Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming, via Tidal/Apple/Amazon

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Haken - Fauna


So this is the very first time I've listened to an Atmos mix on a streaming platform. To be honest, this album is the main reason why I've started a subscription on Apple Music (as a LG TV owner, I have the 3 free months promotion now). I love Haken, they're absolutely one of my favourite young bands, and I knew they were going to be super fun to listen to in surround.

As expected, this is a really good mix by Bruce Soord. Plenty of action from all channels! Haken are made for multichannel. A couple of caveats, though: there's a few instances of the album that sound wrong to me. Specifically, the vocals on the first song ("Taurus"), and also the vocals on the chorus of "Sempiternal Beings". For the rest of the album, lead vocals come from both center and front speakers, and they sound great. On those tracks/moments, the center channel disappears and they only come from the fronts. As a result, they sound muffled and lower in volume than they should. I don't think they're supposed to sound like that, judging by the stereo version of the album (which I know very well and I have in physical format). Has anybody else noticed this?

Also, the last track, "Eyes of Ebony", seems to sound a bit louder than the others, although that's a minor quibble. It sounds amazing anyway, just like the rest of the album, except for the couple of mentioned instances. Maybe I had the impression that some of the backing vocals coming from the heights sounded a bit like a badly compressed mp3. Not sure whether that was just me or they are audible artifacts due to the lossy stream. It's incredibly disappointing that this Atmos mix wasn't released in physical format, but at least we can hear it on Apple Music.
 
So this is the very first time I've listened to an Atmos mix on a streaming platform. To be honest, this album is the main reason why I've started a subscription on Apple Music (as a LG TV owner, I have the 3 free months promotion now).
You're gonna be busy for the next three months :)

Be sure to check out the various Steven Wilson mixes that are streaming-exclusive: Grateful Dead - American Beauty and Europe '72, New Order - Movement and Low-Life, Loma - How Will I Live Without A Body?, A-Ha "Take On Me", etc. Also highly recommend Ryan Ulyate's mixes of the Tom Petty catalog.
 
You're gonna be busy for the next three months :)

Be sure to check out the various Steven Wilson mixes that are streaming-exclusive: Grateful Dead - American Beauty and Europe '72, New Order - Movement and Low-Life, Loma - How Will I Live Without A Body?, A-Ha "Take On Me", etc. Also highly recommend Ryan Ulyate's mixes of the Tom Petty catalog.
American Beauty was already next in line for me! :LB
 
Be very careful judging this way. You're comparing apples to oranges. I like to think of immersive mixes are something entirely different that was certainly created from the same band's music, but that's it.

I know, but the thing is, those few instances sound wrong to me because they are also inconsistent with the mixing decisions of the rest of the Atmos mix.
 
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