Thoughts on Spatial Audio - "The Future of Music!"

meduk1

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With Apples Spatial Audio launching yesterday I wondered what people's thoughts were?

They are making a big push of this being 'the future of music' and have put some decent materials with Zane Low on explaining how it all works and how it will be the biggest change since stereo.

I had a listen last night on my Apple TV hooked up to my 5.1.2 setup and it sounded...different. Difficult to decide on it given were all so used to stereo. I thought certain tracks and genres worked really well for it, much more atmospheric and all encompassing sound.

Would be interested to see what its like for music that is mastered in Atmos, vs most of the back catalogue which I presume has just been up-channeled.

Anyone else had a listen to it yet?
 
Interestingly I've got it playing through my AirPods Pro currently and I'm struggling to see the big difference except for synths sounding a bit more prominent.

I'm a DJ too so my next thoughts are will this eventually become present in a nightclub environment, can't imagine it'll be any time soon.

More interested in how it'll sound on my Sonos ARC
 
That's interesting, I haven't tried it with AirPods yet, but I was confused on how they could create an Atmos track through AirPods which presumably only have one driver?

Yeah devices like Sonos ARC, or full fat Atmos setups I can see it working well
 
That's interesting, I haven't tried it with AirPods yet, but I was confused on how they could create an Atmos track through AirPods which presumably only have one driver?

Yeah devices like Sonos ARC, or full fat Atmos setups I can see it working well
Well the press release with Zane Lowe on said "all you need is a pair of headphones" ...

No doubt the next AirPods / Pro will be Atmos enabled won't they.
 
I thought technically they are already...I just don't get how that works with headphones unless you have multiple drivers. Surely its all virtualised?
 
It works using head related transfer functions, rendering the Dolby Atmos source into true three-dimensional space based on how we actually perceive location information using nothing more than the two holes on the sides of our heads.

It isn't absolutely perfect, because it has to model the audio based on a generic head shape whereas your own perception is geared around your own personal head, but pretty close.

The important thing to understand is that it's not just another audio trick, it's based on the true science of how we hear - and as such, it works with any headphones because all the clever stuff is done in the Dolby Atmos decoder on your phone/computer/tablet etc., which will render the Atmos data into binaural audio - one channel for each ear.
 


Nothing wrong with good old stereo. But I've an even better idea. Stop compressing the bloody audio so much.
 
Listen to Drive by R.E.M in atmos 😳
 
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell sounds great in 5.1 (Not atmos set up yet for me :( )
 
So ok.. I can get Apple Atmos via Apple TV 4K into the Onkyo AV Receiver

Does anyone know how you can get Apple Lossless to it as in 24/192khz - Apple TV is currently limited to 48khz and airplay is also limited - is there any other way you can currently get it to the Onkyo?
 
Not through the Apple TV yet, although I can't think of why its not possible with the hardware so it may come in a future update.

USB DAC with iPhone would be my only guess at the current time
 

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