Have you done anything to support Dolby Atmos?

Audio Gear Talk
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Just looking for ideas to see if people have invested in hardware for Dolby Atmos?

I’ve only got Apple Music with AirPods Pro and thinking I may to something better at some point.
I’m thinking Soundbar, pair of home pods linked to a 4K Apple TV.

I know Chris did this but its way out of my league.

So what’s your setup or ideas?

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I’ve gone about as far as I can but the 7.2.4 setup was initially for movies with the Dolby Atmos soundtracks. Dolby Atmos music will be a bonus if/when Roon adds the capability. And that depends on it working with a NUC/Rock to Denon receiver with HDMI. My Denon receiver is the only device I have that has the Atmos decoder and the speaker connections.

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I’m not into Dolby Atmos music, but I recently purchased a used Mac Mini to reboot my Nucleus and reconnect Tidal and Qobuz to keep Roon ARC working when away from home for weeks at a time. I just moved the Mac Mini to our family room and connected it by HDMI to my LG TV with HDMI to my Bose 5.1 system. I have free Apple Music (thanks Verizon) and listened to some Dolby Atmos yesterday. Of course, no overhead channels with 5.1.

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I listen to Atmos music from Tidal through my home theater. It is a Yamaha 7.2.2 setup accessing Tidal thru a Nvidia Sheild Pro.

The fidelity is very very good. Being Atmos it is 24 bit. Finding Atmos albums in Tidal is a chore.

I keep thinking about Roon because the quality is so good, then I wonder how much better it could be if it were thru Roon.

For example, The Doors - Riders on the Storm is very immersive. This is about a 60 year recording remastered. New recordings from new artists are even better.

I think that Atmos is much better than just 7.1 surround.

Atmos is for real and it is here to stay unlike 3D movies. I’m hoping 1 day Roon will implement it.

–MD

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5

No.
10 chars

6

Agree.

Roon Team, Atmos support, yea?

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7

Yes, please? Any update on this matter? I have a ton of Atmos files and I would like to play them through Roon…

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I’ve played around some with multichannel through Roon via a PC attached via HDMI to a Denon AVR-A1H and it can be a bit finicky (how do you want to map channels, etc.) Also, I’ve used plenty of Apple Music Spatial Audio/Atmos on both a 5.1.2 and 7.2.4 system…generally excellent.

On a whim I dropped an Atmos MP4 audio-only file from 2L into a Roon Folder and Roon just doesn’t see the file. Of course their supported formats list says as much. Curiously, my Matrix Digital mini-i Pro 4 decodes it just fine even though MP4 is not listed for supported formats! How it is exactly collapsing the channels/objects is an unknown.

FYI, Windows Media Player on Windows 11 works just fine and even shows cover art. Quicktime and VLC on a Mac worked great too.

Maybe someday!

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I have a 7.1 Yamaha receiver and I’ve never hooked up the side channels so I doubt I’ll do anything for Atmos. Atmos over my system sounds pretty good. One thing I noticed on the Elton John song Rocket Man, the rocket sound is kind of muffled so I suppose that probably pops out in the overhead speakers. Guess I’ll never know because I can’t be bothered to put speakers in the ceiling. Other than that I get good surround sound with the 5.1 set up played from an Apple TV box.

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I have a Yamaha 7.2.2 setup and from Tidal, the Elton John Greatest Hits album, Rocket Man sounds outstanding. All of the songs on this album are mixed very well. This album is a very good Atmos mix.

–MD

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From what I understand, there is not yet an Atmos audio only format. Atmos music is only available packaged as a video file (with or without the video part). I’m not sure how Apple Music / Tidal deliver their Atmos over streaming.

I have a WiSA based 5.0.2 setup and get Atmos via an Apple TV 4K (Apple Music / Tidal apps) or via albums from the 2L label (Blu-ray).

Roon Rock gen. 12 with HDMI out (build 261) allows me to play back my own surround files (flac / wav / dsf) up to 5.1.

An Atmos track I like to test with is “BOOM” by Tiësto & Sevenn.

The app (on Apple TV) called “Surround Speaker Check” also has Atmos content…

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12

Welcome Rico …

There are audio albums in Dolby Atmos Audio Blu Rays. It is laid out like a movie with multiple files and directories. I can rip (convert) this disc into a MKV file retaining all of the uncompressed Atmos audio file information and play it thru my Nvidia Shield.

While the Tidal Atmos version sounds very good, the locally ripped version of the same album is noticeably better.

Atmos would need a container of some kind for audio which would be a single file like a MKV file, but it would also have to be a Dolby approved file as so they could get their royalty fee.

I think it is in Dolby’s court to introduce this new container and everyone is waiting for what Dolby is going to do. It is about the money.

–MD

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Someone pulled apart a downloaded Apple Atmos audio stream and it was MP4 fragments bound together:

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Yes, I’m aware of the blu-ray files and ripping as .mkv (which I have done myself). The ones that can be purchased / downloaded online are also .mkv meaning you can only play them through a video player and not a music streamer.

As you mention, most likely due to Dolby wanting money.

I wonder what file type the music streaming services are using to stream…

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Thanks. Interesting.

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Just a reminder that you can create Roon-playable 5.1.2 wav or FLAC files, with the Dolby Atmos spacial cues saved, using this technique:

JCR

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