ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR CONVERTING NUMBER OF AUDIO CHANNELS, AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE OPERATING METHOD

In an electronic device and an electronic device operating method, according to various embodiments, the electronic device comprises: an output device for outputting audio by using N channels; an audio output interface connectable to an external electronic device for outputting an audio by using channels differing in number from the output device; and an application processor (AP) including a central processing unit (CPU) and an audio processing unit for processing audio, wherein the audio processing unit can be configured to receive an M-channel audio stream from the CPU, convert the M-channel audio stream into an N-channel audio stream, output the N-channel audio stream through the output device, detect a connection to the external electronic device through the audio output interface, determine, on the basis of the information about a connected speaker device, whether to stop an N-channel audio stream conversion operation received from the CPU, and transmit the M-channel audio stream to the external electronic device in response to the stopping of the N-channel audio stream conversion operation. Various other embodiments are possible.