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Apple Music Now Rolling Out Support for Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio

Could someone please tell me if Dolby Atmos is available on MacBook Pro Early 2015 version?
 
powerbook911 said:
Also I'd recommend folks trying turning off Atmos, and turning on "Lossless."

I think many of you will be more impressed with the lossless, depending on your listening device.
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I seriously doubt that. Telling the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless can be very difficult. Unless you're a teen with above-average hearing you probably can't tell any difference between the two. I will use the lossless feature myself, but don't expect there'll be many instances where I will be able to recognize any difference from an AAC encode.
 
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ScrumpyDaniel said:
I agree. They are the only tracks that i've tried it out on so far. While In The End by Linkin Park sounds phenomenal, others such as Last Resort by Papa Roach sound awful. It's like they've completely removed one of the tracks from them, eg the bass. They all sound so flat.
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Same for me. Sounds awful for Last Resort. Almost as if the track was very heavily compressed and the volume turned down.
 
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chabig said:
Make sure you see the Dolby symbol on Mac Music or "Dolby Atmos" on iPhone. If you don't see that, you're listening to regular stereo.

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Yep I have the symbol but turning spatial audio off and on doesn’t make any difference, not to my ears at least. It there is a difference is just extremely minimal almost impossible to pick. I tried the Ariana Grande’s album, just to try to hear, but nothing..
 
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yegon said:
Nor can I. I find it indistinguishable with Music so far, and I'm wondering if it's a glitch that will resolve itself hopefully. If not, consider me underwhelmed.

Edit: Actually, tried a few different tracks, enabling/disabling. I can hear the difference, but it just sounds like a different EQ setting, no increase in sound stage like I'd hoped (which I do find quite remarkable on supported video).

It's not that I'm an old curmudgeon either. I absolutely can hear the difference on TV+, Disney+ etc, to the point where I was delighted to hear tvOS will support it eventually.
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l will try a few more then as I find them.. cheers
 
Lossless not being available to AirPods and HomePods is a bit disappointing. It does seem very un-Apple like to not support the latest software and data developments in their hardware products. I understand the issue with bluetooth and there isn't much they can do about that but I thought Airplay used a combination of bluetooth and WiFi, surely there is enough data rate to stream lossless over that?

Even with this said, I am really enjoying Apple's pursuit of audio advancements and their love of music.
 
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pauloregan said:
There are three spatial audio WWDC videos coming up from Apple on 8th, 9th and 10th of June.
See https://developer.apple.com/videos/all-videos/?q=spatial
As I post, the 8th of June one is not live yet.
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StoneJack said:
Slow connection and buffering
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No, it was a some kind of server side error/glitch. Working fine now
jaska121 said:
I have the same. Only when both lossless and DA are turned off, it’ll play like it should.
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It seems Apple’s served stopped streaming lossless for a few minutes, and after that it works as it should with both lossless and hi-res lossless.

Hope it works for you as well now!
 
martinlk said:
I seriously doubt that. Telling the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless can be very difficult. Unless you're a teen with above-average hearing you probably can't tell any difference between the two. I will use the lossless feature myself, but don't expect there'll be many instances where I will be able to recognize any difference from an AAC encode.
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Yeah, I just listened to the jazz album Just Coolin by Art Blakey with wired headphones. Listened to the 256 AAC version of the first track and then the lossless. The trumpets sounded more airy and real to me. However… whether I could pick the difference in a double blind test…. Don’t know. I’m just happy I can listen to full CD quality now, we’ve had CD quality music since the 80s and iTunes and streaming always felt like a downgrade. Not anymore.
 
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Wow, another reason to have the APM! The sound is far better with the Atmos and lossless!
 
martinlk said:
I seriously doubt that. Telling the difference between 256kbps AAC and lossless can be very difficult. Unless you're a teen with above-average hearing you probably can't tell any difference between the two. I will use the lossless feature myself, but don't expect there'll be many instances where I will be able to recognize any difference from an AAC encode.
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I can tell over AirPods Pro and I do not have youthful ears. I cannot tell on my Apple TV or my super large Airplay speaker that plays the 256 AAC files directly. I believe I notice on the AirPods Pro because one they're right at your ears and secondly, they are going through a second compression to 250 AAC (oddly the bitrate what iPhone sends system audio to the AirPods at), so listening to a lossless file only goes through that one conversion.
 
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Is there any trick to make lossless show up on Mac? I have it on my iPhone.

However, on my Mac, not yet.
 
mxrider88 said:
l will try a few more then as I find them.. cheers
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Decided it's very much not for me now, through headphones anyway. Played a lot of it to my AirPods Max, most just sound like badly mixed audio with an odd EQ. There's likely some exceptions though, but it's definitely not going to be my default.

Can't help being reminded of the old 2D vs 3D film debate and a comment I read somewhere that always sticks in my head. "3D is great! It comes around every 20 years or so and reminds you how great 2D is!" :D

Admittedly, I might change my mind somewhat after I've played it through my 5.1 (not ATMOS) setup.

Also, placebo/bluetooth limitations or not, lossless does seem to sound better on my APM's.
 
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mxrider88 said:
Yep I have the symbol but turning spatial audio off and on doesn’t make any difference, not to my ears at least. It there is a difference is just extremely minimal almost impossible to pick. I tried the Ariana Grande’s album, just to try to hear, but nothing..
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Make sure “Spatial Audio” is enabled on the control center for the AirPods Pro, go to Apple Music settings and set “Always on” for Dolby Atmos.

Also, when you’re listening to a track it must show “Dolby Atmos” written below the time bar.
 

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I have Airpods Gen1, and with some songs it sounds a bit flat, but on my speaker it sounds awesome. Need to get me some Airpods Pro!
 
Are Dolby Atmos tracks also in 3 tiers? Or when you are listening to Atmos, does the stream default to 256AAC quality? This I couldn't find out anywhere.
 
Very impressive! Can’t wait to see how this will improve my stereo pair of HomePods and HomePod minis!
 
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