Apple Music Not blown away by Dolby Atmos spatial audio

[DHagan4755]

This may or may not be a controversial post. After listening quite a bit on both my 2021 16" MacBook Pro & my new Apple AirPods 3, I find myself going into Apple Music preferences & turning Dolby Atmos off. Some songs sound good. There seem to be more songs though that don't sound that great. Some sound like the engineer placed the microphone out in the hallway when the songs were recorded. Is something wrong? Am I missing something?

 

[AL2TEACH]

This may or may not be a controversial post. After listening quite a bit on both my 2021 16" MacBook Pro & my new Apple AirPods 3, I find myself going into Apple Music preferences & turning Dolby Atmos off. Some songs sound good. There seem to be more songs though that don't sound that great. Some sound like the engineer placed the microphone out in the hallway when the songs were recorded. Is something wrong? Am I missing something?

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I think because Dolby Atmos is object based music producers will have to like movie producers, produce for Dolby Atmos. I could be wrong but there's a difference between Dolby Atmos enabled and achieving it. Spatial works very well with the AirPods Pro and Dolby Atmos movies but how well depends on the people that mixed Dolby Atmos in the movie. example:in a Quiet Place II, when the family runs into the building and the guy covers the mother's mouth, you can hear the alien climbing down the wall and the sound is up not from the sides with the AirPods Pro's spatial audio. whew that was long lol. All Dolby Atmos in movies are not equal some meh, some bad and some are really good. But the virtual surround with Apple products is very, very good with movies. With music it's a whole new ball game and Apple is leading the way for the general public to hear it. Sorry, I couldn't find a way to shorten the link.

What is Dolby Atmos Music, and how can you listen to it? | Digital Trends

Dolby Atmos Music is an immersive way to hear new tracks, as well as old favorites, but you'll need the right combo of gear to get it. Here's how it works.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[lawrencesmac]

Not every song or artist is remixed with Atmos in a so called immersive experience. I think Atmos in music is still somewhere new so sound engineers are still getting used to it. Some of them actually sound muffled and sunken inside the instruments. Movie surround remix engineers are already used to the sound scape remixing environment for sound effects, so definitely are better.

I found out Coldplay's Atmos remix is the best I've heard compared to others, very wide sound scape while balanced with vocal, as I experienced in my 2021 14" MBP. I also recommend Imagine Dragon's Atmos remix, instruments is very strong and definite to listen, though their vocal is thinner than stereo mix.

I myself is also trying to get an angle with the best Atmos sound scape to listen on Apple Music. When I try to listen on the top of my MBP, it sounds thin. When I sit in front of the MBP, it sound the best in Atmos.