Surround Music Mixes

[LeShog]

As I am writing I am listening on my headphones on this album and I gotta say I am lovin' the Dolby Atmos mix: I am currently a Qobuz member (trying one month free Apple Music), but am considering shifting to Apple Music to enjoy Atmos, even considered the infamous cache problem this app has and the impossibility to listen offline to music stored in the cache (it's a very practical thing for me). To my ears it just sounds way more elegant and refined than the stereo mix. The soundstage is reconstructed in a perfect way and I can pinpoint the location of every instrument. Soundstage becomes way wider and deep. On the other hand of course I am losing some intimacy with the instruments that go far away from me; also (to my ear) I lose quite a bit of detail (cello in particular, but also piano). Still on stereo the reconstruction is faulty as I am using headphones (wrong speakers angle!) and instruments appear stretched and irrealistic, so I'd like to hear your take on surround mixes on headphones (do you like it/use it? Do you have any problems with it?) and, given that pretty soon I might buy a new music system, if you consider better a surround rather than a stereo system, thank you

 

[just1n]

What do you mean by cache problem? I’ve downloaded for listening offline a number of playlists and albums for listening while traveling.

 

[LeShog]

The cache problem I point to (iOS related, forgot to mention that) is the fact that it is going to occupy all the storage of your device sooner or later. I remember, as I have been a member some years ago, that I had to manually clear it every once in a while and that the process was not very smooth (but not very difficult either). I remember that having the smartphone with all the storage occupied by Apple Music's cache gave me some problems, but don't remember which.

You can listen offline to tracks you have downloaded, but you can't listen offline to tracks that are stored in your cache. They're already there, why won't they make them available? With Qobuz I can access the music stored in the cache and play it offline, even if I didn't want to download that particular music. In practice you have a flowing library that changes automatically as you change the music you are listening to, it practically shapes on you, I find it very practical.

What do you mean by cache problem? I’ve downloaded for listening offline a number of playlists and albums for listening while traveling.