TIDAL unveils Sony 360 Reality Audio

[J. PUPSTER]

I'm with you, despite what I said earlier in this thread, there's like 1% hope inside me that the tracks I listened to on YouTube are fake, or that there's some kind of error with how they've implemented the technology, or something, because affordable, effective headphone surround is effectively a magic bullet that could transform the fortunes of our favourite shared hobby.

Were you running the youtube music through the 360 app?
And I'm curious, similar to perhaps how someone can't contain height speakers in a flac conversion for Atmos, I'm wondering if that may be similar to what's going up on youtube, if they're not representing the proprietary files.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Maybe give this a shot (no not literally!!)

https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/deezer-launches-sony-360-reality-audio-app-3950702

Well, just as I suspected it says "will require an active Deezer HiFi subscription to access it" - no thank you

 

[beerking]

Well, just as I suspected it says "will require an active Deezer HiFi subscription to access it" - no thank you

Yep....hence my tongue in cheek intro...

Although just found can get 3 months free!!
https://www.deezer.com/en/offers/hifi

 

[HomerJAU]

smartphones are extemely dumb

There‘s more processing power and memory in latest smartphones than computers used to land man on the moon and used for engineering and business in the eighties.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here's the link from Deezer to the iPhone app store for the 360 Deezer app. I may try the 90 days free.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1465696460

 

[beerking]

Here's the link from Deezer to the iPhone app store for the 360 Deezer app. I may try the 90 days free.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1465696460

Tempted myself pups, to use off my android phone.

 

[HomerJAU]

And I'm curious, similar to perhaps how someone can't contain height speakers in a flac conversion for Atmos

Atmos/DTS:Xs are proprietary object based systems, metadata decoding is not public. FLAC can’t hold the metadata ettc...

Ambisonics (e.g UHJ) can contain a similar 16 object based mix and can be pre-decoded back to fixed (e.g. Quad, 5.1, 7.1) speaker positions. So Ambisonics could be decoded from a stereo encoded track to a Quad or 5.1 FLAC. Hence my question earlier asking if anyone had tried a S360 track via Surround Master yet, maybe news of a great surround effect may indicate S360 is based on Ambisonics, mind you Surround Master may not decode Ambisonics is anyway...

EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Atmos/DTS:Xs are proprietary object based systems, metadata decoding is not public. FLAC can’t hold the metadata etc...

Ambisonics (e.g UHJ) can contain a similar 16 object based mix and can be pre-decoded back to fixed (e.g. Quad, 5.1, 7.1) speaker positions. So Ambisonics could be decoded from a stereo encoded track to a Quad or 5.1 FLAC. Hence my question earlier asking if anyone had tried a S360 track via Surround Master yet, maybe news of a great surround effect may indicate S360 is based on Ambisonics, mind you Surround Master may not decode Ambisonics anyway...

EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics

Great, so it should be easy for us to use the iPhone app, then run headphone cable to SM.

 

[steelydave]

Were you running the youtube music through the 360 app?
And I'm curious, similar to perhaps how someone can't contain height speakers in a flac conversion for Atmos, I'm wondering if that may be similar to what's going up on youtube, if they're not representing the proprietary files.

I wasn't running it through anything, just Youtube -> headphones -> my ear-holes. I presumed what I was hearing was similar/the same to what people were hearing on TIDAL etc. because my experiences seem very similar to what @Bob Romano described as a "hollow muddy mess" in the first post of this thread.

 

[fredblue]

bit of a rigmarole getting 360 Deezer setup on top of the Deezer Hifi signup etc and all that whatsit going (slightly long-winded process might be enough to put some people off) i'm only trying it through the phone speakers so not getting the 360 RA effect but but BUT one curious thing, i think the title track from the Isleys' "Live It Up" may be the SQ Quad mix!? if so, erm, crikey..

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Atmos/DTS:Xs are proprietary object based systems, metadata decoding is not public. FLAC can’t hold the metadata ettc...

Ambisonics (e.g UHJ) can contain a similar 16 object based mix and can be pre-decoded back to fixed (e.g. Quad, 5.1, 7.1) speaker positions. So Ambisonics could be decoded from a stereo encoded track to a Quad or 5.1 FLAC. Hence my question earlier asking if anyone had tried a S360 track via Surround Master yet, maybe news of a great surround effect may indicate S360 is based on Ambisonics, mind you Surround Master may not decode Ambisonics is anyway...

EDIT:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambisonics

Love the morphing virtual microphone diagram on the wiki page, most of that stuff way over my head - LOL

 

[J. PUPSTER]

bit of a rigmarole getting 360 Deezer setup on top of the Deezer Hifi signup etc and all that whatsit going (slightly long-winded process might be enough to put some people off) i'm only trying it through the phone speakers so not getting the 360 RA effect but but BUT one curious thing, i think the title track from the Isleys' "Live It Up" may be the SQ Quad mix!? if so, erm, crikey..

As long as they don’t ask me for a credit card number!

 

[HomerJAU]

As long as they don’t ask me for a credit card number!

You can always buy a gift card type CC with only $50 or less on it. Once the fifty has gone that’s it. Kaput! No risk no name etc.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

You can always buy a gift card type CC with only $50 or less on it. Once the fifty has gone that’s it. Kaput! No risk no name etc.

Yeah run most of it off first, in case their greedy little hands- get out of hand

 

[fredblue]

As long as they don’t ask me for a credit card number!

yeah its all kinda meh.. if they're hoping for casual people to try out this 360 thing they're going the wrong way about it and need to make it more accessible rather than a premium thing.. fwiw i linked it to my PayPal which clearly stated there'd be no Deezer HiFi billing until next Feb., so if there were any BS come cancellation time (if i cancel) i'd take it up with them i guess

 

[fredblue]

ok, further late night fiddling reveals at the very least The Isleys' Live It Up (whole album) is the Quad, as is EW&F's That's The Way Of The World (entire album) the old Quad mix repurposed to whatever.. I think BJ's Piano Man maybe too, lead vocals have that faraway feel like they do on the Quad.

also, there's a few old Sony Surround Single Layer SACD titles in there that sound suspiciously like they might be downmixes of the 5.1's (e.g. EW&F Gratitude) and a few RCA's that all had Quads i suspect may be folddowns/360RA conversions of some sort too (John Denver, Jefferson Airplane, Chet Atkins).. how bizarre this 360RA thing all is.

the Billy Paul's are not available on the UK 360 Deezer iPhone app or i'd try to verify the Quad status of those two, too!

 

[4-earredwonder]

SONY will try anything except release bona fide new 360 degree surround multichannel SACDs for which they hold the patent. Shame on you SONY .......And I'll never quite forgive you for announcing and then abandoning your Blu Ray Audio launch....for which you hold another patent.

Patently FRUSTRATING, I say!

SONY NO BALONEY

WARNING: Contains carcinogenic nitrates

 

[fredblue]

lest we get distracted by Ralphie's killer knockwurst, hope we don't miss the bigger sausage here.. and that is that i believe Sony are utilising discrete 5.1 and Quad masters and rejigging them into this 360RA "thing"!

the good news is, not only do i suspect they have a discrete 4-ch master of Live It Up (something i feared for a number of reasons may not have been the case, "Reasons" i can go into if anybody cares enough) and that those old 5.1 masters they released back in the single layer days are safe too. phew!

 

[PmikeK]

There‘s more processing power and memory in latest smartphones than computers used to land man on the moon and used for engineering and business in the eighties.

Smart technology is devastating for your mitochondria and breaks the weak covalant bond between melanopsin and retinol.

 

[mlrocker]

never let me down.