Dolby Atmos for music streaming is a waste of time

Dolby Atmos seems like the future of audio technology. The object-based surround sound format has been around since 2012, and until recently was used mostly to craft precise, pristine sound mixes for movies and television. A few years later, Dolby Atmos for Music was introduced, and was adopted by Amazon Music and Tidal for music streaming.

It wasn’t until 2021, though, when Apple introduced its Spatial Audio feature for Apple Music and its AirPods Pro wireless earbuds, that Dolby Atmos really took off in the music space. It was an exciting development, using advanced audio processing technology to create a lifelike surround sound effect using just a pair of earbuds.

The technology promised users the feeling of being fully enveloped by the music they were listening to, but after several years going back and forth, I now just keep Dolby Atmos turned off in my Apple Music settings.

The surround sound dilemma

A great idea, in theory

LG

When it comes to movies and TV, surround sound has long been the standard. And that just makes sense. An action movie gets that much more exciting when the viewer can hear bullets flying past them, or helicopters overhead. Even in quieter dramas, a lush soundscape coming from all around can mean the difference between full immersion into the world of the story, and getting bored.

In music, though, surround sound has a more difficult history. There have been a number of formats over the years that could deliver surround sound music, but they were rarely adopted by anyone other than audiophiles. The big reason for that is, in order to listen, special equipment was required, including a surround speaker setup, which most people don’t have. Additionally, it wasn’t really possible to listen to that audio on the go, which is how most people listen to music.

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Enter Atmos

The beauty of object-based audio

Surround sound may have been a cumbersome technology, but Dolby Atmos brought a new advantage to the table. Atmos is an object-based audio system, which means that sounds are mixed in a virtual space, and can be mapped onto as few as two speakers, or dozens. In a movie theater, speakers all around, including on the ceiling, allow Atmos to precisely reproduce the sound of that virtual space. On a pair of headphones, the audio is mapped to give the illusion of that same virtual space, with sounds feeling like they are coming from all around you.

This new development meant that it was suddenly a lot more practical to produce and distribute surround sound audio for music, which Apple Music has taken advantage of in a big way. The move by Apple to adopt the Dolby Atmos format spurred record labels and music producers to begin releasing more Dolby Atmos music, including going back and remastering old albums for Atmos.

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The problem with Atmos Music

It doesn’t (usually) sound very good

TREBLAB Z7-Pro headphones as worn by a concrete head in the back yard. 

Atmos for Music does seem like a great idea, and when it was first introduced on Apple Music, I excitedly dove right in. I even enjoyed many of the mixes I listened to. Taylor Swift’s albums sounded particularly good. Those were exceptions to the rule though. Over and over, whether new releases or old remasters, I would come across mixes that sounded much flatter and tinnier than normal, and often without much of a surround effect anyway.

Even the music that did sound good in Dolby Atmos, like Swift’s, would often still sound better when I turned off Atmos and switched to regular old stereo. The worst part was not knowing whether a record would sound good or not, which had not been a problem for me prior to the introduction of Atmos. It seemed many producers simply didn’t know how to mix properly for the format. My solution has been, simply, to keep Atmos off in my iPhone’s music settings. This way, I always know I’ll be getting a properly mastered stereo mix every time.

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Where Dolby Atmos shines

There are exceptions to every rule

I may be on the outs with Dolby Atmos for most music, but I do make a few key excepts. First of all, some albums really have been mastered well for the format, to the point where I prefer listening to the Atmos version. An example of this is the Pixies’ classic album Doolittle, which has an absolutely stellar Atmos remix. I will sometimes turn Atmos back on just to listen to that album.

The biggest exception by far is with classical music and jazz. While I’ve encountered a few bum Atmos mixes in those genres, I have mostly been astounded by what the format brings to them. There’s nothing like popping in your headphones and putting on Glenn Gould’s famous recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and having it sound like he’s actually there in the room playing his grand piano. I’ve listened to jazz recordings that now, thanks to Atmos, sound just like sitting in an actual jazz bar while the band plays.

Sticking with the tried and true

Newer doesn’t always mean better

Dolby Atmos may be the new thing in music, but that doesn’t make it better. As with anything, it depends on how it’s used. In the case of classical and jazz, Atmos is able to breathe new life into already incredible recordings. With other kinds of music, though, it’s a much more mixed bag. For every album that sounds great in Atmos, there are several others that sound worse. This is likely because producers are not used to the format, or treat it as an afterthought, since most people will be listening to the traditional stereo mix. Perhaps, in the future, producers will get more acquainted with Dolby Atmos, and it will be safe to keep the feature turned on, but until that happens, I’m keeping it off by default.

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