a cheap upgrade, costing $1,800 CAD for the unit itself—installation is an additional cost unless you do it yourself—but there’s potential here if both Dolby and aftermarket providers like Pioneer can turn this into something more. The question arises: do we even need Dolby Atmos in the car? Your car’s audio system and your own ears are ultimately the judges.

Getting big

The most obvious design highlight is the 10.1-inch touchscreen, which I found monstrous compared to the previous Pioneer head unit I installed in my 2014 Toyota Corolla LE. It was the AVH-NEX2300 with a 7-inch display. The layout looks somewhat similar, but there’s a lot more going on here.

The first key thing to consider is which vehicles are most compatible with Sphera. The pioneer tells MobileSyrup “The best options are circa 2018 and older models,” as they offer the easiest and cleanest installation. There’s the physical setup, which in this case is standard single or double DIN, covering a wide range of makes and models of the era, plus audio, such as available front and rear speakers. The most important fundamental element is that the connected phone controls the Dolby Atmos part of the equation, not the car itself. If the Sphera fits and there are at least four speakers, there is compatibility.

I didn’t install the unit myself as Pioneer had a professional do it, but some basic principles apply, which means the microphone is positioned along the panels and positioned above the rearview mirror. This microphone picks up voice commands and conversations during calls. It can also integrate with a car’s existing Aux-In port, although I had cable extensions for both Aux-In and USB-A that I could stash in the glovebox.

In the Canadian laboratory to create Dolby Atmos spatial audio in GM cars

The Sphera can run both CarPlay and Android Auto to the point where they’re almost interchangeable. Once you launch CarPlay, tap Android Auto on the home screen, tap the Bluetooth icon for your paired Android phone, and it will switch immediately. This is great for those who live with other people using different platforms as it means it’s easy to switch for any reason. There are other interesting combinations that I found when using the head unit, which I will discuss below.

The initial setup isn’t all that detailed, but I recommend going through the settings, including using the installer, just to make sure you know where everything is. If you’re familiar with Pioneer’s user interface, navigating it probably won’t feel all that unusual. If not, there are various options.

Setting up Dolby Atmos

This process also does not require much experience. Connect the included microphone to the device and launch the Atmos calibration tool on the screen, which will then play a series of beeps to measure the space in the booth. This last part is best done while exiting the vehicle to avoid confusing the calibration process with one or two bodies inside. It will take a few minutes, but once completed it is ready to play whatever is decoded in Atmos.

This is where the caveats come in. At the time of this review, only Apple Music and Audible running through CarPlay can output true Atmos content. While both Tidal and Amazon Music offer Atmos-tuned songs on their services, you won’t receive a native code when playing via CarPlay. Why? Because none of them actually send an Atmos-encoded stream to Apple’s car platform. It’s a strange situation, given that the pieces are there, but that’s where we are now.

Google has already confirmed that Atmos will be coming to Android Auto, but hasn’t specified when it will unlock the feature. Sphera has its own Stereo Spatial Audio setting, which takes a stereo stream and outputs spatial audio from it. This is fully virtualized rather than embedded code, so the end result doesn’t look like native Atmos.

There’s also Bluetooth, and this is where things get a little more interesting. While testing the Sphera, I tried to find ways to get Atmos to play without having to resort entirely to CarPlay. In the iPhone’s default settings under Music, Dolby Atmos is set to Automatic. However, this means that it only happens automatically when connected to compatible headphones or AirPods and Beats. Sphera is clearly capable of this, but the phone doesn’t see it because it’s a third-party device. Therefore, switching the setting to Always On ensures compatibility. Without this, the sound is reduced to stereo.

I asked Pioneer about this and here is their answer:

“Dolby Atmos is technically possible over Bluetooth, but it is limited to binaural mixing, especially for headphones, which lack audio object metadata read by the Dolby Atmos engine. Essentially, there are spatial signals, but everything is decoded by the iPhone before the stereo audio is sent over BT. Since SPHERA is not a BT endpoint with Spatial Audio support, the iPhone display should not say Dolby Atmos, but that’s all the same maybe.”

In my case it certainly sounded like that. What’s even more interesting is that this way I could listen to Atmos tracks while launching Waze in Android Auto. The steering wheel controls could skip or repeat tracks while phone calls were routed through my paired Android phone. This setup opened up another possibility – using the iPad as a sound source. The LTE option makes this easier, but with the Wi-Fi-only model, I could use my Android phone’s hotspot to connect the iPad to the network and stream spatial audio tracks to it.

What Dolby Atmos sounds like in a car

My Corolla is hardly a car stereo purist, but the rear speakers at least provide some verve. The thing about Atmos is that it’s only as effective as the speakers allow it to be. You can listen to spatial audio all day long, but if the speakers suck, the experience won’t be as immersive. However, I will say that I liked a lot of what I heard. Yes, in this scenario the weaknesses of the front speakers become terribly obvious, although not enough to negate the effect.

I asked Pioneer why the overall sound seemed better in an otherwise sonically untouched car. Sphera delivers a cleaner signal with less distortion through a digital signal processor that better balances frequencies, helping speakers sound better. In short, the signal takes some of the pressure off, allowing the speaker to sound a little better without having to put in much effort.

In addition, cab calibration also acts as a form of audio tuning using Pioneer’s Auto-Tune technology, meaning it sets the base EQ and channel balance to center the soundstage. This is consistent with the cleaner sound I was getting, especially at higher volumes. It’s not that I play music in the car, but my tests proved that I got an improvement in this regard.

Another caveat is content availability. I’m not a huge fan of the way Apple Music lays it out to begin with, but at least there are a variety of spatial audio playlists – all Atmos-ready. My problem is that searching for specific artists or tracks for spatial audio produces jumbled results. A lot of them aren’t encoded into Atmos at all, so I have to sort through playlists and play what I want to hear.

At least it’s worth it when you press play. I’ve never heard music play like that in my aging car. It’s great to hear instruments cascade through the speakers, and it’s impressive how the Pioneer manages to make vocals sound like they’re coming from the middle, even despite the lack of a center channel.

What’s weird about all of this is that the makeup seems to go against the grain of how Atmos is supposed to work. For years, it was all about sitting in the “sweet spot” in the center of the living room. Here, as the driver, I sit to the side of the corner of the entire installation. This is what makes the calibration quite impressive; I didn’t feel like I was acoustically unbalanced.

I’m convinced that cars with six or more speakers, and even four speakers (or more) and a subwoofer, will feel all this even more than I did. Atmos is clearly designed for more than four-channel arrangements, and this is where it can provide drivers and passengers with a completely different sound quality.

Benefits of wider compatibility

Who wouldn’t want to use CarPlay or Android Auto on a 10-inch display? Sphera seems to be joining the club of those who regularly do this with factory units of new brands and models. The split-screen layout, especially in Android Auto, is great considering how legible everything is.

I also like that the Pioneer settings offer a lot of detailed settings. There’s a 13-band equalizer to tweak your sound, as well as bass and subwoofer controls—and that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to recalibrate every time. However, I would do this if you were replacing speakers or installing a subwoofer, since physical changes to the system usually require a reboot this way. You can also play with the crossover settings, changing listening positions on Atmos tracks to see how it all sounds in different positions inside.

There is also support for high-resolution audio. You can do this by connecting your phone directly, or connecting a USB drive with FLAC and WAV files in case you’ve ripped CDs or have a collection waiting to be played. This all sounds great, but again, higher quality speakers will suit this setup even better.

We are waiting for more players

At the moment, Pioneer Sphere is an intermediary in finding compatible partners. Until Android Auto finally implements Dolby Atmos gaming, the headunit’s proprietary feature will only cover part of the market. Personally, I don’t see much reason to spend the money on the Sphera unless you’re going to listen to Atmos and spatial audio in the car. This really makes it stand out.

On the other hand, if you have a car after 2018, you may not be able to install it at all. More complex and computerized vehicles continue to evolve, making it more difficult to replace the infotainment screen. Like other Pioneer head units before it, the Sphera offers some basic vehicle diagnostic capabilities, but can’t completely replace what’s built in from the factory.

In this sense, Sphera is more focused on extending the life of an old car than upgrading a new one. Driving something legacy can feel like introducing modern features—wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, Atmos, a big display—without buying a new car. Whether it’s worth the asking price depends on how much you want to change the way you listen to sound in the cabin.