Context: I told a friend to listen to Daft Punk‘s RAM because he had never heard the album before. After recommending to use a pair of headphones he‘s proceeded to tell me that he was actually listening on his tablet. The headphones in question are the AKG K371s. Marketing does what marketing does I suppose?!
To be fair… Samsung and Apple do a ton of black magic fuckery with their Atmos audio implementation on tablets, including dynamic head tracking via the front facing camera and sound shaping (as limited as it can) based on the distance and direction of the listener.
That virtualised spatial effect can, for a complete beginner, sound better than a pair of quality headphones with no spatialisation. It gives a different effect, and emphasises a number of aspects people associate with “better sound”. It does not make the output better from a purely technical point of view, but it does trick people into thinking so. Kinda like adding a good bunch of MSG to an average steak - the steak remains average but the combination with the MSG tricks you into thinking it’s SO. MUCH. BETTER.