Apple Music Disappointing Atmos & How Apple Can improve this.

[Stuey3D]

I’m coming to this as a bit of a surround sound geek so please bear with me.

Dolby Atmos music on Apple Music is really disappointing so far. I am using 3rd party headphones so those with supported AirPods may get a better experience.

A lot of songs sound like they are being presented very poorly with bass and vocals sounding very distant, and a lot of reverb and extra atmospheric effects added or cranked up for effect to the point it seems overdone. The songs that do sound great sound like when an old album gets remastered many years later with new tech and these changes could easily be presented in standard stereo. Albums that were previously 5.1 mastered are not present in Atmos form and the songs that are presented are just modified stereo songs which never had a surround sound master to begin with. Honestly the Dolby Surround upmixer on my Atmos AV Receivers does a far better job at extracting Atmos surround from standard stereo songs than what is presented now.

When Atmos is enabled all supported songs are automatically set to Atmos but there is no choice for the stereo version of the album without disabling Atmos altogether, there should be the option for the standard stereo edition of the album and Atmos edition for those who want it, kinda like CD/Vinyl/Tape vs DVD/SACD back in the day.

Going back to the AV Receivers I mentioned above, I have two Yamaha Atmos Receivers each with 7 speakers and a subwoofer and right now I have no way of experiencing Atmos Apple Music on them which is a big waste. I’ve tried Airplay direct to the Receiver which to be honest I didn’t expect to work, however my Sony TV supports both Atmos output and Airplay 2 for both audio and video so cue my disappointment when the AV Receiver just shows a 2 channel input from the TV when using Atmos Apple Music via AirPlay.

Ways this can be improved are as follows, Apple can modify the stereo downmix for 3rd party headphones, I’ve ripped my surround sound albums to 5.1 Dolby Digital files and when played through a standard pair of stereo headphones these still sound great, and a lot of “surround sound” gaming headsets are just using virtual surround processing which can be a quite convincing surround effect, so I reckon Apple could tweak the output when Atmos is enabled on 3rd party headphones for better audio.

Apple and 3rd party manufacturers can update the AirPlay 2 standard for Atmos audio on its own, AirPlay will do Atmos with a video file but not Atmos on its own, heck even AirPlay 1 could do 5.1 Dolby Digital audio if you had it attached to a video file which is how I used to play all my surround sound music rips back in the day. I’d rip the DVD which was usually just a slideshow with the 5.1 audio and it would play great even on the old 720p Apple TV.

Apple needs to release an Apple Music app for smart TV’s and games consoles, these devices already support AppleTV+ so Apple Music shouldn’t be an issue to support, and that way these devices can output the Atmos surround sound for you.

Apple and the record labels need to rerelease albums that originally had a 5.1 mix as Atmos as these will arguably sound better than the current stereo songs with tweaks that we have now as these were designed for surround sound in mind. So far none of the 5.1 albums I own have been updated to Atmos on Apple Music and the lack of Dark Side of the Moon in Atmos is a real shame as the quad mix of that is incredible. This is something I expect to improve though as time goes on as Atmos music is a new thing.

 

[Marshall73]

Apple want you to buy Apple TV units, that is why you don't get iTunes extras or Apple Music on other devices. Support on 3rd party hardware is just a 'convenience' for Apple customers and not a fully featured service.

 

[Stuey3D]

Apple want you to buy Apple TV units, that is why you don't get iTunes extras or Apple Music on other devices. Support on 3rd party hardware is just a 'convenience' for Apple customers and not a fully featured service.

Yeah that’s really disappointing, especially since I have the hardware that’s capable of outputting Atmos right now. I refuse to spend £300 on 2 Apple TV’s for Atmos Apple Music on my 2 home cinema setups when I have an Xbox Series S, PS5 and 2 smart TV’s that could easily process and play these files no issue with a software update or native Apple Music app.

 

[Ghost-Hardware]

A lot of songs sound like they are being presented very poorly with bass and vocals sounding very distant, and a lot of reverb and extra atmospheric effects added or cranked up for effect to the point it seems overdone.

I agree. I tried with AirPods Pro and some sounds almost muffled ...

 

[Stuey3D]

I agree. I tried with AirPods Pro and some sounds almost muffled ...

Oh so it’s not just 3rd party headphones, I did wonder what extra processing Apple could be doing on their own stereo headphones to make them better than others.

 

[Ghost-Hardware]

Oh so it’s not just 3rd party headphones, I did wonder what extra processing Apple could be doing on their own stereo headphones to make them better than others.

No it's not. Well, to me at least. I suggest waiting for some other opinions but I find that sound pretty disappointing especially for rock/metal music. Pop sounds actually very ear-candy, I won't lie. As I mentioned in another thread, Call me maybe from Carly Rae Jepsen sounds awesome.

 

[Stuey3D]

If you play the spatial audio playlist and then go to settings you can toggle between off and on.

Papa Roach - Last Resort is dramatic, in stereo it’s a fully produced song in Atmos it sounds like a demo track.

 

[Stuey3D]

By comparison Heart - Alone sounds incredible in Atmos it’s more dynamic and a lot more alive especially when the overdubbed vocals kick in during the 2nd verse. The kick drum and bass is also more present too.

So it doesn’t appear to be all songs, it seems like one of their mastering engineers needs their hearing aids adjusted.

 

[drunkmouth]

Not sure it's solely an Apple issue. The vast majority of the Atmos stuff was already on Amazon Music and Tidal and sounds exactly the same as that. Some stuff just purely doesn't work as well or sound great in Atmos. Tom Sawyer by Rush and Mr Roboto by Styx sounds amazing in Atmos. All down to the mixing engineer.

 

[Stuey3D]

Well regarding headphone usage it definitely seems to be down to the individual song, Salt ‘n Pepa - Whatta Man sounds amazing too again a lot more alive with much more present bass and drums.

Problem is do you keep Atmos on for the gems whilst risking a load of rubbish masters or do you stick with tried and tested stereo for now?

I’ve got Atmos downloads on as when Atmos is off it will just play the stereo version anyway.

 

[Stuey3D]

Not sure it's solely an Apple issue. The vast majority of the Atmos stuff was already on Amazon Music and Tidal and sounds exactly the same as that. Some stuff just purely doesn't work as well or sound great in Atmos. Tom Sawyer by Rush and Mr Roboto by Styx sounds amazing in Atmos. All down to the mixing engineer.

I can’t believe record labels would be happy to release poor Atmos versions as that is likely to put a lot of people off using what when used correctly is amazing technology.

The ones that are good are very good, the ones that are bad are extremely bad unfinished demo sounding songs. Maybe through an Atmos AV Receiver with multiple speakers they might sound better, but as I can’t test that shamefully I’ll not know for now.

 

[Saudumm]

I just listened to In The End from Linkin Park and it sounds like I'm standing outside of a concert hall while LP is playing inside. 😖

 

[Marshall73]

Sounds great on my Airpod Max.

 

[Ghost-Hardware]

If you play the spatial audio playlist and then go to settings you can toggle between off and on.

Papa Roach - Last Resort is dramatic, in stereo it’s a fully produced song in Atmos it sounds like a demo track.

Yeah, Papa Roach is actually pretty bad. 😕
It was a good surprise to see they included iconic nu-metal tunes like this one but the result is really questionable.

I just listened to In The End from Linkin Park and it sounds like I'm standing outside of a concert hall while LP is playing inside. 😖

I tried it just now with AirPods Pro and I have to say it sounds okay. I mean, compare it to Last Resort from Papa Roach, there's quite a difference ! 😌

 

[Stuey3D]

Sounds great on my Airpod Max.

From what I can gather it seems to be very dependant on song, some sound amazing others sound like demos.

 

[Stuey3D]

One thing I will give it credit for is when they are mastered well they sound amazing really alive and the dynamic range is incredible, little subtle nuances are really noticeable and it makes a lot of songs sound like new.

That being said I do get a similar effect when I use the Atmos upmixer on my AV Receivers too.

 

[Stuey3D]

I just listened to In The End from Linkin Park and it sounds like I'm standing outside of a concert hall while LP is playing inside. 😖

Linkin Park I find sounds pretty decent, it seems like they pushed Mike Shinoda’s vocals back a bit and really emphasised Chester’s harmonies and the synthesiser which to be honest I quite like, it give it an extra layer of depth.

 

[Stuey3D]

Linkin Park I find sounds pretty decent, it seems like they pushed Mike Shinoda’s vocals back a bit and really emphasised Chester’s harmonies and the synthesiser which to be honest I quite like, it give it an extra layer of depth.

Papercut on the other hand sounds like garbage, really looses its kick. Too much emphasis on the synthesiser and not enough on the drums and bass.

 

[Ghost-Hardware]

@Stuey3D It's somewhat unrelated to the topic discussed here but what are your thoughts about Apple lossless format? I hear here and there that you basically can't hear the difference between the base format AAC and lossless if you don't own some really technical and expensive headphones/accessories.

Before Apple Music, I was a Tidal customer. I subscribed to the most expensive offer they had to get the best sound possible so I know how lossless sounds on my equipment. I don't own truly expensive headphones (AirPods Pro and Marshall Monitor II ANC) so it's not as if I were a sound junky like you are but between Apple Music in AAC and lossless, I can definitely hear a difference with AirPods Pro on.

I don't know what type of music you're in, but can you check FREEDOM from Blood Stain Child? It's an electro-metal band and what I hear is really pleasant to my ears. It doesn't matter if you don't actually like their music but can you give me your opinion focusing purely on sound quality?

 

[Stuey3D]

Papercut on the other hand sounds like garbage, really looses its kick. Too much emphasis on the synthesiser and not enough on the drums and bass.

Cure for the Itch though is by far the best of the Atmos mixes on that album it’s really wide and atmospheric.

 

[Stuey3D]

@Stuey3D It's somewhat unrelated to the topic discussed here but what are your thoughts about Apple lossless format? I hear here and there that you basically can't hear the difference between the base format AAC and lossless if you don't own some really technical and expensive headphones/accessories.

Before Apple Music, I was a Tidal customer. I subscribed to the most expensive offer they had to get the best sound possible so I know how lossless sounds on my equipment. I don't own truly expensive headphones (AirPods Pro and Marshall Monitor II ANC) so it's not as if I were a sound junky like you are but between Apple Music in AAC and lossless, I can definitely hear a difference with AirPods Pro on.

I don't know what type of music you're in, but can you check FREEDOM from Blood Stain Child? It's an electro-metal band and what I hear is really pleasant to my ears. It doesn't matter if you don't actually like their music but can you give me your opinion focusing purely on sound quality?

Oh lossless where do I begin?

Lossless is only really noticeable in certain situations in my opinion. If you have a late 90’s early 2000’s Loudness War effected CD with no dynamic range and you are just converting to listen on your phone through a pair of low - mid end headphones, then providing you don’t convert to a stupidly low bitrate or have the encoder run as fast as it can lossy should sound as good as the lossless. Compressed audio needs bitrate and time to encode. Some low bitrate lossy stuff can sound better than high bitrate lossy stuff if you have error correction and multi pass encoding turned on. Lossless wouldn’t offer too much more in this situation.

That being said I have music by a band called Opeth I am a big fan of theirs and I managed to acquire some 96Khz/24bit FLAC vinyl rips of their discography and compared to the Apple Music version its night and day the rips sound incredible. However that is not solely because of lossless although it probably helps a little, its due to vinyl having a significantly higher dynamic range compared to the digital version which Apple would’ve got their AACs from the dynamic range allows for the little nuances to shine through which are also more preserved due to the lossless encoding. Plus I’m also a sucker for the vinyl sound with the crackles and pops so that may be effecting may enjoyment of them too.

By comparison I have some 96Khz/24bit FLAC files from a band called Death and because these were ripped from a CD the dynamic range has already been crushed a bit and to my ears there isn’t a huge amount of difference between the lossy Apple Music version and the lossless files.

What you are listening for is the cymbals and the very high frequency accents of the music, a poor encode and these will sound wavy almost as if you are listening underwater. This is more noticeable if you have a high dynamic range song where these little accents aren’t drowned out by everything else. I have a few Apple Music songs that exhibit this unfortunately and when you notice it it sounds awful, so in this case this is where the lossless versions will really come into their own. However for about 90% of the time and situations you find yourself in lossy should be as good as lossless. Obviously if you are a teenager with stupidly high end studio monitors then lossless may be the way to go, but as adults loose their high frequency hearing as we get older for most lossy should be good enough.

 

[seezar]

I really hope that eventually the ability to turn on and off Dolby Atmos makes it way right into the music app to make it easier to toggle on and off Atmos when playing a track. I'm finding some songs really shine with Atmos and it's the better mix, other times there are tracks that just don't work with Atmos and then a third set of songs (particularly 60's jazz) where I really like some of the atmos mixes however when comparing to the stereo mix, I don't find them better but just different and can see myself listening to both.

 

[Stuey3D]

I really hope that eventually the ability to turn on and off Dolby Atmos makes it way right into the music app to make it easier to toggle on and off Atmos when playing a track. I'm finding some songs really shine with Atmos and it's the better mix, other times there are tracks that just don't work with Atmos and then a third set of songs (particularly 60's jazz) where I really like some of the atmos mixes however when comparing to the stereo mix, I don't find them better but just different and can see myself listening to both.

If not in the music app itself then at least the control centre volume control screen where some of the extra controls for AirPods are located.

 

[seezar]

If not in the music app itself then at least the control centre volume control screen where some of the extra controls for AirPods are located.

Exactly, just somewhere other than digging into the settings every time. I wonder if something can be made using the shortcuts app.

 

[Stuey3D]

Exactly, just somewhere other than digging into the settings every time. I wonder if something can be made using the shortcuts app.

Not that I can see, I’ve just checked and the settings app shortcut only gives a list of actions and Atmos isn’t there. That being said I keep forgetting the shortcuts app exists so I may not be the best person to create this shortcut, maybe someone a bit better at the shortcuts app maybe able to advise us if its possible or not.