Tidal Adds Dolby Atmos Music

[himey]

Listening now via fire stick connected to Marantz receiver and ethernet.

I thought a Firestick was WiFi and not Ethernet?

 

[northernsoul]

I thought a Firestick was WiFi and not Ethernet?

I have the adaptor from amazon.

 

[himey]

I have the adaptor from amazon.

Nice.
The WiFi on the Firestick 4K is fast. It has handled every 4K movie I have thrown at it streamed from Plex with direct play.

 

[key_wiz]

You would think at some point they would release the albums on blu ray . Think that now the sales will be larger as more people are upgrading to Atmos due to Tidal.

Well this will be the key to it all, I'm sure. How many more subscriptions will Tidal get because of this and I'm sure they keep track of what everyone listens to. Will there be enough of an audience for their Atmos offerings that they continue it?

 

[key_wiz]

I'm sure this has been covered already, but who are these remix engineers working for? Dolby? Tidal? Any behind-the-scenes knowledge here?

 

[key_wiz]

The Kodi addon isn’t playing the Atmos tracks. I reported the problem to the addon developer.

I couldn’t find very many Atmos tracks either. Not enough to pay $23.99 per month (AUD) for an ongoing subscription, maybe In the future we’ll see a lot more, but now there’s not enough as I don’t listen to Tidal, this subscription would only be for the surround tracks.

I had a thought last night that made me feel better about the subscription price:

I would gladly (and almost always do) pay ~$20 a month for a new surround disc. Usually I'm buying more than one a month. As long as they keep adding at least one new album a month that I would have purchased had it been released in a physical format, then I'm not going to be spending any more for music than I would have otherwise. And if they release more than one a month? I'm coming out ahead.

 

[himey]

I'm sure this has been covered already, but who are these remix engineers working for? Dolby? Tidal? Any behind-the-scenes knowledge here?

Check out the Greg Penny thread. Looking at that I think the answer is the studio's.

 

[key_wiz]

Check out the Greg Penny thread. Looking at that I think the answer is the studio's.

I did but I couldn't really figure out if he's working for Dolby or Amazon or what. Somebody wants all this music mixed to Atmos and is paying to have it done. I don't think I heard the labels get mentioned at all except he said something about Capitol. But he said that in the same sentence as Abbey Road so maybe he was just talking about where the mixing was being done?

Not that it really matters at this point. Right now I'm thrilled to be getting the music. I just want to know who to blame when and if the whole thing stops dead in its tracks.

 

[harync]

I did but I couldn't really figure out if he's working for Dolby or Amazon or what. Somebody wants all this music mixed to Atmos and is paying to have it done. I don't think I heard the labels get mentioned at all except he said something about Capitol. But he said that in the same sentence as Abbey Road so maybe he was just talking about where the mixing was being done?

Bases on the articles in this magazine: Mix Magazine Dedicates May Issue to Dolby Atmos Music , Dolby is paying for this.

You can download the magazine for free and it's worth a look.

 

[EricKalet]

This is what they emailed to me yesterday:

Thank you for your patience .
We are aware of the issue regarding Atmos songs streaming volume set is to -20 dB less, by default. We are working with Dolby to fix the issue and hopefully it should be resolved soon.

Regarding the sound cuts at the beginning of track-play, Can you please record it and send us the video so I can escalate it further up.

Excellent response for both issues! Hopefully a resolution soon!

 

[dabl]

Man, I really want to put some overhead speakers up, but 1) I don't know how to do it and hide the wires and 2) my wife will kill me! Maybe I'll start with a Receiver upgrade and go from there....

If you can't get to an attic above the ceiling to run the wires, this is a simple hack example

 

[dabl]

I did a quick comparison of this a few days ago, here are my notes...

Atmos: the soundfield lights up with the chorus, good guitar and synth, I like the chorus just being all around, rather than limited to the surround in a 5.1 set up.

SACD: BASS, BASS, BASS...no comparison, the SACD wrecks the Atmos, it's tight and hits better. Elton's piano much clearer, I felt that his piano got lost in the Atmos. Guitar cleaner, clearer.

Assume you and everyone else knows the Atmos sent by Tidal is lossy. And they use the lowest bitrate allowed.

This isn't showing a file from Tidal but just an example of allowable bitrates.

So yeah it could sound way better.

ex 320 Kbps is worlds away from 128 Kbps MP3

 

[humprof]

Assume you and everyone else knows the Atmos sent by Tidal is lossy. And they use the lowest bitrate allowed.

View attachment 52546

Yes--and I've been wondering if that's why, compared to other Atmos sources (Blu-Ray, lossless M4A), the Atmos tracks that stream on Tidal sound very midrangey on my system.

 

[dabl]

Yes--and I've been wondering if that's why, compared to other Atmos sources (Blu-Ray, lossless M4A), the Atmos tracks that stream on Tidal sound very midrangey on my system.

Yep, had exactly the same thoughts.

 

[EricKalet]

Assume you and everyone else knows the Atmos sent by Tidal is lossy. And they use the lowest bitrate allowed.

This isn't showing a file from Tidal but just an example of allowable bitrates.

So yeah it could sound way better.

ex 320 Kbps is worlds away from 128 Kbps MP3

View attachment 52546

True and 320kbps is also approximately 20% of the equivalent of streaming full 44/16 redbook CD. I think that’s a significant reduction in sound quality.

 

[humprof]

True and 320kbps is also approximately 20% of the equivalent of streaming full 44/16 redbook CD. I think that’s a significant reduction in sound quality.

So do we know exactly what bitrate Tidal is using for Atmos? (I.e., what the "lowest allowable" is?)

 

[skherbeck]

If you can't get to an attic above the ceiling to run the wires, this is a simple hack example

View attachment 52545

Going to show this to the wife!

 

[dabl]

So do we know exactly what bitrate Tidal is using for Atmos? (I.e., what the "lowest allowable" is?)

'lowest allowable' as shown here

Below is a real Tidal Atmos example

 

[weekendtoy]

Will the 2019 released Fire Stick support the Tidal ATMOS streaming? The Fire Stick will serve double duty as my 1080 set upstairs will no longer recognize my WiFi.

Is there any reason to upgrade to the 4K model? I do have a 4K screen in my main listening room, but that is a smart TV and already streaming via WiFi.

 

[humprof]

Will the 2019 released Fire Stick support the Tidal ATMOS streaming? The Fire Stick will serve double duty as my 1080 set upstairs will no longer recognize my WiFi.

Is there any reason to upgrade to the 4K model? I do have a 4K screen in my main listening room, but that is a smart TV and already streaming via WiFi.

If it's "Fire Stick With Alexa Voice Remote," then (as I can tell you from firsthand experience): no. It's gotta be the 4K model, as support for Atmos streaming over Tidal seems to be limited to a particular Fire OS (6.2.7.1) that the sub-4K models won't run.