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Loudness wars are over - with lossy Dolby Atmos

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Music1969

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@Music1969 Can you check if you can get Atmos out of an amazon music app on a TV?

I won't be able to check this for a few weeks sadly. I'm away from home.

So am currently enjoying Atmos with USB DAC and headphones.

Amazon Atmos much better in this use than Apple. The Apple Atmos is not optimised for non-Apple headphones.

Can check in a few weeks though, unless someone else replies first.
 

kongwee

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Not sure what you mean. Have you seen the wave forms above, even with normalization enabled? Comparing with disabled.
For streaming, they just push down the level volume if you score high LUFS, that all. You still keep DR. Audio wave untouched. In Youtube, you can rip the audio files component and play in another audio player. It will sound louder than than Youtube stream.
 
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Music1969

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For streaming, they just push down the level volume if you score high LUFS, that all. You still keep DR. Audio wave untouched. In Youtube, you can rip the audio files component and play in another audio player. It will sound louder than than Youtube stream.
You will have to look closer at the plots I've shared.

The Atmos versions are a different mastering... much better DR mastering.
 

kongwee

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You will have to look closer at the plots I've shared.

The Atmos versions are a different mastering... much better DR mastering.
I have stereo and atmos project demo in Logic Pro X. With the "space" you need to do atmos, you can't fill up everything with sound. It will score lower LUFS. Sorry I have to use LUFS rather DR. It is new benchmark spreading very fast in studio especially dealing with streaming service and AR personals in Warner/Universal .
 
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Music1969

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Comparing Amazon Atmos vs 24/96 Apple Music with loudness normalization ON.
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24/96 Apple Music with loudness normalization ON (even zoomed in) :
1647355336233.png



Amazon Atmos - lovely DR

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goat76

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You will have to look closer at the plots I've shared.

The Atmos versions are a different mastering... much better DR mastering.
It got nothing to do with mastering, the Atmos version is a completely different mix.

Atmos mixes are expected to have better dynamics in most cases thanks to the loudness specification of -18 LKFS, if an Atmos song is louder than that it will be rejected.
 
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Music1969

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It got nothing to do with mastering, the Atmos version is a completely different mix.
Yes wrong choice of word on my part.

But yes completely different is the key point.

And better than lossless in every case I looked at where I wouldn't expect it - mainstream music.
 
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Music1969

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For 2 channel non-Apple headphone use, I would have to recommend Amazon.

For speakers Atmos system, they should be identical . I don't know if Amazon Music HD works on Apple TV 4K though, I can't test right now.
 
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Music1969

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And this is the reason Amazon Atmos is better than Apple Music Atmos, for 2 channel non-Apple hardware use.

For multichannel speakers Atmos, Amazon, Apple and Tidal Atmos should all be the same.


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CinDyment

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It's purely anecdotal but I was doing a bunch of listening last night on Amazon music with headphones as required and switching between the atmos/360 track and the regular track. I assume the headphone based playback implements elements for head and torso transfer functions to simulate position.

I would say after listening to about 20 to 30 tracks that I preferred the regular track probably 70 to 75% of the time. These were all somewhat newer pieces of music. In most cases the atmos track just sounded fake. Sure there was a little more special detail but not a good way. It just sounded more diffuse and muffled. In some cases I would say yes the atmos track definitely had more dynamic range but that wasn't a good thing. Based on this very limited sample set I would have a hard time equating anything regarding a dynamic range measurement and Atmos to being better.

I think what will be true with Atmos is the same thing that's been true for the last five decades. It all comes down to recording mix and mastering. It's far more critical to the final presentation and quality than the technology underlying it
 
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