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Apple Music Atmos Music Won't Play in Groups with at Least One Non-Atmos Speaker or Set

  • 18 April 2023
  • 2 replies
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S
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I discovered today Apple Music Atmos music tracks downgrade to non-Atmos when at least one non-Amos speaker or set is added to the playing group.

The tracks John Coltrane's Blue Train played in Atmos when grouping an Arc + Era 300 surround set, Era 300 stereo pair, and Beam Gen 2 + Sonos One surround set.

When I then grouped a Sonos One stereo pair the music dropped very briefly, the Atmos logo disappeared from the Sonos app Now Playing screen, and the music resumed in stereo. The difference was definitely audible and a downgrade.

It's disappointing to have to downgrade to the lowest common denominator if I want to have music playing throughout my home.

I'm going to read through the iTunes Package Format documentation, not sure if it will provide any insight. What's weird to me is Atmos music will play in my Beam Gen 2 + Sonos One surround set, which includes two non-Atmos speakers. This gives me some fleeting hope Sonos may be able to address this limitation via a software update.

Have others seen this? Any idea whether it's an Apple Music, Sonos, or recording-specific behavior?

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Best answer by jgatie 18 April 2023, 03:39

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2 replies

J
Userlevel 4
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Unlike the Era 300s, the Ones do not have up firing speakers and I doubt they will ever be Atmos capable on their own. In a home theater setup with an Atmos capable sound bar like the Arc or Beam Gen 2, it is the sound bar that is doing all of the Atmos heavy lifting, not the Ones.

HT: Arc + Era 300s + Subs (G3/G2) + Sony A80L + Sony UBP-X800M2
jgatie

The non-Atmos room(s) have no way of playing Atmos audio, they are stereo only.  In fact, they don't even have an Atmos decoder.  And since playing in sync requires all rooms in a group playing the same stream, the stream is going to be the codec all rooms in the group can decode and play.

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