Dolby Atmos Music and Terrible Remixing

The Atmos mixes from Blueray and Amazon music sounded terrible on my system until I turned off Trueplay.  Then did some changes to front rear channel volume, which made a lot of difference as did the height settings.

There are still some Blueray tracks that no amount of fiddling will resolve.  I blame the mixer of these.

I subscribe to Amazon unlimited I will definitely try turning off Trueplay and I will tweak some of the settings Thank you for your reply It is good to know that I am not alone in having issues with Atmos.

The folks providing tracks to Amazon (however that actuallyworks) have given them some really horrid mixes. Others sound really great.

If you search Amazon for "Dolby Labs" you will find some really handy test tracks that you can  try different tu ings on.

If the center artist or instruments are mixed into a two channel recording out of phase, some listeners feel that the recording is more “spacious” -- the room seems larger.  If these left and right channels are mixed together in order to derive a center channel, the out of phase information cancels. There would be a problem with these tracks if they were played on a mono system.

Hi bockersjv

I’m also not happy with the sound quality of some Blu-ray atmos and 5.1 mixes. No matter what changes I make to the settings I just can’t get the sound right. I hope I’m not being cheeky but can I ask what your settings are for your speakers for music listening. Thanks 

Hi I decided a while ago to switch off the Spacial 3D button I have kept trueplay and have the settings of the arc on plus 4 and pretty much the same on my era 300s and my two subs gen 4s and I am happy now getting all my music in HD and ultra HD I do occasionally put the spacial 3d music button on just in case I hear something exceptional. But it is hit or miss and have been told it depends on the sound studios remixing some are great some are awful But ultra HD music sounds good enough for me. Thanks for getting in touch All the best. 

Thanks for the input. If I’m playing music from a Blu-ray is the spatial audio setting disabled by default ? If it isn’t I’ll try disabling it to see if I find any difference. 

Speakers:

I have an Arc Ultra under the TV and a Sub 2 on that same wall.

The two Era 300s at the rear of the room on Stands and 300mm away from the room corners.

Room settings

Bass +2 Treble +1, Sub +1 -Phase 180, Height Level + 3, 

Surrounds TV Level +4 Music Level +2 Music Playball = Full 

Left and Right Speakers 2-10ft These depend on your seating.

I sit on a sofa between the rear surrounds about 0.5m in front of them. Soft furnishings and carpet also helped make the room less “harsh”.

I have now bought a few Blu-ray ATMOS DVDs and collecting more.  It’s like re-discovering your old albums again.  I’m addicted 🤣

Interesting, thank you. Three things to try there, two of which I haven’t tried before (turning off trueplay and phase 180). If I’m honest I’ve never even looked at “phase” within the sub menu. I don’t have a clue what it even means 😂😂 but if it makes a difference I’ll be over the moon. Thanks again for your help. 

I have found using test tracks really handy in getting things set up, more repeatable than music. Dolby Labs is a good source as are services that stream Dolby Labs tracks unaltered.