From Billboard: Studios Are Rushing to Record Music in Hi-Def Surround Sound

[Tribby2001]

That sounds just like a "stereo forever" guy talking about your 5 channel rig.
Their loss, and yours.

When the quality of "new", modern music produced today approaches the quality of the classics of my generation I may change my mind. Not before. I have another lifetime's worth of music in my library that would take years to listen to. If I don't spend another penny on another SACD it wouldn't bother me one iota. I have plenty of other interests to spend my hard earned retirement savings on. I don't need to support yet another format and upgrade yet more perfectly fine equipment. No thank you.

3 Trends That Prove CDs are Making a Comeback

 

[himey]

When the quality of "new", modern music produced today approaches the quality of the classics of my generation I may change my mind. Not before. I have another lifetime's worth of music in my library that would take years to listen to. If I don't spend another penny on another SACD it wouldn't bother me one iota. I have plenty of other interests to spend my hard earned retirement savings on. I don't need to support yet another format and upgrade yet more perfectly fine equipment. No thank you.

3 Trends That Prove CDs are Making a Comeback

I am getting an old man yells at cloud vibe. Do you realize that Atmos can sound great on legacy setups, or have you ignored it so well, that you never bothered to understand this simple fact.

 

[Marplot]

I was going to observe some releases that are indeed better than stuff from 1965, but damn that was a bumper year for great music so instead I'll simply state, people like what they like, why should anyone else be bothered by their preference?
I don't have ATMOS yet, simple room dynamics and cost, but I probably will get around to it after moving.

 

[himey]

Indeed. Even in my own NAS collection, I have over a thousand folders (artists or classical composers). They end up being listed alphabetically, and getting to “Zombies” takes forever. Thinking about making a heirarchy of folders with just “A” etc, but that’ll take a lot of time that usually gets used for listening.

Check out Kodi. It doesn't have that issue.

 

[MidiMagic]

I am getting an old man yells at cloud vibe. Do you realize that Atmos can sound great on legacy setups, or have you ignored it so well, that you never bothered to understand this simple fact.

Is what the old man yelled at the cloud stored in it?

What tiny percent of the people have the equipment and the know-how to play Atmos?

I saw an "Atmos soundbar" at Walmart. When I asked the audio salesman to demonstrate the Atmos for me, he didn't know how.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Is what the old man yelled at the cloud stored in it?

What tiny percent of the people have the equipment and the know-how to play Atmos?

I saw an "Atmos soundbar" at Walmart. When I asked the audio salesman to demonstrate the Atmos for me, he didn't know how.

And you expected?.... The people in Walmart cant demonstrate a doorknob

 

[himey]

Is what the old man yelled at the cloud stored in it?

What tiny percent of the people have the equipment and the know-how to play Atmos?

I saw an "Atmos soundbar" at Walmart. When I asked the audio salesman to demonstrate the Atmos for me, he didn't know how.

Why care about anyone at Walmart when it comes to Atmos or music in general?

 

[Sal1950]

Why care about anyone at Walmart in general?

There, I fixed it for you. LOL

 

[LuvMyQuad]

This reminds me of the time back in the day when I was in a local audio store with my brother in law. He was looking to buy a new stereo receiver. The one he was looking at had a built in Dolby NR system for FM (a Marantz I think). He asked the salesman what it was for. The salesman replied it was to reduce the interference from low flying airplanes. No lie. Never went in there again.

 

[PrinceProspero]

Seriously what is the difference in the 5.1 Blurays that came out 10 years ago or the DVD-A discs 15-20 years ago. It is still surround sound with just more speakers that 99% of people who don't have like me

Mono?

 

[marcb]

Seriously what is the difference in the 5.1 Blurays that came out 10 years ago or the DVD-A discs 15-20 years ago. It is still surround sound with just more speakers that 99% of people who don't have like me

Atmos/Spatial Audio for Headphones.

Many think it’s one and the same with real systems with real speakers.

I fear that’s all we’ll be left with in the end.

 

[jaybird100]

Seriously what is the difference in the 5.1 Blurays that came out 10 years ago or the DVD-A discs 15-20 years ago. It is still surround sound with just more speakers that 99% of people who don't have like me

At least the Atmos mixes will fold down to 5.1, on systems that don't support Atmos processing. My biggest concern with these new, hi-rez releases that the record companies are SUPPOSEDLY clamoring to offer, is exactly how they intend to offer them. Will they be by download only? Will they be offered on BD-A, or SACD? Contrary to what they want us to believe, physical media is still a viable way to get the tunes to us. In fact, I'm one who prefers a medium I can hold in my hand. As long as I can get a hard copy of the music I want to buy, I'll spring for the bucks. But downloads? Thanks, but no, thanks.

 

[jamoke]

Funny about what is released on physical media these days...
All these supposed ATMOS mixes will never see a physical release, but you can buy your 4K UHD disc of "Waynes World" today.

 

[marcb]

At least the Atmos mixes will fold down to 5.1, on systems that don't support Atmos processing. My biggest concern with these new, hi-rez releases that the record companies are SUPPOSEDLY clamoring to offer, is exactly how they intend to offer them. Will they be by download only? Will they be offered on BD-A, or SACD? Contrary to what they want us to believe, physical media is still a viable way to get the tunes to us. In fact, I'm one who prefers a medium I can hold in my hand. As long as I can get a hard copy of the music I want to buy, I'll spring for the bucks. But downloads? Thanks, but no, thanks.

Downloads? Who’s talking downloads?

Regardless, it’s not just a matter of whether it’s a viable medium (and I would argue it’s barely viable at this stage - at best). It’s also a matter of whether the rental model - which provides far greater control as well as steady, perpetual revenue streams - is preferred over the ownership model which provides none of that AND requires manufacture, distribution and returns of physical product as well as various middlemen and retailers take their piece.

I don’t like it either, but it’s a no-brainer if you’re in the entertaiment industry - which is ultimately just an IP software industry. The entertainment industry has actually been slow to the game, not the tip of the spear.

But the relatively minor near-term drawbacks from not producing physical digital product are easily offset by the long-term benefits of going streaming only in most cases. And that is only going to move more toward the rental/streaming only direction going forward, not from it.

 

[Tribby2001]

Funny about what is released on physical media these days...
All these supposed ATMOS mixes will never see a physical release, but you can buy your 4K UHD disc of "Waynes World" today.

I'm under the impression that Atmos is a "movie" audio format and music is an afterthought.

 

[marcb]

I'm under the impression that Atmos is a "movie" audio format and music is an afterthought.

Your impression is wrong. Just look at the Spatial Audio section on Apple Music. New stuff added every week (albeit not necessarily targeted to the QQ demo). The music mixing studios with Atmos capability are quite busy these days.

 

[Sal1950]

Seriously what is the difference in the 5.1 Blurays that came out 10 years ago or the DVD-A discs 15-20 years ago. It is still surround sound with just more speakers that 99% of people who don't have like me

Humm,
The only difference between them is the amount of data they can hold. It's up to the engineers what they choose to put on them.
Todays Atmos surround releases are awesome, don't miss out if you can.

 

[scottm18]

Your impression is wrong. Just look at the Spatial Audio section on Apple Music. New stuff added every week (albeit not necessarily targeted to the QQ demo). The music mixing studios with Atmos capability are quite busy these days.

Yeah but the big underlying problem is "streaming Atmos" is not real Atmos! Dolby Digital Plus at a whopping 640k bit rate average is not nearly the same as Dolby TrueHD-- which in itself is a modification of the terrific lossless DVD-Audio MLP format of yesteryear and can get to 8 Mbps.

So it's basically a double disappointment in that 1) you have to subscribe to specific services since true audiophile services like Qobuz don't play that lame lossy game...and 2) 90% of it is being released in this inferior streaming format. Even main contributor Steven Wilson wishes that wasn't the case!

I'm sorry but record companies if you're going to jump on the "Atmos bandwagon"... just release the damn discs so we can get them in true lossless quality surround like it's supposed to be!!!

 

[marcb]

Your impression is wrong. Just look at the Spatial Audio section on Apple Music. New stuff added every week (albeit not necessarily targeted to the QQ demo). The music mixing studios with Atmos capability are quite busy these days.

Yeah but the big underlying problem is "streaming Atmos" is not real Atmos! Dolby Digital Plus at a whopping 640k bit rate average is not nearly the same as Dolby TrueHD-- which in itself is a modification of the terrific lossless DVD-Audio MLP format of yesteryear and can get to 8 Mbps.

So it's basically a double disappointment in that 1) you have to subscribe to specific services since true audiophile services like Qobuz don't play that lame lossy game...and 2) 90% of it is being released in this inferior streaming format. Even main contributor Steven Wilson wishes that wasn't the case!

I'm sorry but record companies if you're going to jump on the "Atmos bandwagon"... just release the damn discs so we can get them in true lossless quality surround like it's supposed to be!!!

That’s great but your impression is still wrong.

Streaming Atmos may be lossy, but saying it is not real Atmos is like saying hi-bit rate mp3 isn’t real stereo. It’s just not the optimal use of the format. But when has the music industry EVER put optimal fidelity for the niche crowd over convenience for the masses and profits?

And if it’s a movie format, then why is so little video content accompanied by Atmos sound? Most, if not all, broadcast video content is still DD or DD+ and likely most streaming video content as well.

And doesn’t Apple stream lossless - albeit stereo only - just Qobuz?

 

[scottm18]

But when has the music industry EVER put optimal fidelity for the niche crowd over convenience for the masses and profits

A truer statement has not been uttered. I'm still pissed that the best formats in audio IMHO. DVD-Audio and SACD never took off like they should have. I mean they literally priced them the same as a regular CD but people were too cheap to invest in the system good enough to take advantage of it. It's kind of like how 3D TV died because people were trying to watch it on then-standard 50" TVs. Duh! On a projector screen or even my 75 inch, it was the bomb with a good release. Needless to say, I still regularly spin all my carefully cultivated DVDA/SACD ISOs on my modified Oppo 205 and they sound just as good as recent Blu-ray audio releases.

And doesn’t Apple stream lossless - albeit stereo only - just Qobuz?

Nope, Apple streams lossless too but the big difference is they also stream lossy... where Qobuz only streams lossless. Don't get me wrong, I wish Q would stream the quickly proliferating Atmos material...but it can't even compare to something like the Beatles classic recordings in Atmos on disc.