Atmos Music Yet?

Hello everyone, I found this thread as was doing some testing myself on the various Dolby Atmos options through the streaming services and wanted to see how Dolby Atmos music sounded. 

My setup I have currently is Sony A80J TV, Sonos Arc + Sub and 2x One SLs, I normally just Air Play music using my iPhone as find the Sonos App not as good for browsing music etc, obviously personal choice. 
 

I started with just Apple Music, then today signed up for a trial for both Amazon Music and Tidal. 
 

I wanted to get Dolby Atmos music through my setup using AirPlay then quickly realised Apple Music does not support it from AirPlay as yet. 

I signed up for Tidal but then quickly realised you can’t do this also from the iOS app, I found a work around for this my tv has the tidal app which when playing music through says on the Sono App it’s Dolby Atmos and it has a section on the App for all Dolby Atmos content (pretty good to be fair). Sound quality wise sounds pretty good and seems like Atmos.

Amazon music, seems you can play through the streaming service Sono and says Dolby Atmos and the quality is fantastic. 

Maybe it is just me but Tidal and Amazon music sound totally different even through both say they are playing in Atmos on the Sonos app.

Does music sound different when going through an app through the TV vs streaming through the Sonos app using Amazon music. 
 

I can listen to the 2 same songs and there’s totally different effects coming through depending on which app / service you are using. Am I going crazy here? Lol

I took out a trial subscription to Tidal a few months back to try Dolby Atmos and was88 definitely able to play it through my Arc. Can't remember immediately how though.

Edit: I think I must have used the Tidal app on my nVidea Shield.  That goes through an HDFury Arcana and onto the Arc, so I know it is capable of carrying Atmos.

@Andrewnoob - my best guess is that your TV app isn’t passing Atmos to the Arc.  

I assume you have a Tidal HiFi subscription? Edit- OK you have confirmed this.

@Andrewnoob,

It looks like you need the Apple TV/Fire-TV 4K etc. Tidal App in order to play the audio through your Atmos supported TV to the connected Arc/Beam (gen2) - there’s no direct support for Tidal Atmos audio through the Sonos App at the present time.
 

Only the Amazon Music HD service supports Atmos through the Sonos App at the present time, but hopefully more services, like Tidal, Apple Music and others, will support Atmos music through their built-in services, going forward.

So according to the links provided by Sonos, my phone (Galaxy S20 5G) is capable of streaming Atmos music.

I have an appropriate Tidal subscription and I am trying to get it to stream Atmos audio to my living room (ARC + Sub + 2 play 1s) and there’s nothing in the Sonos app when it’s playing to indicate that it’s streaming Atmos. If I stream direct from the Tidal app, the Atmos logo changes to HiFi and if I find the album in the Sonos search there’s no Atmos indicator.

So has this feature not been enabled despite Sonos claiming to have done so? I am in the UK.

Nothing quite compares to the Kraftwerk album. It is the best I’ve heard. But some of my other favorites are:

“Rocket Man” - Elton John

“Riders on the Storm” - The Doors

Don’t Know Why (album) - Norah Jones

Automatic for the People 25th Anniversary Edition (album) - R.E.M.

The Future Bites (album) - Steven Wilson

John Williams in Vienna (album) - I’ve only listened to this on Blu-ray in Atmos, but it is available on Amazon Music.

“Harridan” - Porcupine Tree (available on Apple Music)

@GuitarSuperstar - after initially searching for “Kraftwork” and not finding anything in search, I then realised my mistake. Doh!

Yes, totally agree the track “Tour de France / Prologue / Etape 1 / Chrono / Etape 2” is an excellent example of what Dolby Atmos music is capable of

Completely agree.  I had tried out atmos music previously with Tidal and I really wasn’t that impressed.  It seemed like a gimmick that just felt weird rather than an improved experience.  However, I don’t get the same impression for the tracks I heard through  Amazon.  Instead of using atmos to have audio come from strange places, it seemed like it was actually used to make the sound stage feel bigger and more encompassing.  

Also agree that the effect is a lot more useful on tracks that are designed for bigger sound, such as classical music.  Rock and pop songs that have few instruments and a smaller range won’t see that much improvement.  As an example of tracks that worked, I liked Musgraves’s “star crossed” a lot.  Blondie’s “call me” didn’t really gain much from atmos. 

Admittedly, some of this could be because I’m used to the way certain older songs are supposed to sound in stereo, and thus my brain is confused/disturbed when it doesn’t sound right.   That could also explain why I wasn’t as impressed with Tidal.  

I used to think that atmos music was just going to be a passing fad.  Don’t think so now, but it will be slow growth as tracks are recorded in atmos, and people have hardware to play atmos.  It will never replace stereo though as the atmos effect is immediately lost when you step away from the listening area, much more so that with stereo.  It’s great when I plan on staying in the listening area, but not so much if I am moving around.  As well, I don’t think atmos works as well at lower volumes.

Google is your friend

is your country on the way to be listed as one of the Amazon unlimited countries?

That sucks. Is there not a workaround?

Amazon Dolby atmos, It is really amazing. I have an arc plus sub plus 2xplay1 and it sounds supreme. Especially classical music.

Inconvenient time for AWS to be down, certainly.  :)

According to a Sonos rep, Sonos Radio HD or Amazon Music Unlimited will display the HD badge when streaming lossless 16-bit or 24-bit audio. Expect to see Sonos add this feature to more music services in the future.