Commonly, VR is seen as a single user experience with sound focused on the ‘sweet spot’. This paper focuses on Earths to Come, an XR installation which premiered at the 2024 Venice Biennale Cinema Immersive as a collaborative and democratizing work. We begin with the story of its development over a week-long residency with animator Rose Bond, composer inti figgis-vizueta and vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Originally, designed for a tri-screen live projection performance, improvisation was key to the process. Our intention was always to share the lead between sound and visuals. The paper then explores several formal structures that undergird Earths to Come, focusing on moments of synchresis and how the deliberate gaps between image and sound and serve to unseat expectations and untether the metaphoric power of the poetic. Finally, we frame the piece as political, distinguishing how Earths to Come breaks away from the aurally constructed illusion of the “sweet spot” and re-centers the collective body of listeners within a dynamic field, where acoustic perception unfolds in relation to movement, position, and the presence of others. In Earths to Come spatialized sound, designed and distributed in 15.1 dome mounted speakers, democratizes listening – making all seats good seats and creating a surprisingly personal yet shared experience.