VIDEO: What is Dolby Atmos Music? - news discussion

Phil Hinton

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Sounds like you certainly had a moment in their demo area Phil, your excitement has peaked mine. I’m hoping they start to provide this to people who are not on android or have an Amazon smart speaker. I’m sure many would pay to stream this to their home speakers via Tidal / hopefully other streaming companies.
 
Does sound interesting - particularly as a fan of Bluray Audio that sadly never caught on, primarily due to the lack of weight behind it from the music companies. But the surround Blurays I do have in DTS-MA are fantastic.

But there is an obvious gap that needs plugging between the demo you would have heard with a full Atmos surround speaker package / Atmos-equipped AV receiver and listening through an Amazon echo!

So until the hardware compatibilities are there, I would venture to say that listening to plain Jane stereo through my system would be a significantly superior experience to Atmos through an Amazon Echo.

But I’m sure Dolby are working on that.

At least they’re going about it the right way round: unlike DSD which exploded onto many devices as the ‘Next Big Thing’ but had very little actual material to play, this way with Atmos, if they begin with HD streaming and music companies, at least when it rolls out on the hardware, people might actually be able to listen to content as advertised.
 
Is there a list of devices supporting it or can you find this information in the TIDAL APP?

i can see a a small list of Atmos tracks in TIDAL HIFI App.
However when playing them on iPadPro (supports Atmos), they only show HIFI being played as the label not ATMOS?
 
Is there a list of devices supporting it or can you find this information in the TIDAL APP?

i can see a a small list of Atmos tracks in TIDAL HIFI App.
However when playing them on iPadPro (supports Atmos), they only show HIFI being played as the label not ATMOS?
Echo Show but how can the Echo play Atmos ?...does it have the full array of speakers?
 
Until i can stream it through my atmos system its pointless. Why would i listen through an amazon speaker instead of a complete atmos system. A vanilla 2 track upmixed would still sound infinitely better than an echo speaker
 
I'm not convinced about music being recorded / reproduced in an object based format. I understand that with a film you can realistically place sound effects relating to the on screen action using this format but music doesn't work in the same way, being a purely auditory experience It has interesting possibilities for music producers in the future to create immersive soundscapes, but the cost and logistics of installing even a basic Atmos setup will mean that the audience for this will remain niche at best, so it seems unlikely that this approach will ever become anything like the norm.

Also to benefit from this you will need to sit down in one place and actually listen, which really isn't the way that most people consume music these days.
 
If you want to hear true Dolby Atmos music can I suggest Hans Zimmer -- Live in Prague Blu-ray , it is superb & has wall shaking sub sonics even on my modest system. The old REL Strata loves it , notes you can feel as much as hear.
 
I'm not convinced about music being recorded / reproduced in an object based format. I understand that with a film you can realistically place sound effects relating to the on screen action using this format but music doesn't work in the same way, being a purely auditory experience.
I'd have to disagree with this, as Dolby Atmos music is simply an extension of existing multi-channel recorded music formats which have been around for a couple of decades (and longer if you go back to live music Pink Floyd - Azimuth Co-ordinator). I own a few SACD and some DVD/Bluray disks for the multi-channel music. Listening to albums such as 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Amused to Death' are a completely different experience to the standard 2.0 mix. Another album, 'Aero' by Jean Michel Jarre gives a different audio experience depending on where you sit in the room, and that is only 5.1

Most receivers will already let you mix the sound up using Dolby Surround or DTS:Neural X. This is not effective for every recording (some sound awful when upmixed) but it can be very impressive with separating out the instruments and creating a more immersive experience. If you haven't tried it I would certainly recommend giving it a go.
 
AVRANT (An American Home Theatre Podcast) had an interview with Denon on their Christmas Day episode and specifically asked Denon about the possibilities of ATMOS audio coming to their HEOS (Home Entertainment Operating System) enabled AVRs.

Denon’s answer was that same HEOS modules are used across the whole range of products and AVR development cycles take time. They didn’t rule it out in the future but it seemed unlike within the current product range.

Regards,
James.
 
If you want to hear true Dolby Atmos music can I suggest Hans Zimmer -- Live in Prague Blu-ray , it is superb & has wall shaking sub sonics even on my modest system. The old REL Strata loves it , notes you can feel as much as hear.

Just ordered it. Annoyingly, Amazon makes no mention that it has a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
 
Thanks Phil. I was trying to tell from the video but did you experience this in the same room, as shown in the video? If so, it doesn't look like Amazon Echos were used. Do you have any idea of the setup used for your demo?

I agree with the comments mentioned that I hope Dolby rolls out the format to accommodate actual Atmos setups.

Very interesting stuff Phil and great interview. Thanks again.
 

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