Dolby Atmos?

[NiagaraPete]

On my Instargram feed today Steven Wilson posted about how he did the Dolby Atmos mix of the new Tears for Fears album "Tipping Point" for Apple Music.

I never much cared for Dolby but I was intrigued by his post. If you reed the preamble in Apple settings they say. "Whenever connected to capable outputs like Airpods, and supported Beats (horrid) headphones or Apple devices.

So can I assume that even if I turn on Dolby Atmos and play music that has been mixed as such it won't work outputting from my iPad to a DAC > Senn headphones?

 

[NiagaraPete]

I answered my own question. Listening to this album I can toggle Atmos on an off. With Dolby on there is a drop of gain and it doesn't sound as good.

 

[abdo123]

on an iPad you will experience a binaural downmix for headphones. on Apple TV 4k connected via HDMI to a reciever you will experience true multi-speaker music.

 

[NiagaraPete]

on an iPad you will experience a binaural downmix for headphones. on Apple TV 4k connected via HDMI to a reciever you will experience true multi-channel music.

Why would a theatre system work? Is your receiver Dolby Atmos equipped? My understanding now is the end device must be equipped and its not multi channel its spatial.

 

[abdo123]

Why would a theatre system work? Is your receiver Dolby Atmos equipped? My understanding now is the end device must be equipped and its not multi channel its spatial.

you're right it's no longer multi-channel it's object based. lets just call it 'multi-speaker'.

 

[NiagaraPete]

hmm going a bit deeper Apple says this

So they say "using any headphones".

 

[NiagaraPete]

you're right it's no longer multi-channel it's object based. lets just call it 'multi-speaker'.

ahh okay cool.

 

[JonK99]

"Spatial" is just Apple branding for Atmos. Any AVR that can decode Atmos can play it. Though the marketing materials all focus on headphones because that's what Apple is selling.

 

[NiagaraPete]

"Spatial" is just Apple branding for Atmos. Any AVR that can decode Atmos can play it. Though the marketing materials all focus on headphones because that's what Apple is selling.

Got it. So you need a device that is "capable".

 

[Jazz]

For Apple Music, an AppleTV 4K is needed to play Atmos Music to an Atmos AVR and speaker set up.
All the rest are created using an Apple spatial software used by mixers for Apple Music headphones.
ATV4K to Atmos AVR is actually Atmos.
The headphones are still Atmos but, not really. But still darn good. As long as the mix to Atmos was done right. Some are not done right.

 

[Tom C]

There is one more option.
MacOS to external USB DAC has been claimed by some to work for Atmos. I plan to give a try soon with Okto 8 and Mac Mini.

 

[mkt]

There is one more option.
MacOS to external USB DAC has been claimed by some to work for Atmos. I plan to give a try soon with Okto 8 and Mac Mini.

That’s what I am doing.

 

[Tom C]

That’s what I am doing.

Tried just now and failed.
Mac Mini>usb>Okto 8
Set Atmos to Always On in Apple Music app
set up Okto 8 as 7.1 surround in MIDI Configuration, 192/24
I’m getting stereo only. Do you know what I’m doing wrong?

 

[mkt]

Tried just now and failed.
Mac Mini>usb>Okto 8
Set Atmos to Always On in Apple Music app
set up Okto 8 as 7.1 surround in MIDI Configuration, 192/24
I’m getting stereo only. Do you know what I’m doing wrong?

Hmm. Do you get sound when you click on the test buttons?

And the Apple Music source is something that is available in atmos? This is a test

 

[Tom C]

Hmm. Do you get sound when you click on the test buttons?
View attachment 247385
And the Apple Music source is something that is available in atmos? This is a test

Yes, when I push the test button for each of the speakers I get the pink noise correctly for every speaker.
I tried playing Low Spark of High Heeled Boys after double checking for the Atmos label on the album. After that didn’t work, I double checked the settings and selected a random track from the available in Atmos collection from some artist I don’t even know, just to see, and same result: two-channel only.

 

[mkt]

Yes, when I push the test button for each of the speakers I get the pink noise correctly for every speaker.
I tried playing Low Spark of High Heeled Boys after double checking for the Atmos label on the album. After that didn’t work, I double checked the settings and selected a random track from the available in Atmos collection from some artist I don’t even know, just to see, and same result: two-channel only.

Maybe something in Apple Music settings?

What about other non-atoms multichannel sources (e.g., playing a 5.1 video file in VLC)?

 

[Tom C]

Maybe something in Apple Music settings?
View attachment 247451
What about other non-atoms multichannel sources (e.g., playing a 5.1 video file in VLC)?

That got it. Thank you for the screen shot.
I had Dolby Atmos set to Always On. I changed the setting to Automatic, as you show here, and voila!, multichannel sound. It's not obvious to me why it would work that way, but it is what it is. Sounds really excellent, too.
Thanks so much!

 

[GXAlan]

Does this work for Apple TV? Can you run streaming Atmos movies to an Okto8 DAC?

 

[mkt]

That got it. Thank you for the screen shot.
I had Dolby Atmos set to Always On. I changed the setting to Automatic, as you show here, and voila!, multichannel sound. It's not obvious to me why it would work that way, but it is what it is. Sounds really excellent, too.
Thanks so much!

Weird indeed

 

[mkt]

Does this work for Apple TV? Can you run streaming Atmos movies to an Okto8 DAC?

Yes. My experience is that atmos on Mac to multichannel DAC works for Apple Music, Apple TV, and one streaming site in the Safari browser (https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/immersive). I have not had success with Netflix or Amazon Video.