General view on Atmos

I've had my Air Pure since September and have enjoyed SSP. BTW, I have 2.5 with the tape fix not required due to May 2024 manufacture date. I've used the Tidal trial account to listen to many Atmos tracks. They're fun and the sound is clear, but the fact that I am sitting in the front driver seat 100% of the time is a dramatically different experience from the rear center seat where Atmos sound stage seems attuned. From the rear center seat, Atmos is a fabulous complex sonic experience. From the driver seat, it may be worse than basic stereo as high front channels meant to give height and subtle audio cues are to close to my ear and become to much the center of what I hear. Compared with my other cars with good stereos, the Atmos tuning almost seems gimmicky. Basic stereo sound gives a good sound stage for the driver and can be balanced to optimize it for your seat location. Atmos will not allow any manipulation at all aside from volume. It sure seems like it is designed for home stereo/theater and car integration is an afterthought. I wish I could simply change with R/L balance. Knowing where the driver always sits, this seems like a predictable problem for car integration which is not ready for prime time. Just wondering if others agree.

Prior to 2.5.0, I had been exclusivity listening to YouTube Music via Apple CarPlay. I had tried Tidal and Dolby Atmos, but I wasn't impressed enough to keep it. Now, after the 2.5.0 update (along wit the TSC completed for the footwell speakers), I've subscribed to Tidal to try it out again.

In a nutshell, some Atmos songs are now truly a revelation! Effects can dance around you and voices, particularly in groups with multiple singers, certainly appear to float in different points in space, as do certain instruments and effects. The improved bass of 2.5.0 really helped to fill out songs that were previously clear, but lacked presence, and also improved vocals coming from the center channel which were previously more muted relative to the other channels. I'm quite happy with the update and may be keeping Tidal for a while.

However, this seems to truly depend on the care of the sound engineering for each song. Even within the same album, some songs are completely unimpressive--dull and lifeless with little additional clarity or immersion compared to stereo. Other songs, even on the same album (oddly), can truly shine, however. I would say to be sure for anyone using Tidal and Atmos to be sure try a broad variety of songs across multiple artists and even across different songs within the same album.

Are you getting this soundscape while sitting in the driver’s seat? Or are you referring to the listening experience in the rear center?

Yes, from the driver’s seat.

GratefulMed said:

I've had my Air Pure since September and have enjoyed SSP. BTW, I have 2.5 with the tape fix not required due to May 2024 manufacture date. I've used the Tidal trial account to listen to many Atmos tracks. They're fun and the sound is clear, but the fact that I am sitting in the front driver seat 100% of the time is a dramatically different experience from the rear center seat where Atmos sound stage seems attuned. From the rear center seat, Atmos is a fabulous complex sonic experience. From the driver seat, it may be worse than basic stereo as high front channels meant to give height and subtle audio cues are to close to my ear and become to much the center of what I hear. Compared with my other cars with good stereos, the Atmos tuning almost seems gimmicky. Basic stereo sound gives a good sound stage for the driver and can be balanced to optimize it for your seat location. Atmos will not allow any manipulation at all aside from volume. It sure seems like it is designed for home stereo/theater and car integration is an afterthought. I wish I could simply change with R/L balance. Knowing where the driver always sits, this seems like a predictable problem for car integration which is not ready for prime time. Just wondering if others agree.

Click to expand...

Atmos respects the EQ, just not the balance.

Hopefully they will have some input on this in the next update.