Play Dolby Atmos tracks in Surreal Sound Pro

[Cosmo Cruz]

This was my top requested feature on survey.

I didn't know I wanted this. Thanks.

 

[Fischman]

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

Wow That’s a great deal. My plan which is the Play More only gave it for 6mos and then hit me for $10.99 so no more Play.

 

[fkk]

According to this article in WWDC23, Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) should now be supported in CarPlay if you have at least iOS 17.2. I believe that after going to iPhone Settings -> Music and turning on Hi-Res Lossless for Cellular Data, and Dolby Atmos to Always On, I am getting Atmos through CarPlay. I am currently at iOS 17.3. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, I have noticed that my home AppleTV plays Spatial Audio if I stream from my iPhone. That used to not be the case with older iOS versions. Maybe Apple found a way to get higher quality though WIFI and Bluetooth.

 

[joec]

According to this article in WWDC23, Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) should now be supported in CarPlay if you have at least iOS 17.2. I believe that after going to iPhone Settings -> Music and turning on Hi-Res Lossless for Cellular Data, and Dolby Atmos to Always On, I am getting Atmos through CarPlay. I am currently at iOS 17.3. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, I have noticed that my home AppleTV plays Spatial Audio if I stream from my iPhone. That used to not be the case with older iOS versions. Maybe Apple found a way to get higher quality though WIFI and Bluetooth.

Interesting. Don't know how I missed that article.

My reading of it is that Lucid would still have to do some work to integrate Atmos into their system. But I will take a drive later today and give it a shot.

This line: "Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos can also be implemented in compatible vehicles"

Sounds to me like it's not an automatic thing. But it does seem like it's possible now, which is super exciting. I will be bugging Lucid endlessly until it gets done, if it is not already.

 

[stratus]

According to this article in WWDC23, Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) should now be supported in CarPlay if you have at least iOS 17.2. I believe that after going to iPhone Settings -> Music and turning on Hi-Res Lossless for Cellular Data, and Dolby Atmos to Always On, I am getting Atmos through CarPlay. I am currently at iOS 17.3. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, I have noticed that my home AppleTV plays Spatial Audio if I stream from my iPhone. That used to not be the case with older iOS versions. Maybe Apple found a way to get higher quality though WIFI and Bluetooth.

Hmmmm, that is interesting . I don’t think it is possible yet in our Lucids but I am going to check it out.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m going to test it but I’m 99% sure this refers to Spatial Audio which a surround sound virtualization and NOT the same thing as discreet 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos. https://www.dolby.com/experience/ho...s-spatial-audio/#isspatialaudionoisecanceling

 

[fkk]

Interesting. Don't know how I missed that article.

My reading of it is that Lucid would still have to do some work to integrate Atmos into their system. But I will take a drive later today and give it a shot.

This line: "Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos can also be implemented in compatible vehicles"

Sounds to me like it's not an automatic thing. But it does seem like it's possible now, which is super exciting. I will be bugging Lucid endlessly until it gets done, if it is not already.

I just spent an hour in the car trying to verify this. It appears that I was wrong. Although the sound is good when using CarPlay, I was not definitively experiencing Atmos sound. I was able to hear Atmos using Tidal.

Oh well. Something we can add to our wishlist for future updates.

 

[Deisic]

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.

Thanks for sharing, man! Coming from my Model S, I did notice a difference in the sub-bass. But the Atmos tracks do sound incredible.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

According to this article in WWDC23, Spatial Audio (Dolby Atmos) should now be supported in CarPlay if you have at least iOS 17.2. I believe that after going to iPhone Settings -> Music and turning on Hi-Res Lossless for Cellular Data, and Dolby Atmos to Always On, I am getting Atmos through CarPlay. I am currently at iOS 17.3. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, I have noticed that my home AppleTV plays Spatial Audio if I stream from my iPhone. That used to not be the case with older iOS versions. Maybe Apple found a way to get higher quality though WIFI and Bluetooth.

I tested it. CarPlay, at least in the Lucid, does not play back Dolby Atmos tracks. The proof is in this Dolby speaker identification test track. Play this back in Apple Music and tell me what it says:

Now play the identical track in tidal and you’ll hear the difference.

Dolby Labs - Channel ID 7.1.4 (Ltf:Rtf:Ltr:Rtr)

Listen to Channel ID 7.1.4 (Ltf:Rtf:Ltr:Rtr) on TIDAL

tidal.com

The Apple Music track tells you to enable multi channel audio meaning it recognizes it’s not enabled for Apple Music in the car.

I’ve always wished Apple Music wouldn’t have confused people and made it sound like Spatial Audio is Dolby Atmos. Spatial Audio takes the Dolby Atmos mix and downconverts it to a manageable number of channels and then virtualizes a multi-channel mix trying to preserve some of the discrete feeling of Atmos. It’s ok in headphones but honestly doesn’t sound nearly as good as a discrete 7.1.4 mix on loudspeakers.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

While that Dolby Track won’t work in Apple Music in the car, telling you to enable multichannel audio, it does work in AirPod Pros as designed, it virtualizes the voice identifying the speakers and sounds pretty good, doing exactly what Spatial Audio was designed to do, sonic trickery to make you think certain sounds are coming from behind you, approximating what Atmos is doing….until you playback the identical Tidal track and hear the advantage of discrete 7.1.4 loudspeaker Atmos mix.

 

[LucidPez]

So signed up for Tidal and attempted to use some playlist software to migrate my Apple Music playlists into Tidal. It worked but it only gave various high to max quality versions and ZERO Atmos versions of my Apple Music Playlist songs which some/most are Atmos tracks. I then tried looking stuff up on Tidal like for example 'Miley Cyrus - Flowers' and I had to go to the Dolby Atmos specific area to even find it.

What a giant pain in the butt. Tidal has some really awful UX. I could tell the difference in sound but the idea of recreating my playlists and searching for all of these in the app was too much of a headache that I'm going to let the Free Trial expire and just stick with Apple Music over CarPlay lol.

 

[Andretex]

So signed up for Tidal and attempted to use some playlist software to migrate my Apple Music playlists into Tidal. It worked but it only gave various high to max quality versions and ZERO Atmos versions of my Apple Music Playlist songs which some/most are Atmos tracks. I then tried looking stuff up on Tidal like for example 'Miley Cyrus - Flowers' and I had to go to the Dolby Atmos specific area to even find it.

What a giant pain in the butt. Tidal has some really awful UX. I could tell the difference in sound but the idea of recreating my playlists and searching for all of these in the app was too much of a headache that I'm going to let the Free Trial expire and just stick with Apple Music over CarPlay lol.

Yes, it is a pain to convert. I spent a little time adding all my favorite bands, songs, albums to Tidal. After a couple months of use, Tidal does come up with some auto Mix playlists for me which have been pretty good. Now I just turn on a mix or daily discover and am surprised by the good music it picks for me.

I think the sound quality of Tidal is far superior than what you get from Apple car play or other options.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

So signed up for Tidal and attempted to use some playlist software to migrate my Apple Music playlists into Tidal. It worked but it only gave various high to max quality versions and ZERO Atmos versions of my Apple Music Playlist songs which some/most are Atmos tracks. I then tried looking stuff up on Tidal like for example 'Miley Cyrus - Flowers' and I had to go to the Dolby Atmos specific area to even find it.

What a giant pain in the butt. Tidal has some really awful UX. I could tell the difference in sound but the idea of recreating my playlists and searching for all of these in the app was too much of a headache that I'm going to let the Free Trial expire and just stick with Apple Music over CarPlay lol.

Yeah it is rather cumbersome. You’ve gotta find the tracks in the phone app or desktop version, and Tidal doesn’t organize them very well (neither does Apple, took me some to find an Atmos version of a recent album I knew existed in Apple Music). Once you’ve got everything set then it’s not too difficult from that point forward to find new tracks and add to playlists but the setup is cumbersome. The music search function in the car Tidal app sucks, it definitely doesn’t display everything, and you can’t add things to a playlist from the car. To make matters worse, when you click on an album or artist or playlist , it just starts playing it rather than letting me search scroll for tracks inside the playlist or album or artist. I have a whole slew of suggestions they could implement to make the Tidal car app better. However I like the audio quality so much along with Atmos (some Atmos tracks in Apple Music don’t exist and Tidal and some in Tidal don’t exist in Apple) that I’m sticking with Tidal and may ditch Apple Music as I use it so rarely.

 

[LucidPez]

Apple has always seemed to default me to Atmos on any download i request which i love. I almost think they give you various versions with one download lol

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Hmmm, which one of these is the Atmos version? When I click on any of them and start playing, they’re all Lossless not Atmos. Maybe it’s because I’m streaming and not set to auto-download?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Ok I figured it out, it was the 10th track in the list that was Atmos, not indicated by anything other than that it said Atmos once I started playing it. I think it’s not much easier to find Atmos tracks in Apple Music as the name doesn’t identify it as being the Atmos version, unlike Tidal. I wasn’t able to find Devo’s Whip It mix in Atmos at all in Apple Music, which is a bummer because it’s a phenomenal Atmos mix. Synths out of all speakers, it’s fat! https://tidal.com/track/260105590

 

[Lucken]

You wouldn’t think it’s so hard to label tracks ‘Atmos’ where appropriate. My 8K OLED TV shows when a program is in Dolby Vision and/or Dolby Atmos.

 

[ButMahElectrons]

Interesting. Don't know how I missed that article.

My reading of it is that Lucid would still have to do some work to integrate Atmos into their system. But I will take a drive later today and give it a shot.

This line: "Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos can also be implemented in compatible vehicles"

Sounds to me like it's not an automatic thing. But it does seem like it's possible now, which is super exciting. I will be bugging Lucid endlessly until it gets done, if it is not already.

It does indeed seem like CarPlay "would" support Dolby Atmos playback now.
BUT, Lucid, as the dev, needs to activate that in their deployment of CarPlay, and then send an update to our cars.

Tic toc, Rawly.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I’m still not aware of CarPlay via USB or wireless connection sending an actual DD+ JOC file for the car to decode into discreet Dolby Atmos. Perhaps a native Apple Music app in a car equipped with the ability to decode Atmos codec could do it? Maybe Apple Spatial Audio can be done over CarPlay wired or wireless in some vehicles, but to reiterate that is not the same as true Dolby Atmos.

 

[Pejorative]

So I'm new to the world of Lucid. Picked mine up yesterday. Tidal no longer has tiered plans and Atmos is available to all. However, my Lucid is telling me that it will only play tracks in stereo because I'm on the basic tidal plan. Anyone else encounter this issue and is there a workaround?