Roxy Music -Avalon 40th anniversary Dolby Atmos Mix (now streaming)

[ProgRules]

You are right! What a convoluted, non user-friendly way to find an Atmos version of an album.

Listening to it in Atmos now - the problem with comparing it to the Apple Music version is that Tidal Apple TV plays back Atmos mixes at extremely low volume. I have to take my AVR to +6 dB to get a decent level, and then still not as much as I'd like - my AVR (Pioneer Elite XSX-LX505) maxes out at +6 dB

I have the VSX LX505. It maxes out at +9 and I've had it there for some of these Atmos mixes. It sounded good- surprising for being maxed out- but I wouldn't want to run it wide open for any amount of time. But I kept it at +6 for quite a while. It was certainly nice and loud, as loud as I usually listen, but next to no headroom if I ever want to really crank it.

Then I switched to a Talking Heads Atmos mix and it was blaring; had to turn it down quick. That mix sounded good still in the negative, though still higher than I've ever had to listen before. But there's quite a bit of variation from mix to mix in Atmos.

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

I'm very new to Tidal and I'm finding it super glitchy, but not so bad for finding Atmos stuff.

They have a horizontal bar of albums titled 'Available on Atmos' that I can scroll along and then another horizontal bar that's a row of Atmos playlists (so tracks, not albums) by a wide variety of genres, with the first being 'New Arrivals'. Based on these playlists, I can the go look for the album (if it's there, because it could just be a single, like the two new David Gilmour singles). These two horizontal rows are fourth and fifth down from the top, so I don't have to scroll through pages of videos.

Perhaps it depends on the platform you are viewing Tidal on? I'm viewing it on my new TCL TV.

You can also do a search of the word Atmos, which, surprisingly, only picks up a certain number of Atmos albums and a whole bunch of albums and bands using the word. Still, it was worth my while doing as I caught some albums I'd not otherwise spotted and was keen to 'favourite'.

I use a Shield TV, but the experience is the same across Android TV devices. For comparison, I can use my son's tablet, which "supports" Atmos, and press search. Before even putting in a search phrase, I can select the Dolby Atmos section, and peruse to my heart's content to find all Dolby Atmos music sorted by artist and genre. Just boggles the mind.

Tidal are obsessed with videos though, aren't they? Perhaps that's for younger listeners who possibly regard music as something best watched, the way many of us regard music as something best 'held in our hands'.

Again, only on the TV app. It's like they think that because people are on their TV or streaming device then they must want to watch videos. Just bafflingly bad design that they have no interest in acknowledging or dealing with. Doesn't help that they are the only real option if you are not using Apple.

 

[AYanguas]

You are right! What a convoluted, non user-friendly way to find an Atmos version of an album.

Listening to it in Atmos now - the problem with comparing it to the Apple Music version is that Tidal Apple TV plays back Atmos mixes at extremely low volume. I have to take my AVR to +6 dB to get a decent level, and then still not as much as I'd like - my AVR (Pioneer Elite VSX-LX505) maxes out at +6 dB

On Tidal, most of the Atmos songs of this album have Dialnorm: -19 dB (Except India: -22, While My Heart Is Still Beating: -20, True To Life: -18, Tara: -20)

This means that the volume level is 12 dB below "normal level" (31 -19), for the AVRs that cannot "disable" the Dialnorm metadata value from the Atmos file.

 

[dabl]

for the AVRs that cannot "disable" the Dialnorm metadata value from the Atmos file.

Which total zero unless you know of one? I'm not talking about temporarily disabling it in real time on a track by track basis.

 

[AYanguas]

Which total zero unless you know of one? I'm not talking about temporarily disabling it in real time on a track by track basis.

No. Mine (previous 8500 Denon) cannot even temporarily disable. I need to remember to lower the volume back just after listening a not -31 Dialnorm Atmos.

 

[dabl]

No. Mine (previous 8500 Denon) cannot even temporarily disable. I need to remember to lower the volume back just after listening a not -31 Dialnorm Atmos.

Cool, yeah it would be such a huge thing to have a feature to do this and in theory it could be implemented simply by Denon in a firmware push.

Not to derail the thread but there were a couple of Denon geeks (jdsmoothie and batpig) who were experts on Denon and Denon firmware and who frequented the Denon AVR model owner threads at www.avsforum.com. I'm not sure if either are still around.

jdsmoothie was a dealer and sold a lot of Denon units so was somewhat a liason for Denon and may or may not have had any pull for firmware feature requests.

 

[bayards]

Please know that I'm not shooting the messenger, but no 'The Price of Love', 'Tokyo Joe', or 'This Is Tomorrow'? That ain't no "best of"!

This is Tmorrow ---- such a great track and some fine guitar bass work.

 

[marpow]

I listened to Avalon Atmos via Apple 4K and thought it was great.

 

[markhess1958]

The full album still not available on Amazon Music. Same for Flesh and Blood.