Article: Atmos Music and Some Current Favorites, Part 1

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[The Computer Audiophile]

9 minutes ago, ted_b said:

The Temptations: Sky's The Limit

https://music.apple.com/us/album/skys-the-limit/1443182797

That's absolutely gorgeous @ted_b. Thank you!

[The Computer Audiophile]

Brian Eno re: Atmos

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, jrobbins50 said:

It appears that the Elton John Diamonds collection is back to being Atmos!  @The Computer Audiophile or @El Guapo, can you confirm?  JCR 

Yes!

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, ted_b said:

Since it hasn't already been actually added to the list......

 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/foreverandevernomore/1635589174

Just received the Blu-ray with lossless TrueHD Atmos :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

15 minutes ago, bobfa said:

Can you play that disc with a Blu-ray Player on the MAC?  

Probably could, but there’s no TrueHD decoder in the app. Thus, need to rip and play with Dolby Reference player. 
 

P.S. The Reference player was recently updated to enable full screen video playback. For people into movies, like @El Guapo, this is huge!

[The Computer Audiophile]

18 minutes ago, jhwalker said:

I have a fairly large local collection of multichannel recordings (mostly classical), and I enjoy them so much.  The sense of realism is so much more pronounced, to the extent sometimes I filter my library on (everything but stereo) just to listen to multichannel.

 

I wish the streaming services (other than Apple, of course; i.e., Tidal, Qobuz, etc.) would get on the bandwagon and start streaming Atmos, as well, and / or that Roon would start supporting Apple Music (I know it's not Roon's choice whether they support it or not - kind of a joint effort for them) for that full experience without pushing through an AppleTV (which is really the only way I get Atmos content at the moment).

It’s a marathon, not a sprint :~)

 

I don’t see Roon ever supporting it. The company seems uninterested. 
 

A step forward will be an app like Audirvana being able to use the built-in Dolby Digital + decoder in macOS, just like Apple Music does, and stream Atmos from Tidal. 
 

Also, HiFi manufacturers need to perk up and realize technology is moving. They need to support more than 8 channels and use technologies like Ravenna to input up to 16 channels of DXD. The pro world is way ahead of HiFi today. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

7 minutes ago, jrobbins50 said:

Speaking of movies through the DRP, I’d like to play my Atmos edition of Top Gun Maverick through there. My 74 Gb version is in MKV which apparently is not supported by the DRP. @El Guapo, what software program would you recommend for (as close as possible) losslessly converting the MKV to a format recognized by the DRP?  Thanks. JCR 

I believe MakeMKV can backup the disc, unencrypted. Then you can use M2TS files in the DRP. I think. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

27 minutes ago, Roy Boy said:

After streaming some Atmos music into my non-Atmos 7.1 system it has me thinking about future upgrade paths. In my current system I also stream ripped mch SACD from my NAS via Oppo 103d via HDMI to Integra 80.3 processor. It seems like the current generation of Atmos capable processors seem to dropping support for DSD decoding and/or 7.1 analog input. I do not see me going down the path as Chris did due to the complexity and my system needs to support 2 ch Hi-Res/ Atmos for music and Atmos for movies. Any insights into a way forward to support all these formats? Thanks

Ah, you need a processor that does DSD and Atmos. Hmmm. I’m guessing you don’t want to convert DSD to 176.4 PCM?

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

49 minutes ago, Roy Boy said:

I am not against the idea of converting my mch dsd collection to 24/176.4. I suppose that would be something like DLNA access from the surround processor?

Hmmmm. Multichannel over DLNA could be problematic. Last I checked it wasn’t working but that was over a year ago. 
 

Perhaps @jrobbins50 or @ted_b can help. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

50 minutes ago, speavler said:

Thanks for this, Chris. I have a decent home theater setup and this post inspired me to try out some of these atmos mixes.  Really enjoying REM’s “Automatic for the People” and Alice in Chains’ “Dirt”. “Rooster” wasn’t one of my favorites but man it’s giving me chills. I see PJ’s “Ten” has been given the Atmos remix as well. Gonna check it out when the house is empty tomorrow. 

Fantastic. 

 

heck out PJ's No Code. It's the best Atmos mix of the three PJ albums in Atmos. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, Kal Rubinson said:

Quite doable as Oppo users can attest.

That's great to hear. It isn't in the standard, so I'm guessing it's very device specific? 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, retro said:

Great info, thx! Does this mean the audio is correctly synced to the video as well?

Let’s ask @El Guapo , I’m not a video guy. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, retro said:

Only a matter of time..😉

 

Video bores me 🙂

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, jcbenten said:

Most of the time me too....I have dozens of movies started in Netflix and Prime and have no intention of finishing.

Video shuts down my brain, and I feel dumber by the minute when watching. That’s obviously just me though. I love audio because it’s theater of the mind. Similar to a book. 
 

The new podcasts delivered in Atmos are amazing. The sonic “picture” they paint is so good. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, bbosler said:

On the other hand, IMHO it is impossible to truly appreciate the mastery of their instrument some musicians have without seeing them perform. It is impossible to truly experience the passion of some artists without seeing them perform. It is impossible to truly understand the interplay and unspoken communication of some musical groups without seeing them perform.

 

The main problem I have with many videos though is the extremely distracting practice of jumping from camera to camera every few seconds like it is a Van Halen MTV video. I had to stop watching a PBS tribute to Charles Mingus and a Charles Lloyd concert recently because of it.  And don’t get me started on symphonies where they bounce all over the orchestra every few seconds,,,,  IT DRIVES ME INSANE !!! 

 

Thank you for allowing the small rant

I hear ya. No worries about the rant :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

17 minutes ago, jrango said:

A footnote on getting the best from some of your favorite multichannel recordings, in particular those from 2L. While they sound amazing in normal polarity, they are recorded in reverse polarity, and the difference, at least in my system, is obvious: smoother highs, better transients, and more realistic placement in the mix, and a much more immersive experience. I understand this is a controversial subject. What I know for sure is that I can hear it, and Robert Harley, who spent a couple of hours listening to multichannel in my room, heard it.

When I installed my equipment I made a point of insuring that every piece of equipment was easily accessible, so changing polarity is easy--just insert a polarity reversing plug in each XLR input. I'm not sure whether you have such easy access, but if you do, try switching polarity and see if you hear a difference. If you are downloading from Native DSD then many of their European labels are reverse polarity (with the exception of Dutch labels, whose engineers began at Phillips (that always used normal polarity). 

As an example of the differences, in "Magnificat" (2L-106-SABD) played in normal mode, the organ is not obviously behind and above the listening position; the organ attacks are not clear: the girls choir sounds too deep in the mix to be realistic; and the soprano soloist is too loud and not clearly in the same space.

So, I suggest that, if you easily get to your amplifiers, you invest in some reversing plugs and give reverse polarity a try. In my system it makes a big difference.

Inverting polarity is simple is Audirvana and can even read the polarity tag embedded into the tracks. 
 

My Merging hardware can invert polarity with the tap of a finger as well. 
 

I will ask Morten from 2L what he believes sounds closest to the real thing. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Guys, I heard back from Morten at 2L. Here’s what he said. 
 

“We do take care to make sure natural polarity is preserved all thru our signal path from recording into delivery. But I have experienced that speakers with analogue x-over could sound better when polarity is flipped. I believe this has to do with the nature of phase twist in the filters, and how the elements snap to polarity and how they are time-aligned. A speaker designer would be better at explaining this.

 

Speakers with linear DSP and systems with room calibration that actually takes phase and polarity into account should generally not be inverted. Whatever you do, make sure all channels are treated equally in a multichannel system.”

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, jrango said:

My basic point remains: changing polarity, especially for European produced multichannel recordings, is worth a try. 

Absolutely. In most systems it’s simple to try. 
 

When Peter McGrath from Wilson was here, he frequently flipped the polarity, using my preamp remote, when listening to stereo recordings.