Just tried it with my Sony WH1000XM-2 and Dolby Atmos is working fine. Thanks.
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Apple Music: How to Enable Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio
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I'm also listening with airpod max.. using a brand new m1 ipad (not that it matters..) and with spatial audio enabled and dolby atmos set to 'on'.. all my music that supports dolby atmos sounds terrible now.. very low volumes, very muddy, very over processed.. terrible.. then I set dolby atmos to off.. turned spatial audio off.. and viola.. everything sounds awesome again!! lol
I’m using Beats Studio3 wireless and have Spatial always on in the Music configuration and still doesn’t work. The spatial icon never appears in the control center volume. I tried music from the Spatial playlist. What else do I need?
I think it's only going to work well with future songs that are going to be made taking this technology into account because with current songs the "conversion" is quite a mess, indeed.I'm also listening with airpod max.. using a brand new m1 ipad (not that it matters..) and with spatial audio enabled and dolby atmos set to 'on'.. all my music that supports dolby atmos sounds terrible now.. very low volumes, very muddy, very over processed.. terrible.. then I set dolby atmos to off.. turned spatial audio off.. and viola.. everything sounds awesome again!! lol
Interestingly, I noticed while at work that one of the albums I have is in Dolby Atmos (a couple in lossless too...). When I got home I tried "Removing Downloads" from my Match subscription and redownloading. I got two songs from an album in "HLS media" for the kind (Dianna Krall - Turn up the Quiet). I thought I read that this wouldn't apply to match subscription (maybe it was lossless that doesnt). It will be interesting to see if sometime I get the whole album (it is fully matched so I don't see why not).
Edit: I just checked the file - turns out it is lossless... not Atmos. Interesting.
Edit: I just checked the file - turns out it is lossless... not Atmos. Interesting.
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Why wouldn’t this work for people who buy from iTunes but don’t subscribe?
I have a surround system hooked up to the AppleTV 4K so I checked out the settings for the Music app. I found that the ATV had already activated Atmos (automatic) for me. I also found another setting underneath that let me choose between standard (256K) and lossless. So I chose lossless. I don't know if I'm getting lossless (not that easy to tell apart at my age) but at least I think I am so that's fine.
On some titles this isn't much different from using Dolby Surround or DTS to expand a two channel recording for surround systems. Some of the Atmos titles are from last century and surely weren't recorded for Atmos so the effects had to be added in some sort of remix. Some of them sound OK and some are better than that. The 'Here Comes the Sun' remix was more impressive than most. And I suspect new titles made with Atmos in mind will benefit more than older catalog items.
One thing I noticed both on Apple Music and TIDAL is on some tracks the Atmos takes just long enough to kick in that you miss the first half-second or so of the music. This could be an issue with my Denon receiver but it wouldn't seem too hard to give Atmos a second to turn on before starting the music.
On some titles this isn't much different from using Dolby Surround or DTS to expand a two channel recording for surround systems. Some of the Atmos titles are from last century and surely weren't recorded for Atmos so the effects had to be added in some sort of remix. Some of them sound OK and some are better than that. The 'Here Comes the Sun' remix was more impressive than most. And I suspect new titles made with Atmos in mind will benefit more than older catalog items.
One thing I noticed both on Apple Music and TIDAL is on some tracks the Atmos takes just long enough to kick in that you miss the first half-second or so of the music. This could be an issue with my Denon receiver but it wouldn't seem too hard to give Atmos a second to turn on before starting the music.
It's early in my assessment, but I'm using St. Vincent's latest album, Daddys' Home, as my "test."
I was asked to redownload it to get DA features. So I did. And wow - pretty impressive. Will be interesting to see how/if engineers and producers leverage this potential in their productions going forward. Like anything, it can be used for good or evil. Also interested to see how DA might work with past classics (thinking records like Dark Side of the Moon). Either way, the potential seems interesting. And really, anything to bring fidelity and life back to recorded music is a long overdue and seriously welcomed effort, in my book. As always, YMMV.
I was asked to redownload it to get DA features. So I did. And wow - pretty impressive. Will be interesting to see how/if engineers and producers leverage this potential in their productions going forward. Like anything, it can be used for good or evil. Also interested to see how DA might work with past classics (thinking records like Dark Side of the Moon). Either way, the potential seems interesting. And really, anything to bring fidelity and life back to recorded music is a long overdue and seriously welcomed effort, in my book. As always, YMMV.
No doubt to increase Apple Music subscriptions. I believe The Verge reached out to Apple who confirmed it along with Lossless wouldn’t be coming to iTunes purchases
It’s working for me, but I’m struggling to hear how it’s better than a really well-mastered stereo experience. I’ve heard some really good mastering where I’ve sworn sound effects like a car or something was coming at me in a song, or the bass in a track that’s coming directly into my ears from my headphones sound like it’s coming from a speaker several feet away. I was expecting to get similar cool moments from this, but it really just sounds like someone played with the EQ or remastered some multi-tracks. I’m not getting this awesome so-called “3D” experience.
Im just listening on regular AirPods, but I’m seeing similar experiences from those with the Pros and Max. Cool in theory, maybe I’ll give it a shot on some other equipment.
Im just listening on regular AirPods, but I’m seeing similar experiences from those with the Pros and Max. Cool in theory, maybe I’ll give it a shot on some other equipment.
The song has to actually be re-rendered in the Atmos format. Some engineers got it right (listen to any of Ariana Grande’s songs), and some got it horribly wrong (see Blinding Lights).
Original Homepods that are linked to an ATV 4K should work. The Apple Support article states:
How to listen to Dolby Atmos on your Apple TV 4K
Update your Apple TV 4K to tvOS 14.6. Then make sure that you have one of the following connections:( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212182 )
Just found out that the ATV Music app "Browse" function now has a Spacial Audio category. Now listening to Abbey Road on stereo Homepods - brilliant!
Make sure the ATV Audio Format is set to "Auto". Mine reports "Auto, Atmos Available".
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Sounds awful in my air pods pro.. i disable it right away.
Spot on. The Ari songs I’ve listened to sounded great and really showed off what’s possible. I was looking forward to some of Post Malone and The Weeknd’s stuff and it sounds like mush.
On my iPhone XR iOS 14.6,I had to turn off atmos as every song would stop playing around 15 seconds.
The J Balvin album sounds impressive, too. The Eagles live album, not so much.
No special headphones/earbuds are necessary for Atmos spatial audio. All current devices work, as it's just sound piped into each ear.
If you're thinking about dynamic head tracking, to be turned on this fall, then you need special headphones with gyroscopes. AirPods Pro and AirPods Max already have those.
MYSTERY KIND OF SOLVED - Been poking around this a lot on my laptop, listening on AirPods Pro. Many of the songs on Apple's spatial playlists say they are Atmos in the get info/file panel. However, when they are played, the Apple Music mini-player window only indicates SOME of them are playing as atmos. Here's how to test it for yourself (on desktop) - with the Music preferences window open and Dolby Atmos set to automatic, play one of the tracks. Note whether in the mini-player window above the track name and timeline it says ATMOS. If it does, then switch the dolby preference setting to off and click ok to close the preference. In my experience if you're listening in Atmos then turn it off and close the preference window audio will drop out for a second and when it comes back there is a HUGE difference Atmos vs normal. You can also do it in reverse - start with the dolby setting off etc etc. It's almost as though a bunch of songs are on the playlist but haven't really been updated with true Atmos versions. There is no subtlety when you A/B the two versions. Space Cowboy by Kacey Musgraves (at least on my computer) is there in full Atmos and when you turn it on or off there's no doubt about the change. Would love to hear from others that try this. Honestly I've found very few of the songs in the list turn on the Atmos indicator in the mini-player window - and I haven't run into a single track where it plays Atmos version without indicating it in the mini-player window. Try it for yourself.
Is there any way to make a smart playlist of Atmos-enabled songs? I only have one album that is Atmos-enabled, but there are individual songs... To find them all, it would be very easy to make a smart playlist, if possible.
Right now that isn't possible to do automatically, because there is no metadata that identifies the file as Atmos. But you can manually insert comments into the File info to identify your Atmos files and then filter those with a Smart Playlist.