Blu-ray atmos music

Why not try it whilst you’re waiting for replies? If it’s no better, switch it back again and see what else might be suggested. 

I use pass through and it works better for me.  Your mileage may vary but it’s simple enough to give it a try.

Thanks nik969a

Yeah, the obvious solution 😂😂. The reason I asked first is because I encountered so many problems trying to receive atmos in the first place I was a bit reluctant to muck about with settings again if there is no difference. 
 

However, I did change the setting and tested it with the new Dream Theater live Blu-ray. The first thing I noticed was that it was a lot quieter so I had to bump up the volume higher than I normally would. 
 

Was there a massive difference, no there wasn’t. The vocals and drums may be ever so slightly more prominent but nothing that made me fall off my couch in shock 😂😂. I’ll try again and possibly rerun auto play. 

Also check the surround settings and set the speaker distance, Tv level and height levels

Do you have Trueplay on? I used to swear by it but when I changed my set up to the Ultra I found Trueplay sounded terrible and no longer us it in that room, although I recheck every update. 

Every other room in the house Trueplay sounds better, but then again I’m not playing ATMOS content in those rooms.

Ah, that’s interesting. I’ve just this moment run trueplay but I’ll bear in mind what you said when I get a chance to play the Blu-ray later on. I don’t understand why I’m having the problem with the vocals and drums but I’m hopeful that switching to pass through will help. Thanks again. 

Far from an expert on this but it appears streaming and Blu-ray Atmos is quite different, so there could well be a difference in how it is encoded and decoded a d the sound.

It would be interesting to get Dolby Labs official test tracks in both formats and compare them.

Streaming Atmos is based on Dolby Digital Plus (lossy)

Blu-ray Atmos is based on Dolby TrueHD (lossless).

That’s actually a good point. Perhaps the Arc Ultra isn’t designed to deal with atmos where the source is a Blu-ray. I’ll give Blu-rays a test when I get the chance (in other words when the wife isn’t in 😂). Thanks for replying. 

I personally have had good results with blu ray Atmos music discs (I tend not to stream Atmos music) but there are some very poor mixes out there. May be worth looking through this thread for additional discussion:

https://en.community.sonos.com/home-theater-229129/dolby-atmos-music-and-terrible-remixing-6931753

👍

Thanks for replying. I looked at that thread you sent and somebody describes the problem perfectly - “the vocals sound like they were recorded in next doors toilet”. Like you, I’m using Blu-ray Atmos mixes rather than streaming but, strangely enough, it seems to be live recordings that are, for me, suffering the most.

I’m using One SLs as rear speakers currently but I have a pair of Era 300s waiting to replace them. Hopefully between them and the prioritise pass through I’ll find a difference for the better. 

​@isthatmysandwich I hope so, I have 300's with my Ultra and have found most Atmos discs to be a very different listening experience to conventional stereo. 

Interestingly I have found Atmos to be particularly impressive on live performances... I guess it all comes down to individual taste and ears but hopefully you will get a noticeable improvement with the 300's…

Update on how you get on...

When things get odd it isn't a bad idea to wait for it to happen and submit a diagnostic within a few minutes.

Once that is done you can call support and have them look at it.

Isn’t it strange how our listening experiences are different. I think it was yourself in another thread praising the quality of This Is Not A Drill. I find it unlistenable (with the  exception of Comfortably Numb) and David Gilmour At The Circus Maximus even worse. I’m hoping that changing the tv setting will be the first step in enjoying the Blu-rays.