Are there really 25,000 albums available in Atmos today, or tracks? Do you have any information where they are all available? I found the number on Tidal and Apple Music to be quite limited.
Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against Atmos as the dominating format and making it sound as good as possible is a great idea. I just have the impression that Dolby is taking the idea of keeping it proprietary thereby earning from recording industry, streaming services and hardware manufacturers pretty seriously.
Unfortunately it is not only a matter of money if you as a license owner would have to disclose your algorithms to a software company making a software that runs on pretty much every machine. Companies who live solely from licensing tend to be a bit suspicious when it comes to giving away their core assets and I would not blame them.
I absolutely agree, although I found the step up from simpler surround and immersive formats (may it be 5.1 or 4.0.2) to Atmos 7.1.4 not to be as dramatic as the first step from two channels to 4.0 or 5.0 surround or a minimum immersive setup.
Not necessarily, that is not a valid conclusion in my understanding. If a system offering more channels is audibly superior has to be tested in every single individual case. The step from mono to 2-channel stereo is probably the biggest one, maybe as huge would be adding another 2 and you have quad or another 2 and you have 4.0.2 immersive. Every additional channel is not nothing but would in my experience not be as dramatic as the first ones.
There is a strong resistance against any surround formats in music and there was a renaissance of stereo. We cannot deny this. And I believe introducing Atmos by telling people that 12 channels are needed will only make this resistance stiffer.
There should be ways of introducing Atmos in a way that ordinary music lovers can actually install and enjoy it. May it be as supplementing virtual channels to a 4.0 or 4.0.2 system or using headphones or recreating a reasonable setup with an Atmos-capable soundbar plus discrete rear channels. It can all be overly superior to stereo if set up correctly.
Are they publicly available like on immersiveaudioalbum.com which has a rather niche portfolio? What is the container file format, MKV?
The encoder and decoder are already on tens of thousands of computers that create Atmos. Algorithms wouldnât have to be disclosed, just like MQA algorithms werenât disclosed. The pushback is really about disturbing the relationship between hardware licensees and Dolby. If thereâs enough money on the table from Roon, Dolby wonât have an issue licensing the product to them. Dolby already licensed it to Apple on every Mac.
Auro3D is a dead format (you can almost say the same about DTS:X). Atmos is the only 3D audio format that makes sense for Roon to implement. And I see no point in decoding Atmos in Roon. Better to just bitstream Atmos to an AVR and let the AVR handle decoding, DSP, etc.
The reasons to decode in Roon are all about objective and subjective sound quality. AVRs DACs arenât as good as standalone DACs. The huge issue though is DSP. The DSP in AVRs is nowhere near state of the art. Running an Audiolense created convolution filter in Roon is head and shoulders above all AVRs.
But how many people have a setup like that vs those with Atmos capable AVRs? And if Roon where to implement it this way (Atmos decoding right inside Roon) then how would that work for those with AVRs? It still makes more sense for Roon to bitstream Atmos, at least to start. This would satisfy the majority of those requesting âAtmos supportâ. They can always add Atmos decoding later on if they feel the need.
If I had to guess, Iâd say most Roon users would never send their two channel music through an AVR. Why would anyone want to send their Atmos music through an AVR, if they cared about sound quality in the same way?
I donât use an AVR and donât recommend anyone else use one either, if they want to listen to music. We donât need to fall to the lowest common denominator.
Because they already have one for movies/TV? How many people can hear the difference between a discrete DAC and AVR DAC in a proper double blind test? Iâm not sure what 2 channel has to do with a discussion about Atmos support in Roon anyway.
I bring up two channel because the only difference between it and immersive is the number of speakers. Those seeking the best two channel sound quality have never used AVRs. The same should follow for those seeking the best immersive sound quality.
The differences between an AVR and systems that run state of the art DSP with a great DAC are immense.
Completely disagree, the differences are subtle in most cases. And yes I have tried it with state of the art multichannel DACs. A good AVR with proper 7.2.4. Pre Out can deliver stunning sound quality for all surround formats including Atmos even if the internal power amps leave room for improvement.
I See no point in disparaging AV equipment for music listeners. I am aware this is a common thing since first AVR and DVD players appeared on the market. Unfortunately it brings many people to separating their home cinema and their stereo setup even if they have proper equipment for combining both in one system.
The sad thing is it stops many people from trying.
Not quite the same if you are talking about pro audio software. If roon is expected to have the capability of incompletely decoding an Atmos streams, applying DSP, level normalization and convolution filters and subsequently re-decode it for HDMI output, Dolby might not agree to that even if they can earn with fees. We should be aware that in this case also the channel vectorization and really the ´inner sanctum´ of the code has to be part of roon.
Not quite as no Mac can decode an Atmos stream to discrete multichannel immersive bitstreams.
It is also a fact that this does not have anything to do with sound quality. If you do not need sophisticated DSP, they are absolutely fine for the task.
Thanks for clarification. From what I was reading superficially, you use Dolby Reference Player for exactly that step which I called delicate in terms of Dolbyâs policy. That is not particularly software which every Mac has and any potential consumer can obtain and use to decode Atmos files.
Rest of your setup handles discrete channels mainly with pro gear from how I understand it. Everything sounds pretty impressive and the NADAC is truly great. But it is not particularly what average customers have and what they can handle. An AVR or AVP is.
I will disagree with you all day on this one. All immersive systems require DSP. The listening position is never equidistant from all speakers and itâs never in a perfect sonic position.
I highly recommend reading up on the differences between state of the art DSP and the others. It makes a gigantic difference in sound quality. For example, one very popular DSP program has zero bass management. If bass lower than the height channels can handle is sent to them, you just donât hear it.
No. I also use Apple Music to stream 25,000 Atmos albums. macOS has a built-in licensed Dolby decoder. Apple Music outputs PCM in whichever channel configuration you need, I use 7.1.4.
I donât use a NADAC.
I think we both agree that an AVR is a superb option for the average use case.
Those who want state of the art will have to go further. Itâs no different from driving a Toyota Camry versus a McLaren. One is easy but lacking in the ultimate performance, while the other has all the performance but requires much more skill and service.
Iâve just cut short my two week free trial period of Roon, sadly, because there is no Dolby Atmos. Not having it is a deal breaker for me. I canât justify paying for Roon if it doesnât have something I get so much enjoyment from.
Its a shame as I really like Roon, itâs interface, its technical info, and the way I could discover new music I found intuitive, knowledgeable and intoxicating.
When Roon does decide to add Dolby Atmos Iâll be back in a heartbeat.