In general, techniques are described for adapting audio streams for rendering. A device comprising a memory and one or more processors may be configured to perform the techniques. The memory may store a plurality of audio streams that include one or more sub-streams. The one or more processors may determine, based on the plurality of audio streams, a total number of the one or more sub-streams for all of the plurality of audio streams, and adapt, when the total number of the sub-streams is greater than a render threshold, the plurality of audio streams to decrease the number of the one or more sub-streams and obtain an adapted plurality of audio streams. The one or more processors may also apply the renderer to the adapted plurality of audio streams to obtain the one or more speaker feeds, and output the one or more speaker feeds to one or more speakers.