Hi
First of all let me preface this novella 🙂 by saying I do not consider myself an Audiophile; which by one definition are:
- “…an exceptional breed of people who are fascinated by pure audio, motivated by sound quality and addicted to audio gadgets. Audiophiles take their passion for music one step further. They're curious about how songs are recorded and the science behind how sounds are reproduced”.
With that said let’s begin….
Some of you may have read my posts wherein I talk about “stereo separation”. IMO 99% of what one hears musically is not “stereo separation” in its purist form. What one does hear is music and vocals emanating from two speakers spaced at least 6 feet apart where there is a “sweet spot” in the center.
The listener has a sense that all instruments and vocals are “dead “center providing the optimum listening experience. The people to blame for this misconception of what is “stereo separation” IMO are the mixing engineers. They rationalize the mixing strategy by saying it provides a “wide” sound stage.
“True” stereo separation; IMO, is wherein the listener can pinpoint the position/location of instruments either to the left, center or right (or slight variations there abouts).
Granted back in the day there were studio musicians (known and unknown) that all came together in a room and laid down the tracks. Today vocal tracks may be recorded in Chicago, horns in San Francisco, drums in New York and the list goes on by location. Those recordings (i.e. tracks) are sent to a mixing engineer that places them all together to create a single recording. The finished product is played through two identical speakers with the resulting sound called “stereo”.
So where Am I going with this….
Early on…I was not (operative word being “not”) a fan of Spatial Audio for music. Mainly because of how it was explained and supposedly worked with music. The most prevalent explanation I read was that music appeared to be coming from all directions.
The above said…If I’m at a live concert I‘m not hearing different instruments coming from above or behind. To the contrary, I hear all vocals and instruments coming from the front stage. I can even localize the positions.
Spatial Audio like stereo can offer bad and good presentations (mixing). I have a set of Era 300’s set as a stereo pair. IMO, in order to appreciate Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) for music you need a reference point for comparison. I dare say most in this community aren’t old enough to remember “true” stereo separation. To offer assistance I suggest you stream the following in so called “stereo” and then again in “Dolby Atmos” (i.e. spatial audio) available via Apple Music.
- Ready For Freddie by Freddie Hubbard: Circa 1962
In the stereo stream you’ll hear the music. In the Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) stream you’ll REALLY hear the music. The separation (i.e. positioning) of the instruments is incredible. Granted you’ll get a much better perspective (i.e. listening experience); if you have two Era 300’s in stereo pair. However, a single Era 300 will still blow your mind and your “A” will follow. 😅
Needless to say I’m now a convert to Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) music when it’s properly mixed. I wish there was a “Standard “by which music is mastered and/or remastered to meet specific Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) specifications. Believe me there’s a lot of “crap” being presented and masquerading as Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) music.
I hope this information was informative and provided a more comprehensive understanding/appreciation for properly mixed music. The future of Dolby Atmos (spatial audio) music I hope is a growing medium and not just a flash-in-the-pan like SACD and Mini-Disc. For those of you that can remember; hopefully, Sony doesn’t have a hand (somewhere) in this medium. Oh…did I mention BetaMax? But that was video.😂