Qobuz Feature Requests

[Madman26]

Any movement on adding atmos?  I've been trying it out with my Apple Music and its pretty cool when its done well by a recording artist (and pointless when its not).

[Madman26]

30 minutes ago, Uncoy said:

 

Ultimately all of these spatial remixes are basically a giant DSP filter, with various knobs and buttons to twist and turn. There's very little real multichannel recording going on. When a label goes to the trouble to record multichannel with purpose, the effect can be interesting. I own some of the classics like Pink Floyd, but there's so little real multichannel music out there, the trouble of creating a high calibre multichannel listening system is far greater than the music available.

 

Multichannel amps are awful (I have high end Marantz and Pioneer receivers so a sample of Class-B and Class-D amplification, to my surprise the Pioneer Class-D is significantly better. The Marantz is adequate for casual listening after calibration with its microphone). For my money (and space), better to focus on stereo with a dedicated stereo amps and adequate reproduction, i.e. modern speakers with additional subwoofers. True giant classic tower speakers would be lovely, perhaps one of these years. Even stereo done well is a lot of trouble – I'm on mono stereo amps now, biwired, and the separation improves both treble and bass, adding additional clarity, less mud.

 

There's no win in arguing with the owner and founder of a site. If Atmos floats your boat, Chris, keep on sailing. Thank you for your hard work creating this site and community, it's an amazing achievement and a wonderful place for audiophiles to intersect.

 

My opinion

I've tried lots and lots of "beyond stereo" and spatial audio nonsense over the years and none of it has done much for me, except waste my time and occasionally empty my pocket book. Please give me the music as originally recorded, with high dynamic range, no compressed mixes please (which excludes almost all modern pop or rock and much indie, sadly).

Much of the time I agree with you.  But there is the occasional release where it’s really cool.  For example Dark Side of the Moon was done with a lot of thought and it’s very enjoyable.   But much or even most of the time it could be underwhelming and a distraction for me.

[Madman26]

I know you’re already replied to me and said atmos was not a priority.

 

just a couple points to add.  It seems atmos is rapidly growing in popularity.  I’ve even read interviews from artists who are going back and adding almost mixes to their back catalog.  And although the target audience for these mixes is probably small, it is out there and growing rapidly.

 

There probably is an opportunity for a streaming service to be a first mover if they offer this in lossless quality.  As far as I know, it’s only offered in lossy at the moment.  I think that would be enough to entice that growing segment to switch streaming providers provided there was an app that could support it on their system.  I guess that’s an issue to however with no TV app yet.