Good thread on gearspace where the mix engineer for The Weekend, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift etc…etc explains the atmos stuff he’s doing for Apple Music
Gearspace Apple atmos thread here
Gearspace Apple atmos thread here
Perhaps it has headphone utility. Or new Atmos recording played on an Atmos tricked out home theater setup.That seems about right. Though Apple headphones that track head movement make the “Spatial Audio” portion of the offering pretty interesting. I was a bit skeptical, but in some instances the ability to move the soundstage out in front is pretty dramatic and almost completely eliminates the in-head feeling of headphones that can be so tiresome. The effect is most pronounced on videos where the tracking fools the brain into believing the sound is coming from the screen.
What were you listening on? If standard 2-channel then I wouldn’t expect it to sound good. Of course, if that’s the case, you can just turn off Atmos in settings.Perhaps it has headphone utility. Or new Atmos recording played on an Atmos tricked out home theater setup.
However, in a direct comparison of original stereo content (Herbie Hancock's Speak Like a Child, 1968), it's frankly bad. Fuzzy, soft indistinct bass, rolled off highs and poor soundstage. This could never be released as an actual high quality recording by a reputable studio.
Original recording played with Atmos turned off sounds excellent.
That Apple and Dolby are doing this to good masters is a real shame.
Good thread on gearspace where the mix engineer for The Weekend, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift etc…etc explains the atmos stuff he’s doing for Apple Music
Gearspace Apple atmos thread here
But there is no cost effective equivalent to the $40ish (and now defunct) Chromecast Audio for Apple that I am aware of.
Certainly. That's how I compared "with" and "without."What were you listening on? If standard 2-channel then I wouldn’t expect it to sound good. Of course, if that’s the case, you can just turn off Atmos in settings.
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Elaboration?Wrong.
So, Atmos is either for headphones or for a proper 7.1.2 or 7.1.4 multichannel system.I’ve copy/pasted below from the thread on gearspace regarding the atmos/binaural/stereo confusion, i don’t want to post John Hanes entire responses on here from the gearspace thread/forum as he’s replying to specific questions regarding atmos mixing for Apple Music and as this is ASR not gearspace where he freely offered his advice so check it out, it should clear up any confusion.
“Every Atmos mix is required to have the binaural modes set and is "required" to have been monitored in binaural by the mix engineer.
All Atmos mixes are therefor ready for binaural headphone playback.
How that all sounds and works out in the end is again matters of choices and preferences.
Yes, the mixes that I am doing for Atmos are done in a proper 7.1.4 studio as is the (minimum) requirement for submitting Atmos mixes to all of the streaming platforms.
As I noted upthread, Binaural is NOT meant to play back on stereo speakers. There is NOT a stereo downmix included in the Atmos files/stream. If you are listening to Atmos, binaural or otherwise, on stereo speakers it will sound off.”
So, Atmos is either for headphones or for a proper 7.1.2 or 7.1.4 multichannel system.
Apple is certainly not making any such distinction. Most users will leave the setting as "always on" and be unsure what it is they are hearing.
It's unfortunate, as they have truly deep pockets and could have done something meaningful.As I understand it then yeah, it seems like Apple has rummaged around in the spares box and grabbed a handful of potentially good ideas to throw out there without any proper thought/explanation as to why its an improvement or correct use scenarios.
“As I noted upthread, Binaural is NOT meant to play back on stereo speakers. There is NOT a stereo downmix included in the Atmos files/stream. If you are listening to Atmos, binaural or otherwise, on stereo speakers it will sound off.”
That sounds reasonable, but if memory serves, AUTO was the default for me. But maybe I am misremembering.This is the crucial bit. Apple should remove the “always on” setting for Atmos so that people who are on 2-channel systems don’t accidentally leave it turned on and get a degraded version. “Off” and “auto” covers it. That said, “off” is the default, so perhaps accidentally setting it to “always on” won’t be a thing for most people.
Hmm, maybe you’re right and “auto” is the default. I may have misremembered that myself. In either case, “auto” is supposed to recognize compatible hardware (appropriate surround systems or Apple headphones) and only serve those files when the hardware is available.That sounds reasonable, but if memory serves, AUTO was the default for me. But maybe I am misremembering.
I have settled on iPad as a streaming device, but up to now it has been Tidal/Qobuz/Amazon.
I have to applaud Apple for fielding an excellent computer.