Amazon Music HD's "3D Music" offerings

[fredblue]

i got a heads up from a fellow Elton fan over on Facebook, that the track Rocket Man was available to stream on Amazon Music in Atmos.

when i search in the app, i get this 3D Music stuff.. Elton, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Britney, Weezer, The Doors, Earth Wind & Fire, Dave Brubeck, Bill Withers, Prince.. so are these the Atmos mixes or something else?

 

[fredblue]

 

[fredblue]

 

[fredblue]

there's Free's All Right Now...
and i'm sure J. PUPSTER will be as thrilled as i am to see Rufus' Tell Me Something Good!!

 

[fredblue]

the presence of The Doors (Bruce Botnick was at that Atmos Q&A) makes me suspect this may be the Atmos mix after all..

 

[JediJoker]

This is all meaningless if there's no way to play these back in true Atmos. I got the impression these releases are all meant solely for the new Echo product with "Atmos."

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Yes, it looks pretty sketchy, and sadly we had plenty to say about it already over here-
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/amazon-echo-studio.27135/
What Amazon should do is try and sell us four echo speakers (which we would not buy, we would use our own) and stream these in a superior Involve mode, as samples to get folks hooked. Then, make a deal with D-V and Sony for pay to download their Quad music. Instead they think we’ll buy this B.S about Atmos from “one” little speaker bouncing sound off of everyone’s walls, ceilings and rooms, like they are all acoustically suitable and the same.
I hate to be this way, but Rufus will have to wait with my sighs and prayers for a true D-V release- sorry Adam
* I guess before I really bash this, I need to play these through my Surround Master and hear what’s what!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

... and furthermore, Amazon (Bezos) can build rocket ships for space travel, but can’t grasp the concept of simply stringing four speakers together (maybe wirelessly even)
- now see, you’ve woken me up and got me started

 

[sbrom]

I’ve tried playing these a number of ways in my system, using several different streamers. No joy. I think you’re right - so far the only way (ostensibly) to get 3D is to use multiple Amazon-supported speakers. I have yet to hear anyone, anywhere, who’s actually done this.

 

[fredblue]

This is all meaningless if there's no way to play these back in true Atmos. I got the impression these releases are all meant solely for the new Echo product with "Atmos."

quite possibly.. i'm keeping an open mind right now, not least because i unashamedly admit i thought SACDs were a waste of space in the early noughties!

that is until i got an SACD capable player and heard the other Elton 5.1's beyond Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.. and 925 discs and 16 years later, my love affair with SACD, particularly in Surround, shows no signs of abating

we know how this could play out and nothing might well come of it but maybe let's just see?

 

[fredblue]

... and furthermore, Amazon (Bezos) can build rocket ships for space travel, but can’t grasp the concept of simply stringing four speakers together (maybe wirelessly even)
- now see, you’ve woken me up and got me started

in the words of Chaka and Rufus!

"once you get started..!!!"

 

[fredblue]

so.. this Amazon 3D Audio is just some form of upmixing? like the Sony 360 Reality Audio stuff on Deezer Hi-Fi* ??

(*which i cancelled this month fwiw, not paying £20 a month for pseudo surround stuff i can't play properly on a real surround rig)

 

[Lord British]

... and furthermore, Amazon (Bezos) can build rocket ships for space travel, but can’t grasp the concept of simply stringing four speakers together (maybe wirelessly even)
- now see, you’ve woken me up and got me started

 

[J. PUPSTER]

To be crystal clear on this (in my opinion)
This whole Amazon Echo thing, is not about progress for Surround/ Atmos music; but about Amazon’s appetite for putting a device in our homes for data collection... ⬇

 

[J. PUPSTER]

View attachment 45690

Ouch

 

[marpow]

One speaker, this sounds like crap.
See video

 

[marpow]

But to be honest, don't let my wife know about this, she would say "Why can't one speaker be good enough for you?"

 

[humprof]

so.. this Amazon 3D Audio is just some form of upmixing? like the Sony 360 Reality Audio stuff on Deezer Hi-Fi* ??

(*which i cancelled this month fwiw, not paying £20 a month for pseudo surround stuff i can't play properly on a real surround rig)

As as far as I can tell, yeah. Amazon is deliberately weaselly/obfuscatory about how they describe their "3D Audio": mostly it "turns stereo songs into a multidimensional audio experience" (i.e., it's an upmixer), but now it also "supports...tracks mastered in Dolby Atmos and Sony's 360 Reality Audio codecs." Supports them. Which is to say, it will take the Atmos metadata and render the track for playback via Amazon's proprietary Echo Studio speaker. If you want to listen to the Atmos track over a 5.1.4 home system, say, you're SOL. Here's what Digital Trends has to say:

​

As of December 2019, you can stream select songs and albums in Dolby Atmos Music on Amazon Music HD and Tidal HiFi. But there’s a catch. For now, the only way to access these tracks on Amazon Music HD is to buy Amazon’s new $199 Echo Studio, a high-end version of Amazon’s famous voice-enabled smart speaker that features 3D immersive sound capabilities. If you want to listen to Atmos on Tidal HiFi, you’ll need a Dolby Atmos-compatible Android smartphone or tablet. Recent iPhones, even though they’re Atmos-compatible, aren’t yet supported.​

​

Any other device or streaming service combo — even if that device supports Dolby Atmos via Netflix, YouTube, or other services — will not get the Dolby Atmos Music versions of these tracks.​

If you have a Tidal subscription, then I guess you can get Tidal to your AVR via the Android Tidal app--somehow. But the wording on this article on CNET isn't clear about whether you can actually get Amazon's 3D audio to your AVR, even if you pair it with an Amazon Firestick.

​

 

[marpow]

What y'all complaining about, it's got plenty of speakers.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

This is why it got me all hot and bothered-
This statement was on the Amazon Echo Studio web page:

"All of your interactions with Alexa are encrypted in transit to Amazon’s cloud where they are securely stored."

Best case scenario is it sparks an interest in music lovers to go deeper and seek out true surround sound.