Tidal Adds Dolby Atmos Music

[Bob Romano]

I listened to it in Atmos through headphones. I do not have ATMOS for my home system. No place to put the speakers really and I don't want the added expense. I guess my question should have been - Have you listened in headphones and is the effect real enough for you. I just think it sounds like a wider soundstage but don't really experience and "surround" effect.

I will say that the bass is really excellent even in earbuds listening to ATMOS

 

[humprof]

I've been with this thread more or less from the start, Bob, and off the top of my head I don't recall anyone discussing Atmos for headphones here. Maybe on other Atmos threads?

 

[MrSmithers]

So is anyone here using Atmos on headphones?

I haven't tried Atmos over headphones but I have tried 360 Reality Audio and other binaural audio and to be honest it just sounds like wide stereo to me. I know they say there are specific headphones designed for it but it doesn't really resemble anything like surround to me. I think it could be more of a marketing ploy designed to appeal to a broader market perhaps? If it broadens the surround market then it's all good to me!

I did read somewhere in this thread that the person didn't think they were actually using the original multis to remix. I can definitely say that I can hear the difference in some of the tracks for sure.

Yeah I agree. I think there might've been an assumption on some songs that a Dolby Atmos renderer might have produced the mix, but I think even in this case the mixer has just gone for a 'true to the stereo' mix instead. For the majority of stuff it's usually discrete.

I like Super Bad by James Brown - it's listed as the mono version but definitely is not

This song when played in surround actually has a mixing error to me. The same with 'Rufus - Tell Me Something Good'. I think the main vocal got sent to the rear channels by mistake. Hoping that it might get fixed one day...


All in all I really like listening to Atmos. It completely opens up the surround field when done well. The Kraftwerk and Booka Shade are reference quality but some of the Tidal pop and soul mixes are really good too. These are also some of the best in my opinion...

 

[Bob Romano]

I haven't tried Atmos over headphones but I have tried 360 Reality Audio and other binaural audio and to be honest it just sounds like wide stereo to me. I know they say there are specific headphones designed for it but it doesn't really resemble anything like surround to me. I think it could be more of a marketing ploy designed to appeal to a broader market perhaps? If it broadens the surround market then it's all good to me!


Yeah I agree. I think there might've been an assumption on some songs that a Dolby Atmos renderer might have produced the mix, but I think even in this case the mixer has just gone for a 'true to the stereo' mix instead. For the majority of stuff it's usually discrete.


This song when played in surround actually has a mixing error to me. The same with 'Rufus - Tell Me Something Good'. I think the main vocal got sent to the rear channels by mistake. Hoping that it might get fixed one day...


All in all I really like listening to Atmos. It completely opens up the surround field when done well. The Kraftwerk and Booka Shade are reference quality but some of the Tidal pop and soul mixes are really good too. These are also some of the best in my opinion...

Thanks. I downloaded your Playlist.

 

[zimmy]

I can´find the albums with Dolby Atmos anymore on Tidal. For example the first album with Alanis Morisette is gone and R.E.Ms Automatic for the people are gone as Dolby Atmos for me.
Does everybody have this problem?

 

[MrSmithers]

I can´find the albums with Dolby Atmos anymore on Tidal. For example the first album with Alanis Morisette is gone and R.E.Ms Automatic for the people are gone as Dolby Atmos for me.
Does everybody have this problem?

I still see them there in the UK... They have "Atmos" after the album title. Most of the stuff isn't listed like that annoyingly.

Try these...
https://tidal.com/browse/album/146179005https://tidal.com/browse/album/131051352

 

[Bob Romano]

I was never able to see full albums. I had to go track by track and look up the albums from there.

 

[César]

I can see them in Tidal Spain, but in exchange Fantastic Negrito's Atmos mix is gone, for example. I was hoping Tidal adding some more Atmos content instead of removing it. Disappointing

 

[zimmy]

I still see them there in the UK... They have "Atmos" after the album title. Most of the stuff isn't listed like that annoyingly.

Try these...
https://tidal.com/browse/album/146179005https://tidal.com/browse/album/131051352

I´m hoping it is just an temporary thing. To think optimistically i could hope they are changing things to get room for all the new Atmos albums

I can´find the albums with Dolby Atmos anymore on Tidal. For example the first album with Alanis Morisette is gone and R.E.Ms Automatic for the people are gone as Dolby Atmos for me.
Does everybody have this problem?

I am replying my own post.
When i now restarted Tidal everything was back as it used to be.
I see all the Atmos albums and all the playlists agan!
There are quite a lot of Atmos albums on Tidal now. Unfortunately most of them are not my kind of music.
Hopefully those albums brings in younger generations to surround music.
But i would really want more of the things i listen to.
As there is so much presented in Atmos that has never been sold on any media before i would really love if they could bring in more of the music i like in Atmos. Just to mention examples i would like to hear music in Dolby Atmos from Wishone Ash, Warren Zevon, Faces, Bad Company, Willie Nile, Steve Earle and others. I am just randomly picking out artists which i haven´t heard anything at all from in surround

 

[alansanchez86]

Did someone catch the Black Friday Tidal discount?
4 months of Tidal HiFi for $18 MXN, which converts to less than 1 buck.

https://offer.tidal.com/campaigns/5...ts?geo=MX&campaignId=5fb3049e202b4000188953cf

 

[himey]

Did someone catch the Black Friday Tidal discount?
4 months of Tidal HiFi for $18 MXN, which converts to less than 1 buck.

https://offer.tidal.com/campaigns/5...ts?geo=MX&campaignId=5fb3049e202b4000188953cf

Tidal sent me a 4 months for $2 offer on a couple of my expired accounts.

Edit...I should have clicked the link before posting. Looks like the same deal...

 

[Bob Romano]

I just switched back to Qobuz, which doesn't have 360 or Atmos. It's real FLAC files at high res and not MQA. Tidal has MQA files floating around there that are 16/44.1. Then some are verified (blue) and some are not (green). What is the point in that?. Qobuz is now $12.49 per month (if you pay $149 for a year) and they finally got the whole Android Auto thing figured out. My phone plays high res files so it's all good (I have 1TB of storage in my phone).

 

[marpow]

Listening now to Steven Wilson's King Ghost via Tidal Atmos, one of the better Tidal Atmos I have heard. The 5.1 is really good and the heights are suttle but definitely can hear.
I found this under Dolby Atmos: New Arrivals.
When typing in his name I found under EP & Singles four Atmos tracks.
I like the little logos that Tidal is adding to all there music Hifi, Master, and the Atmos logos.
I still can't understand the Master thing, I know that Tidal's Master is an MQA encoded file.
Do you need to have an MQA DAC to get the full benefit of a Master song?
I have my Fire Cube 4K as my player running, HDMI out into my AVR which does not have MQA ability. My AVR does recognize the Tidal Atmos no problem.
Or is a Master MQA file that comes from Tidal done at there end and no need for MQA DAC on this end.
I have about 5 MQA discs from Japan and I know that when I pop them in the player I am only hearing the RBCD as I don't have a MQA DAC.

 

[Bob Romano]

So my understanding is, if the File says MASTER it is hi-res. However, you can't tell what the actual res is. It could be 44/24, 96/24, 192/24 etc. It can also be 44/16 - that's not hi-res in my book. I have Audirvana and was playing Tidal through it. That is what I used to figure out what files are what res. There are albums that are in 3 different resolutions. One can be 96, 192 or 44. The TIDAL app for desktop and iOS and Android supposedly unwraps the MQA up to 96/24. Any higher res that that and you need some sort of device to unwrap it all the way to the highest res. I switched back to Qobuz because i got tired of screwing around looking for the right version. Qobuz tells you what quality the files are right off the bat. None of TIDALs files are labeled except for MASTER.

 

[Bob Romano]

One more thing I find weird is... My audio interface (Focusrite 18i20 Scarlett) will show the res of what is being played through it. With Qubuz (or even TIDAL through Audirvana) is shows the correct resolution. If I play a MASTER file at 96k through the TIDAL app it always shows 44.1k on my interface. I have always wondered if that is a bug in the TIDAL app.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread...

 

[Bob Romano]

I have about 5 MQA discs from Japan and I know that when I pop them in the player I am only hearing the RBCD as I don't have a MQA DAC.

If you have an OPPO 205 with the latest firmware you should be able to play those cds as files through the OPPO and it will decode the MQA - from OPPO's website.

MQA Support
The latest firmware update to the UDP-205 adds MQA decoding to the UDP-205's digital audio file playback. When a user navigates through music files using the UDP-205's "Music" app, the player will be able to identify and decode files encoded with MQA. Listeners can enjoy the full benefit of MQA-encoded music with studio-quality sound.

 

[marpow]

So my understanding is, if the File says MASTER it is hi-res. However, you can't tell what the actual res is. It could be 44/24, 96/24, 192/24 etc. It can also be 44/16 - that's not hi-res in my book. I have Audirvana and was playing Tidal through it. That is what I used to figure out what files are what res. There are albums that are in 3 different resolutions. One can be 96, 192 or 44. The TIDAL app for desktop and iOS and Android supposedly unwraps the MQA up to 96/24. Any higher res that that and you need some sort of device to unwrap it all the way to the highest res. I switched back to Qobuz because i got tired of screwing around looking for the right version. Qobuz tells you what quality the files are right off the bat. None of TIDALs files are labeled except for MASTER.

That makes sense, and clears up confusion as to what we are actually getting. Doesn't sound like running Tidal through a dedicated MQA DAC would help, as they are doing all the MQA unwrapping at there end, for better or worse.

 

[Bob Romano]

Supposedly, if you use something like a Dragonfly or some other MQA DAC with TIDAL it will unwrap the whole thing to the highest res of the file.

 

[marpow]

If you have an OPPO 205 with the latest firmware you should be able to play those cds as files through the OPPO and it will decode the MQA - from OPPO's website.

I only have the 105. There is some inexpensive MQA DAC's Pro Ject to name one. I would like to put cheap MQA DAC between my Sony UBP-X800M2 player which now is only HDMI out, but I can't find a way to put the DAC inbetween the Sony and the AVR.
I know there is a way, but more like a side project for me and have not given it my full attention.

 

[marpow]

Supposedly, if you use something like a Dragonfly or some other MQA DAC with TIDAL it will unwrap the whole thing to the highest res of the file.

I know the Dragonflys are real good for listening to Tidal from your phone.