TIDAL Magic with Dolby Atmos Surreal Sound

[stratus]

One thing I appreciated that Nat did is he actually took identical Atmos mix files from both Tidal and Apple, and phase flipped one of them and played them in sync together and found they cancelled each other out. This is a clever objective way to prove that at least for Atmos mixes, Tidal and AppleMusic are likely identical in terms of the sonic information they contain, removing the subjective listener from the equation and any fuss about “lossy” compression. At least for Atmos, Apple Music and Tidal are the same. I think otherwise Tidal sounds better than Apple Music for 2 channel audio, but I’d be curious to see a similar test against the 2 channel versions of tracks in Tidal Max resolution and Apple Lossless and see if there’s any difference.

Hey Lucid, let’s get that native Apple Music app, please.

 

[borski]

One thing I appreciated that Nat did is he actually took identical Atmos mix files from both Tidal and Apple, and phase flipped one of them and played them in sync together and found they cancelled each other out. This is a clever objective way to prove that at least for Atmos mixes, Tidal and AppleMusic are likely identical in terms of the sonic information they contain, removing the subjective listener from the equation and any fuss about “lossy” compression. At least for Atmos, Apple Music and Tidal are the same. I think otherwise Tidal sounds better than Apple Music for 2 channel audio, but I’d be curious to see a similar test against the 2 channel versions of tracks in Tidal Max resolution and Apple Lossless and see if there’s any difference.

Well, hang on, the content may be the same but the quality may not be, still, right? In terms of bitrate, etc., for example

 

[joec]

Well, hang on, the content may be the same but the quality may not be, still, right? In terms of bitrate, etc., for example

If the two phases are canceling each other out, they are sonically equal.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

If the two phases are canceling each other out, they are sonically equal.

Exactly, it means they both contain identical information. For bit rate as well, as Dolby codec is 768kbps per channel whether it’s Apple Music or Tidal. To my ears A/B comparison between non-Atmos two channel Tidal and Apple Music tracks that are supposedly identical sound a little better to me in Tidal than Apple Music, which doesn’t make sense to me as to why that would be, but maybe there’s some embellishment that goes on with Tidal’s “max” format as compared to Apple “lossless”?

 

[borski]

If the two phases are canceling each other out, they are sonically equal.

Fair - for some reason in my brain I read that as 'mostly canceled each other out'. mea culpa.

 

[OCDC]

For bit rate as well, as Dolby codec is 768kbps per channel

I question this. Everything I've read on the Atmos streaming is that it's 768kbps max for the full stream of a song, not per audio channel. It's a very efficient compression standard, but it's still highly compressed. This may be why I keep drifting back to the Tidal Max streaming. It's only stereo, but it sounds clearer and fuller, IMHO. For example, Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive" has both Atmos and Max versions on Tidal. Played back to back, with the Lucid equalizer set to all 0's for comparison, the lossless Max version is the one I prefer. (The irony of the song title in this conversation isn't lost on me BTW. )

 

[MichaelW]

The quality seems good, but does anyone know why a 500 watt system seems so weak in volume??

 

[julianevjourney]

This score is phenomenal, thanks for the recommendation!

Oh and you’re absolutely right, the movie itself is horrible! Great premise but just a poorly mad movie.

 

[joec]

The quality seems good, but does anyone know why a 500 watt system seems so weak in volume??

It’s not weak. It’s the algorithm of the volume slider. You have to push it higher to get as loud as you might be used to. But it still gets loud when you want. And it avoids clipping at higher volumes better that way.

It’s more like a fader on a traditional studio mixer than a commercial radio volume knob.

 

[joec]

Oh and you’re absolutely right, the movie itself is horrible! Great premise but just a poorly mad movie.

I didn’t think it was horrible so much as it just didn’t work. A number of his movies are like that. Great premise. But the execution just doesn’t quite pan out. Too clever for its own good.

Nolan is much better off when he isn’t trying to be clever. Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Oppenheimer. Just good, solid storytelling.

And those soundtracks are all great, too.

The music is always on point.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

This is what Apple refers to as "Spatial Audio." It works on their AirPods Pro and Max. Basically it's Atmos applied to headphones.

I finally got a set of AirPod Pro 2s so I could see how well Spatial Audio translates Dolby Atmos tracks. Without question the car sounds better than headphones, only a couple steps down from a professional mixing studio and one step down from a properly equipped cinema. BUT the AirPods do the best of any headphones I’ve heard in terms of virtualizing multichannel audio. The proof is in the Atmos test tracks https://tidal.com/track/275058835,
it does an impressive job of replicating the true speaker locations. With music however it’s a bit hit or miss, with most tracks sounding better in the car than in Spatial Audio/Atmos in the headphones, but they still sound excellent. Overall I’m impressed as the $200 price tags for what these headphones can do is a great deal, considering it adjusts to your ear anatomy, allows clever play through and volume leveling if you need to hear something external but the also provides excellent noise cancelling. They’re also more comfortable than any other earbud I’ve had. As usual Apple proves they really know what they’re doing.

 

[julianevjourney]

I finally got a set of AirPod Pro 2s so I could see how well Spatial Audio translates Dolby Atmos tracks. Without question the car sounds better than headphones, only a couple steps down from a professional mixing studio and one step down from a properly equipped cinema. BUT the AirPods do the best of any headphones I’ve heard in terms of virtualizing multichannel audio. The proof is in the Atmos test tracks https://tidal.com/track/275058835,
it does an impressive job of replicating the true speaker locations. With music however it’s a bit hit or miss, with most tracks sounding better in the car than in Spatial Audio/Atmos in the headphones, but they still sound excellent. Overall I’m impressed as the $200 price tags for what these headphones can do is a great deal, considering it adjusts to your ear anatomy, allows clever play through and volume leveling if you need to hear something external but the also provides excellent noise cancelling. They’re also more comfortable than any other earbud I’ve had. As usual Apple proves they really know what they’re doing.

Thx for including the link to those Dolby Atmos test tracks. I can’t wait to see what they sound like in my car. I have the AirPods Max. They are a bit too heavy so I don’t use them as much as I thought I would. I haven’t really compared them to my car but now you’ve got me curious so I think I’ll do that in the near future.

 

[Tom]

Tidal is $6 a momth if you’re a veteran.

 

[momo3605]

It’s not weak. It’s the algorithm of the volume slider. You have to push it higher to get as loud as you might be used to. But it still gets loud when you want. And it avoids clipping at higher volumes better that way.

It’s more like a fader on a traditional studio mixer than a commercial radio volume knob.

Isn't SSP 800W? 500W is fairly weak by todays premium audio standards

 

[xponents]

Isn't SSP 800W? 500W is fairly weak by todays premium audio standards

Maybe hes talking about base SS?