Play Dolby Atmos tracks in Surreal Sound Pro

[Bunnylebowski]

After receiving my Pure with SSP in mid-December, it has taken me about a month to finally be able to experience Atmos properly. As others have alluded to, the steps and stumbling blocks included:

- learning I must upgrade my Tidal account to HiFi Plus to access Atmos tracks
- hearing the muddy bass sound from the front footwell, learning about the butyl tape repair, and having mobile service perform this
- learning that the native Lucid Tidal app is needed rather than Tidal over Apple CarPlay or Bluetooth
- learning to find the Atmos tracks, albums, and playlists by searching the Atmos category on my desktop Tidal app
- learning to favorite my desired tracks on the desktop app then access them later through “My Collection” in the native Tidal app in the car

After all this work, however, I must say the result is well worth it. The sound quality, or more precisely its detail and clarity, is quite astonishing. As I listened to songs I have heard dozens of times before, I immediately heard details in both vocals and instruments I had never noticed - things like subtle variations in the singer’s voice, the clarity of the lyrics, the underlying pop and echo of every strike of the drum stick on the drum.

I am still enjoying working my way through the tracks, but to everyone else's recommendations, I will add Tidal's Rush: Dolby Atmos playlist, which I found particularly enjoyable:

Rush: Dolby Atmos

Listen to Rush: Dolby Atmos on TIDAL

tidal.com

Many thanks to everyone in this thread, especially @Bunnylebowski, for their contributions to this forum in helping me discover this wonder. It is now my favorite part of the car (and I bought it because I really enjoy driving).

You make a valid point that really giving you a great feature in the car should be easier to use or at least you should be provided with more guidance than “this car can play Dolby Atmos through Tidal, ok bye”. But yeah it’s worth the legwork!

 

[LucidPez]

I get Apple Music for free. I just constantly add songs to one giant playlist. Guess I will use a tool to convert my Apple Music Playlist to Tidal and then just add new songs to that. Some are Dolby Atmos some arent but at least I can get them in the car and still have them on my phone and maintain two playlists. Gotta pay for Tidal though which is a bummer but oh well.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Tidal is honestly overpriced for just being able to play Atmos, but to my ear their two channel audio compression algorithm also sounds a little better than Apple “lossless”, so that adds a little value, not sure why it sounds a little better? Several of my pro audio friends who’ve done A/ B comparisons of their own material in both formats concur. In any case, you’re driving an expensive car anyway so might as well pay too much to enjoy Atmos for now until Apple Music is integrated into the car (or Apple allows Atmos over CarPlay!)

 

[Lucken]

Tidal is honestly overpriced for just being able to play Atmos, but to my ear their two channel audio compression algorithm also sounds a little better than Apple “lossless”, so that adds a little value, not sure why it sounds a little better? Several of my pro audio friends who’ve done A/ B comparisons of their own material in both formats concur. In any case, you’re driving an expensive car anyway so might as well pay too much to enjoy Atmos for now until Apple Music is integrated into the car (or Apple allows Atmos over CarPlay!)

Just out of curiosity Bunny, were those blind A/Bs or did your friends know which source was playing? Just wondering if any bias was removed from the test.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

No not blind, there may have been bias. Also not blinded but A/B comparisons in AirPod pro to me Tidal Max compression format sounds better than Apple Lossless to my ear as well.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Not hugely better, it’s subtle, it’s more the depth of stage and clarity of reverbs in more dynamic tracks where I do think Tidal sounds better. For loud mixed music with not much dynamic range they sound identical.

 

[EXOTIC2]

I get Apple Music for free. I just constantly add songs to one giant playlist. Guess I will use a tool to convert my Apple Music Playlist to Tidal and then just add new songs to that. Some are Dolby Atmos some arent but at least I can get them in the car and still have them on my phone and maintain two playlists. Gotta pay for Tidal though which is a bummer but oh well.

Curious how do you get Apple Music for free?
Thx in advance

 

[moytoyx]

Curious how do you get Apple Music for free?
Thx in advance

I get Apple Music thru Verizon wireless service. It's included in Get More plan for no additional charge.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

Glad to see a couple of music lovers here. As quiet as the Lucid is on the highway, I strongly recommend that if you have the premium audio option and a Tidal subscription, go out to your garage about 2 or 3 am and just listen. Don't drive...just listen.

 

[Babyrocko1908]

Glad to see a couple of music lovers here. As quiet as the Lucid is on the highway, I strongly recommend that if you have the premium audio option and a Tidal subscription, go out to your garage about 2 or 3 am and just listen. Don't drive...just listen.

I do it all the time -- probably a bit too much! My Wife even joined me this past Sunday as we listened to the remastered version of Tracy Chapman's smash hit "Fast Car." I'd like to also add, sit in the rear center seat to experience the optimal listening position in the car.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

I do it all the time -- probably a bit too much! My Wife even joined me this past Sunday as we listened to the remastered version of Tracy Chapman's smash hit "Fast Car." I'd like to also add, sit in the rear center seat to experience the optimal listening position in the car.

omg I was just going to suggest this song!

Tracy makes me cry. I was about to lose it when Luke stepped in and took every bit of emotion out of the moment. Now I need a Tracy fix.

Thank you for telling me where the 'sweet spot' is. All those decades tweaking my listening rooms and I forget the obvious...

 

[Babyrocko1908]

omg I was just going to suggest this song!

Tracy makes me cry. I was about to lose it when Luke stepped in and took every bit of emotion out of the moment. Now I need a Tracy fix.

Thank you for telling me where the 'sweet spot' is. All those decades tweaking my listening rooms and I forget the obvious...

Luke was neither here nor there for me. It was all about Tracy. Wanna her from the rear center seat of Chameleon? Click this link.... https://x.com/Babyrocko1908/status/1754338868835328475?s=20

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I do it all the time -- probably a bit too much! My Wife even joined me this past Sunday as we listened to the remastered version of Tracy Chapman's smash hit "Fast Car." I'd like to also add, sit in the rear center seat to experience the optimal listening position in the car.

This is the way. I’ve definitely sat in the rear center seat and found it to be the best position for listening to Atmos tracks. That position is much closer to where the mixer would be sitting and speaker distances in the studio when they mixed the track (of course the surrounds are then too close but I’ll live with that). Sitting in the driver seat and leaning to the right so you’re positioned more center is a little too near field, although it still sounds great. What amazes me most is the acoustic tuning in this thing must have been very aggravating with the glass roof, seats and alcantara, it should sound worse than it does.

 

[LucidPez]

Curious how do you get Apple Music for free?
Thx in advance

Verizon Wireless

 

[OCDC]

Glad to see a couple of music lovers here. As quiet as the Lucid is on the highway, I strongly recommend that if you have the premium audio option and a Tidal subscription, go out to your garage about 2 or 3 am and just listen. Don't drive...just listen.

I do it all the time -- probably a bit too much! My Wife even joined me this past Sunday as we listened to the remastered version of Tracy Chapman's smash hit "Fast Car." I'd like to also add, sit in the rear center seat to experience the optimal listening position in the car.

To this end, if it hasn't already been said; as a wishlist item, Lucid, please add music control to the back seat panel.

 

[stratus]

I do it all the time -- probably a bit too much! My Wife even joined me this past Sunday as we listened to the remastered version of Tracy Chapman's smash hit "Fast Car." I'd like to also add, sit in the rear center seat to experience the optimal listening position in the car.

I love Tracy Chapman so much; I was just listening to many of her songs in the Lucid yesterday. They are beautiful and ethereal .
I watched her performance at the Grammys and I must it admit my eyes watered!!!

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

What amazes me most is the acoustic tuning in this thing must have been very aggravating with the glass roof, seats and alcantara, it should sound worse than it does.

YES !

I think about this a lot. I got the Everest handbook some decades ago and built a couple of dedicated listening rooms, so I have some experience in "tuning" a space. Wow...is it ever easy to make it worse. I bought a Volvo V70 R just to get the Dynaudio "tuned" system = pretty good. Then I bought a Lexus just to hear to Mark Levinson system (disappointing...which surprises me as it's a very quiet car). The E63s had the B+O option, but the car is way too noisy = it's a waste of money on this model. I can't remember even listening to music in that car ... just podcasts.

I would love to read about the audio tuning work done on the Lucid... or perhaps it's all Dolby Pro / Tidal ? Fooling the physics with chips?

 

[The Gun]

I just realized there’s no thread describing how to get the most out of surreal sound pro/Dolby Atmos, and there’s been some complaints about SS pro that are mostly due to owners not actually using it correctly or understanding the unique implementation of audio in the Lucid:

There are currently only two ways to hear actual Dolby Atmos tracks in the car:
1- subscribe to Tidal HiFI Plus or activate the free trial (you have to do this on your phone or home computer), enable it in the settings menu, and correctly find Dolby Atmos tracks.
2- subscribe to Amazon Music unlimited (or free trial)

Once you’ve done that, only the native apps in the car software can play Atmos. Your phone cannot stream Atmos to the car.

Apple CarPlay does NOT play back true Dolby Atmos tracks in the car, or in any other car despite what some websites and forums say. It DOES play back Apple Lossless, and you need to turn that on in your settings in your phone. It sounds great depending on the track, although I’ve done side by side comparisons of identical tracks in Apple Music and Tidal and to my ear, Tidal sounds better if the tracks have been remastered, but non-remastered originals are indistinguishable between the two streaming services.

Sometimes Atmos tracks are tricky to search for, as typing in “Atmos” won’t bring them up. For example one of the greatest Atmos mixes I’ve ever heard is Devo Whip It, but you can’t find it unless you search for Devo Whip It (Atmos Mix) because many Atmos mixes have a parenthesis around the word Atmos.

You cannot hear Atmos tracks over Bluetooth in the car. You also cannot hear Atmos tracks over USB audio drives.

Some owners have also mentioned or complained you need to turn the volume up louder than other cars. This is by deliberate design in the Lucid. Professional mixing studios are calibrated such that zero on the fader =
79dB SPL. This represents about 80% of the maximum amplitude of the system, so to hear songs in the Lucid as mixed, guess what, you need to put the volume close to about 80% max, which is LOUD. I’ve confirmed this by playing back calibration noise tones. One click on the Lucid volume wheel below the right screen is equal to about 2db, and guess what, there’s 48 clicks between zero and 100% meaning max volume is about 96dB SPL.

This post is purely meant to be educational. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, this is not for commenting on the bass in the car which is quite an accurate reproduction of how the songs were mixed but nonetheless may not be what owners want out of a car audio system. And Mods if I have duplicated another better placed thread please remove or move this one. If anyone wants step by step pictures to help I’m happy to do that.

Completely agree - dumped Spotify and bought Tidal which has much better sound / clarity and lots of Dolby Atmos tracks - much better sound in my Air GT indeed

 

[Babyrocko1908]

To this end, if it hasn't already been said; as a wishlist item, Lucid, please add music control to the back seat panel.

This was my top requested feature on survey.

 

[joec]

I love Tracy Chapman so much; I was just listening to many of her songs in the Lucid yesterday. They are beautiful and ethereal .
I watched her performance at the Grammys and I must it admit my eyes watered!!!

I had the honor of meeting her once. She was shopping in the Apple Store in Palo Alto, of all places. Looking for a video game. She was very cool and gracious. This was decades ago.

The genius there told me a story that she once brought in her laptop, saying the fans were making too much noise when she was trying to record. After much back and forth, trying to explain that the thermals of the machine required the fans to be running when you pushed the processors that hard, she basically insisted that this made the machine useless to her. So they ended up disabling the fans for her, with the caveat that if the machine overheated, it would void her warranty. She took a chance over having fan noise on her demos.

Who knows if she ever ended up melting her laptop. I suspect not.