I write about it here - The Digital Side Of My Immersive Atmos Music System - Immersive Audiophile - Audiophile Style
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.
Here is an article I wrote about DSP for immersive systems - Digital Signal Processing - The Ultimate Guide To High End Immersive Audio - Immersive Audiophile - Audiophile Style
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.
2 Likes
A lot of people posting here donât seem to want Atmos support in Roon. However, it is the fourth most requested Roon feature.
I have a Smyth A-16 and really enjoy Atmos listening. While not nearly as good, the Air Pods Pro also do a fairly good job with virtualized Atmos.
1 Like
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.
5 Likes
I would have to question if Dolby Streams are actually accessible via Tidals API for 3rd parties. I bet they are not and itâs limited to their own apps only.
And is it possible to stream it in native Atmos to any device from there, and may it be via HDMI?
Atmos is 96 kbps AAC? (Sorry if this is a stupid question)
Itâs aac yes, no idea of the bitrate.
But does it play as it. Sonos app shows it but canât stream it.
Itâs just that 96 kbps seems awfully little for 10+ channels? So I also suspect that the track names may say âAtmos Mixâ but the stream might not actually be
1 Like
On looking it up the max it will be 768kbps and thats not 24bit I believe.
1 Like
JPLAY has no idea what to do with Atmos and doesnât even have the correct bitrate because, why or how would it. Itâs a stereo UPnP control point.
My point is that Atmos albums are visible.
The âAtmos Mixâ is part of the Title Mix Name only. Many Atmos titles are labeled like this to differentiate from the stereo version.
AAC does not have any object base height channel speakers therefore it is not Atmos, but it was converted from a Atmos mix retaining the source name.
âMD
I added the Atmos mix to my library. Looked at it in JPLAY. Itâs the Atmos mix.
Oh Ok I see now. You have a Atmos track and this is how it is displayed in JPLAY.
âMD
I think some people are overlooking an advantage of Atmos for stereo use. There are cases (hopefully growing) where the Atmos mastering is nowhere near as compressed as the standard stereo version. So forget the features of the container as such and look at the actual mastering âqualityâ put in. Could be the end of the loudness wars or least a way around then.
I can play Tidal Atmos Albums (in stereo) in Roon, these tracks sound a hell of a lot better than the ânormalâ stereo version, due to lack of compression and limiters used in the mastering, they sound more realistic and more alive.
Tech guys what is happening here in Roon? It is showing the albums as âmixed tracksâ, on playback they appear as source FLAC 2ch, with various sample rates and bit depths depending on album. Where are these 2ch versions coming from (placed in the Atmos album as alternative by the producer/record label; pre-rendered by Tidal, rendered on the fly by Tidal, rendered by Roon on the fly)? Also I have volume adjustment per album set, all the Atmos ones have 0dB offset, but do sound louder, is this Roon failing to correct due to the Atmos tracks it cant read?
Example: âBillie Eilish, happier than everâ.
Thanks
That would be really interesting if there was some kind of scheme of deliberately mastering stereo versions for ´low-fi´ reproduction at play. Did this occur often to you?
I had a similar impression with albums sourced from Tidal, but in those cases I really did a comparison it turned out to be MQA files not being decoded as such which explains a lot of sound quality deterioration.
Funny sidenote: Atmos streams sourced from Tidal are always coming in as a lossy stream, usually at a lower bitrate compared to their hi-res FLAC equivalents. If the former sound better after downmixing to stereo, it is indicative of different mastering for sure.
After encountering several of such cases, I switched to Qobuz and never experienced a single case in which the streamed version sounds inferior compared to downloaded FLAC. Wonder if you could try Qobuz with your identified albums and compare. That would be really interesting!
Iâve noticed that also. Not sure, but I think that it is still 24 bit. The dynamic range is there.
There is definitely a difference when I play a Atmos album on Tidal and then play the same Atmos album from one that I ripped. The one that I ripped is lossless.
âMD