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Apple Music Dolby Atmos crossfade on Sonos Arc

  • 27 September 2023
  • 18 replies
  • 455 views

When my Sonos Playlist contains Apple Music Dolby Atmos tracks, those tracks will NOT crossfade. The first track has to end fully before the second is heard but starts 10 secs in (ie. no 10-second fade-up).

Crossfade works fine with non-Atmos tracks.

Is the Sonos bandwidth just not up to playing two Atmos tracks over one another? 

(I have a Sonos Arc with sub and surrounds.)

18 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hi @Rhonny,

Thank you for providing us with this information. We’ve forwarded this to our engineering team who are currently looking into this, however we have no further information to share. For now, we would recommend you to disable crossfade or to remove Dolby Atmos tracks from your playlists. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Thanks for that. Hopefully there will be a remedy in future updates, if the issue is replicated your side.

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

The latest 15.11 update STILL doesn’t enable crossfading on Apple Music Dolby Atmos songs on an Arc/surrounds/sub setup… The next song will still only kick in once the previous one has faded out. Grrrrr.

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

The latest 16.1 update STILL doesn’t enable crossfading on Apple Music Dolby Atmos tracks on an Arc/surrounds/sub setup! 

It’s now FIVE months since I brought this to Sonos’ attention, and there have been a number of updates since, but still no remedy. Can anyone on here with a similar set-up check whether it’s the same issue for them so that Sonos can be aware it’s not just a single user issue?

Here again is what I had originally posted:

“When my Sonos Playlist contains Apple Music Dolby Atmos tracks, those tracks will NOT crossfade. The first track has to end fully before the second is heard but starts 10 secs in (ie. no 10-second fade-up).

Crossfade works fine with non-Atmos tracks.

Is the Sonos bandwidth just not up to playing two Atmos tracks over one another? 

(I have a Sonos Arc with sub and surrounds.)”

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Unbelievably, the new app update and firmware update STILL doesn’t allow you to crossfade Apple Music Dolby Atmos songs on an Arc/Sub/Surrounds set up!

Please can anyone with a similar set up confirm that this is the case with them too?!

The first song ends before the next one comes in, but it comes in 8-10 secs into the song, so is clearly trying to crossfade but can’t bring up the sound of the next track until the first track has gone!!

@Jamie A - this thread is marked as answered but it isn’t…

Unbelievably, the new app update and firmware update STILL doesn’t allow you to crossfade Apple Music Dolby Atmos songs on an Arc/Sub/Surrounds set up!

Please can anyone with a similar set up confirm that this is the case with them too?!

The first song ends before the next one comes in, but it comes in 8-10 secs into the song, so is clearly trying to crossfade but can’t bring up the sound of the next track until the first track has gone!!

@Jamie A - this thread is marked as answered but it isn’t…

The speaker firmware that does the playback from source has not altered - it will need that to change to sort your reported cross-fade issue. The updated software is just a controller ‘remote’ App. So I would not expect this App to have changed the way things work. I can see this perhaps being pushed further down the development list now as there seems to be bigger priorities at the moment. (That’s just a guess).

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Unbelievably, the new app update and firmware update STILL doesn’t allow you to crossfade Apple Music Dolby Atmos songs on an Arc/Sub/Surrounds set up!

Please can anyone with a similar set up confirm that this is the case with them too?!

The first song ends before the next one comes in, but it comes in 8-10 secs into the song, so is clearly trying to crossfade but can’t bring up the sound of the next track until the first track has gone!!

@Jamie A - this thread is marked as answered but it isn’t…

The speaker firmware that does the playback from source has not altered - it will need that to change to sort your reported cross-fade issue. The updated software is just a controller ‘remote’ App. So I would not expect this App to have changed the way things work. I can see this perhaps being pushed further down the development list now as there seems to be bigger priorities at the moment. (That’s just a guess).

 

Thanks. But the crossfade issue has not arisen following the app update or the firmware update. It has NEVER been able to crossfade Apple Music Dolby Atmos on an Arc surround set-up. What I meant by “STILL doesn’t allow” is that despite the updates, it’s still not working. The update hasn’t broken it. 

I yearn for the day when another Arc/Sub/surround owner tests Apple Music Dolby Atmos crossfading and posts on here to confirm that it doesn’t work for them too!! It would be ideal to know it’s not just me, so that Sonos might sort it in a future update. There shouldn’t be an issue crossfading ANY selected music...

The speaker firmware that does the playback from source has not altered - it will need that to change to sort your reported cross-fade issue. The updated software is just a controller ‘remote’ App. So I would not expect this App to have changed the way things work. I can see this perhaps being pushed further down the development list now as there seems to be bigger priorities at the moment. (That’s just a guess).

 

Thanks. But the crossfade issue has not arisen following the app update or the firmware update. It has NEVER been able to crossfade Apple Music Dolby Atmos on an Arc surround set-up. What I meant by “STILL doesn’t allow” is that despite the updates, it’s still not working. The update hasn’t broken it. 

I yearn for the day when another Arc/Sub/surround owner tests Apple Music Dolby Atmos crossfading and posts on here to confirm that it doesn’t work for them too!! It would be ideal to know it’s not just me, so that Sonos might sort it in a future update. There shouldn’t be an issue crossfading ANY selected music..

Yes I am aware of the issue and what you were referring too, but it will need a firmware update aswell as an App update. I just suspect there may now be a delay for this, because of the other issues that are taking place and perhaps need sorting, before this can be resolved.

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

@Ken_Griffiths 

Understood!

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Argh!!!

Now that Apple Music Lossless is available through Sonos, Lossless tracks don’t crossfade either!!!!!! 

It seems Sonos speakers can’t cope with playing two songs with Lossless or Dolby Atmos bitrates simultaneously to crossfade them. One has to end before the other can kick in.

Can ANYONE with Arc/Sub/Surrounds and Apple Music please verify this so I know it’s not just me?!

Sorry I’m not very technical, but I think I’m having similar issue…

I have a Play 5 and a Move. Since the app update my crossfade has been affected when playing my Apple Music playlists. It gets to the end of a song, has a small gap and then either skips the next song or goes into the next one a few seconds in.
 

I’ve noticed “lossless” appear on the screen now too but didn’t know what that was without a Google search. Sorry I’ve not got any answers either but your thread appeared when I was searching for my issue so thought it was worth sharing my experience. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Thanks, @Sazo2002

In a nutshell, it seems the speakers cannot crossfade tracks where they come from a music service with high resolution/bitrates (like Apple Music). You are experiencing the same as me. Interesting it appears to be wider than just an Arc/sub/surround issue. 


Originally it was just Dolby Atmos tracks that couldn’t crossfade, as these are high bitrate tracks and so the speakers appear not to be able to cope with so much data playing at once (one track over another). 

Since Apple Music tracks are also now Lossless on Sonos (following the recent update) - which is very good news for high resolution quality - the issue of crossfading now also applies to pretty much all Apple Music tracks!

 

I don’t know if this is an easy fix or whether the amount of data needed to be played at once just makes Sonos speakers incapable of crossfading this music…

 

Hopefully we’ll find out in due course. But thanks for being the only person so far to post with a similar issue!!

Userlevel 6
Badge +8

It's not only Apple Music but on Amazon Music as well. I have had this issue since Atmos was jointly launched by Sonos and Amazon back in December 2021. I have reported it multiple times and I've noticed the general behaviour has changed during the release of new firmware in the past, but it never solved the crossfade issue. I have reported this multiple times. So, I gave up and I just keep crossfade off all the time. From time to time, I give it a try to check whether it has been addressed, without any luck so far. 😐 

 

Userlevel 6
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P.S. I guess it's simply not technically feasible/possible to crossfade tracks so differently encoded 🤔

I also have crossfading issue. Was advised by sonos they were working on this about 3 months ago March 24.i have latest update but unfortunately still not working.  

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

@Corry P 

Can I please just re-raise my thread again? Crossfading is a fundamental part of Sonos, but as detailed by me and others above, higher resolution files (like Apple Music Spacial and also Lossless, and Amazon Music HD) do not crossfade. The first track plays until the end and the next track starts c.10 seconds in, instead of the first track fading out for 10” and the second facing in for 10”. 

I appreciate there are big fish to fry at the moment, but it would be great to know that this is at least on the list to be looked into...

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Hi @Rhonny

I asked for an update regarding this issue and our engineers told me that, while it’s not as high of a priority at the moment, it’s still on their list and being looked into. 

I have tagged this thread has having this issue so I can update if there are any further updates but I have nothing to share at the moment. 

Issues raised won’t get de-listed unless they have been resolved in some way, so it’s safe to assume that this will be moved further up once the new app stops being the focus.

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Hi @Rhonny

I asked for an update regarding this issue and our engineers told me that, while it’s not as high of a priority at the moment, it’s still on their list and being looked into. 

I have tagged this thread has having this issue so I can update if there are any further updates but I have nothing to share at the moment. 

Issues raised won’t get de-listed unless they have been resolved in some way, so it’s safe to assume that this will be moved further up once the new app stops being the focus.

Thanks, @Jamie A. Appreciate the confirmation. 

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