Sonos Arc - music?

In order for music to be “immersive“ it has to be in Dolby Atmos format.  The only streaming service I know of this is Tidal.  I signed up for a 60 day trial yesterday to hear the difference. The DA content is still limited.  Due to not having my sub yet and the current bass issue, I can’t really crank on it yet.  But, it’s a different sound for sure.  I am still getting used to it, so I don’t have a firm judgement yet.  

Does this mean that non-atmos / normal music is limited to just 2 of Arc's drivers (left and right stereo channles) ?

Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

How are you playing Tidal via ARC? I have the latest Tidal app on a 2019 Nvidia Shield connected to a 2020 LG with eARC to the ARC and while Dolby Atmos works fine for Netflix, Prime, Plex etc im only getting 2.0 stereo when playing Atmos tracks on the Nvidia Tidal app. Thanks

The updated Tidal App on the Amazon Fire-Stick/Cube 4K now has Atmos support, so maybe check for any updates of your App and/or Nvidia Shield. The Tidal website says this…

Compatible TV-connected devices include:

• Apple TV 4K (running tvOS 13 or later)
• Fire TV (Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick 2016, Fire TV Gen 3 2017, Fire TV Cube 1st Gen or 2nd Gen)
• Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro (2019 and newer models)

The updated TIDAL app is also available on Dolby Atmos enabled Android TVs from Sony and Philips.

Thanks Ken, I had read that also before I posted so i’m surprised its not just working as I have a 2019 shield TV Pro and both the OS and App are latest version. I am searching on Tidal for Dolby Atmos tracks and find a number of Atmos play lists with tracks with the Dolby logo. Some tracks show as Mastered and some HiFi. I am on a 3 month HiFi trial not sure if thats impacting anything but always get 2.0 on the Arc

It seems you already have the Sonos Arc in-hand, so maybe you can help me understand:

Non-atmos / normal music (e.g. mp3) will use only 2 of Arc's drivers (i.e. left and right stereo channles) ?

Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

I’m on the 3 month trial too and it’s working okay here. Maybe try logging out the App and back in again sad see if that fixes it for you. 

Using Apple TV.  The tidal app, On the home page scroll down the page, there is a Dolby Atmos section.  The content is limited… some newer hip hop/pop mostly along with some older mix.

Non-Atmos is fine... 

I haven’t explored DA music too much yet… from the little bit I have heard, in some cases it is almost separated by channels too much.

I will do a test this evening and report back. I have the sub and rears also. I do remember hearing some sound though from the rears even when the app shows 2.0. Music playback is set to Ambient not full but I think this only refers to streamed music and not via HDMI

Yes the ambient/full setting is for general streaming music audio and not applicable to any audio coming from/via the TV over HDMI etc.

When Dolby Atmos is playing through the TV from the Tidal App to the Arc, if you navigate to ‘Settings/System/About my System’ and look at the Arc in the device list, it’s Audio-In will show Dolby Atmos (DD+) as per attached screenshot. It will also show the words ‘Dolby Atmos’ next/near to the play/pause button on the now playing screen in both the Tidal App and the Sonos App.

Hope that assists.

Thanks for the settings/about type on seeing what audio it is outputting.  I didn’t know that..

IswIs there a happy Arc owner who can help me understand:

While playing a normal music (e.g. mp3) you hear just 2 of the Arc's speakers or the entire 11 speakers?

Arc's music doesn't sound good enough with non-atmos music?

Even when you play stereo content, be it music or regular TV, Sonos speaker bars use all of their drivers. Seems like a software algorithm that tries to simulate a surround like effect. So don’t worry it’s not going to seriously underutilize the Soundbar to play normal stereo music. With that said, true surround sound music formats like Atmos will achieve better separation of channels and have less of a muddy effect. 

Thanks chillaban!

I'm mainly interested in listening to Music (radio and mp3) and considering whether the Arc will outperform or maybe it's not a top performer for music?

Right now, in its form today, it tries to play music like it’s a Transformers movie. 
 

I don’t know if this is a hardware or software decision that leads to this feel to the music so I can’t say if a future update could make the music sound as warm as the other Sonos soundbars but this is how I assess the musical quality today. 

Thanks Ken, logging out and back in on the Tidal App fixed the problem.