on PS5, if you have a 7.1 surround system or higher (and this is also the case in virtual headphones), the surround channels are incorrectly ordered. 

Left is correct

center is correct 

right is correct

the Left Surround audio (hard left) channel is swapped with the Left Rear channel. 

the Right Surround channel (hard right) is swapped with the Right Rear channel. 

this behavior happens if you select linear PCM in 7.1, OR atmos in the OS for 7.1 systems. it appears in every sound selection i’ve tried, even DTS as priority. 

this surround channel mix issue also occurs in virtual surround headphones like Sony’s own pulse elite or explore buds. ANY headphones with a soundstage wide enough to simulate 3D audio: 

as an example: as you pan the camera around the character with sound emitting objects in the world, the positional priority moves to the incorrect location as you pan the camera around. when you expect the sound to come out of the hard right, for example, it pitches instead to the right rear - and as you keep turning to move the emitting sound object (in game) to where you expect to hear the sound in rear right, it’ll pitch the audio to the hard right as it passes behind you. they’re swapped. 

NO one seems to be reporting this issue as very few people are playing on 7.1 systems. i imagine for 5.1 or equivalent, this is an oversight because rear and side surround channels are shared. 

this is a very simple fix and i hope you guys can knock it out by re-ordering the channels to their correct positions.