Bluesound Node with Dolby Atmos Music functionality

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Finally, you can play Dolby Atmos Music through your Atmos-compatible AV receiver with the new Bluesound Node with HDMI output.


Actually, just kidding. You can’t because such a product is not yet made. Sorry!


But with Sony’s efforts to get their 360 audio off the ground and Dolby pushing the Atmos Music banner, it makes you wonder why a product like this isn’t yet made. Instead they’re trying to make us believe you can appreciate spatial 3D sound from a single small desktop speaker. Really? Who are you trying to kid? i mean, with Sony’s history of making ground-breaking products (SACD, Bluray), you would think Sony would at least be making the hardware (a streamer and associated multi-channel amplifier) to support the software they’re marketing (360 audio).

And Bluesound have made their Node compatible with new music formats like MQA. So surely Atmos encoding and an HDMI output isn’t too much of a leap surely? By all means call it a different name and add another £100 to the asking price for the multi-channel privilege.

But then we’ve been here before haven’t we. Two arms of the same company do seem to struggle to communicate and miss obvious opportunities. Why don’t TV and soundbar manufacturers communicate? Sony - why don’t you make a TV stand with an adjustable height, so you can create a soundbar that doesn’t have to squish all its drivers into a space 1 inch high?

I’m just wasted in my job! The hardware and marketing misses by AV manufacturers seems to continue at pace.
 
You can already get a NAD T778 AV receiver with BlueOS.
 
But can you stream multi-channel Dolby Atmos Music from Tidal using BkuOS on your AVR?

If so, that’s cool. But it would be nice if someone made a separate streamer that could enable other make AVR’s to achieve this.
 
Tidal list the following as comparable TV connected devices for Atmos Music:
  • Apple TV 4K (running tvOS 13 or later)
  • Fire TV (Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Gen 3 2017, Fire TV Cube 1st Gen or 2nd Gen)
  • Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro (2019 and newer models)
 
All of those need a display switched on presumably to operate them?
 
All of those need a display switched on presumably to operate them?
No, not if plugged into a AV receiver. However, if you have CEC control switched on it may be difficult to stop the TV coming on when you activate music playback.
 
But can you stream multi-channel Dolby Atmos Music from Tidal using BkuOS on your AVR?

You can with an apple tv apparently (well not the BluOs bit obviously :))
 

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