An audio apparatus and method employ a first renderer circuit, wherein the first renderer circuit is arranged to render audio elements by generating a first set of audio signals for a set of loudspeakers; and a second renderer circuit, wherein the second renderer circuit is arranged to render audio elements by generating a second set of audio signals for headphones. The audio apparatus and method select between the first renderer circuit and the second renderer circuit such that the rendering of at least a first part of a first audio element is in response to a first audio rendering property indicator which is received in an audio signal. The first audio rendering property indicator is indicative of an audio format of the first audio element.