OK, I got this all setup, I’m now using an old DAC (from the iPhone 3G days!) that is a high quality one, this goes from USB to the DAC and then from there to 3.5mm to a banana plug to my Sennheiser 650s. If you want to try thi stuff:
- It is actually hard to find Dolby Atmos tracks on Apple Music. There is no tag system. The easiest thing to do (other than random trolling) is to turn on Lossless and Alway Dolby Atmos in Music/Preferenes on your Mac.
- Then do a search for “Spatial Audio” (searching for Atmos) gives you nothing. You end up with three playlists that are designed for spatial audio and from there you can find albums that have been encoded with it.
- These lists are nice because the first one let’s you hear the difference.
WordPress doesn’t seem to have a default widget for Apple Music (it does for YouTube etc which is pretty great), but try these
- Made for Spatial Audio. This is a good intro and the first song moves from mono to stereo to Dolby Atmos, the effect I think is very subtle from stereo to Atmos, it feels like the sound stage “opens slightly”
- Hits in Spatial Audio. This uses The Weeknd as an example, again the effect is subtle and you have to listen for it.
- Pop in Spatial Audio. This doesn’t have the test track, just a collection of latest hits in Atmos.
Does Lossless make a difference?
Well, I don’t have the ears for it, but to me 256Kbps AAC and the uber cool 192Hz/24-bit audio sound about the same, but it is actually hard to do an A/B comparison, but I have to say I’ve always thought these Sennheiser headphones are amazing.
