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Eddy Cue Says Spatial Audio on Apple Music is Equivalent to Watching HD Television for First Time
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- iOS: Settings app > Music > Audio Quality > Lossless Audio > Toggle On > Change Steaming and Downloads to Lossless
- macOS: Music app > Preferences > Playback > Audio Quality > Lossless Audio (check the box) > Change Drop Down option for Streaming and Downloads to "Lossless"
Edit. There is a logo for it, you just have to turn off Atmos to see it, since Atmos isn't Lossless.
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I'm skeptical of Atmos. Spent about an hour last night switching back and forth between 2 devices (one that was seeing the new features in Music and another that hadn't been "upgraded" yet) with AirPods Pro and while the "spacial" part of the music was better, it sounded flatter and... just not as good? Bass and drums were just so much more precise and clean in the original stereo. In the several songs I listened to, ALL had a fairly steep decrease in low end with the Dolby mix. So yeah, I dunno yet. I like the 3dness, but I think if you remove that, it actually sounds worse than the original stereo mix.
Typical hype. Spatial audio isn't new. It's been around since at least the 1990s. Still have Aureal Vortex 2 around here somewhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor
There are only like 200 songs updated for spatial audio. Not much of an effort. Seems like a typical Eddy Cue endeavor.
I tried spatial audio this morning on my atmos setup and it is pretty cool. On my AirPod pro head tracking isn’t working yet, so it’s not at all as impressive as it was with films (disney Apple TV+).
But man.. when I turned lossless on my stereo with my kefs, soooo much better, i could hear the hands touching the bass. Lossless is the big deal!
But man.. when I turned lossless on my stereo with my kefs, soooo much better, i could hear the hands touching the bass. Lossless is the big deal!
There’s a “Lossless” icon that pops up on songs when you have it turned on
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It actually doesn’t though, people adjust to sounds they hear and spatial audio/atmos is no different.
This happens with everything from switching headphones to replacing speakers in your home, you adjust to the sound and what at first sounds “different(aka not as good as before)”
It really can’t be determined “worse” and never listening to it again in 10 seconds lol.
Decreasing loudness and increasing dynamic range is a GREAT thing...however, the way they are doing it might not be.
If you listen to what they did to Counting Crows - Round Here, it sounds like Adam Duritz is singing into a kid's megaphone.
Ok well, you can if you're someone with a lot of audio experience and not just a casual listener.
No, this isn't adding anything to older songs that I've taken a listen to so far. Just sounds... muddy. Instruments sneaking in to both ear channels. When I listen to REM's Drive, and that guitar kicks in... I know how it sounds... maybe that familiarity is throwing me on this... but for the most part, not interested. If Trent Reznor utilizes this... I'll listen. He did an album in DTS 5.1 CD audio some time ago, which was interesting, but that's likely it.
I'll be honest here, I don't think I can hear much difference. I am using my AirPods Max with my iPhone, and I made sure I deleted to already downloaded album, as it prompts you by saying that Spatial Audio will not work unless you delete and re-download the album. I listened to part of Lady Gaga's "Chromatica". It sounds great, but I can't say that it sounds completely different. And I've toggled Spatial Audio on and off while a track is playing...am I possibly doing something wrong? And, yes, the Atmos and Lossless badges are there.
From my testing, spatial audio does give better placement, but often at the expensive of the mix, seems to be less treble and over all quieter. Switching back to what I assume is now lossless stereo assuming my config is working sounds much nicer but with much shallower placement. Thing is, I can't tell if I'm hearing extra detail here or if it's just that it's louder when it switches over, and then I can't tell if I'm hearing anything more than I would on the lossy version. I'll be using the stereo mode predominately
Seems strange since I am also someone with a lot of audio experience and not just a casual listener, but sure.
Hmm...weird. I only see the 'Dolby Atmos' logo there. I also have Lossless turned on in settings, so no idea.
Edit: Oops. Nevermind. I just realized that Atmos being on means that its not considered "Lossless"... Turning off the Atmos support made the Lossless logo show up for me.
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Common now, put some good faith. I tried it and I’m not sure if I like it, but it’s not that bad. Audio is very subjective, and while Dolby Atmos is certainly different, I can’t say for sure that it’s worse than stereo. Saying that you only need 10 seconds and that you know it’s a lot worse is dishonest and tells a lot about your musical judgment.
Hard disagree. You can tell almost instantly if something sounds better or worse to you. You can adapt to worse sounding things and get used to their quirks over time, and, eventually, bad sounding things will sound less bad to you, but if you switch to something better you will again notice straight away that "wow, this doesn't sound like garbage".
Note: this is an observation on sound quality in general, not on any specific devices or sound output. I haven't tried spatial audio, but I have tried other "3D" audio options and been almost universally disappointed except in the case of actual multi-speaker surround sound.
It's definitely more immersive in some situations. I still haven't decided if i want to keep it on because in some of the songs it makes the vocals and high end (strings, snares, etc) really intrusive and the mid range sounds muddy. It really depends on how well the track was mixed in the 3D space to begin with.
Same here. To me the Spatial Audio version just sounds louder.
I think Cue/Apple must be playing lossless down because there is no real solution to pushing it through wireless connections. Clearly, Apple devices are pretty much all about wireless.
I get it, right now I’m in a coffee shop, and I’d be lugging more equipment around just to get lossless. There are of course small/mobile DAC/amps. I’d also be using cabled headphones.
At home, I’m all into lossless Tidal, and AIFF files I ripped from CD’s I own. But on the road I’m sticking with my B&W P7’s. BTW, this coffees shop is a very loud environment. I’m glad these headphones have noise reduction 😁