Apple Spatial Audio reviews here

[kapsjt]

For certain, turn off Spacial Audio. It’s a parlor trick that doesn’t have any real merit it my mind. I’ve tried in home systems head phones etc. it’s not good for music. It is useful for two channel movie watching with headphones.

In my T with Meridian and Spacial off, I’ve been finding that Apple beats Spotify in the clarity of voices and higher frequencies. This is generally what happens with more bitrate or better codecs. I have not tested against Tidal.

Both Apple and Spotify received the “louder” level and adjusted EQ compared to the last update. I have been pretty happy with Flat EQ with the new update. I was running an adjusted EQ curve based on using a measurement microphone and some tuning software which I liked a lot. Those settings don’t work with the update. I will be doing the measurement again. Maybe this week.

Is "Spatial Audio" an Apple format that is on top of/in addition to the the Dolby Atmos encoding? If that is the case I will turn spatial audio off for sure. I was under the impression we needed to have Spatial Audio turned on to enable the Dolby Atmos sound.

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[bhlackey]

Is "Spatial Audio" an Apple format that is on top of/in addition to the the Dolby Atmos encoding? If that is the case I will turn spatial audio off for sure. I was under the impression we needed to have Spatial Audio turned on to enable the Dolby Atmos sound.

Soacial audio is the Marketing term and Dolby Atmos is the technology used to deliver the stream. Many songs were retrofit with the multi channel tracks where the new channels were interpreted. This invents 3D sound out of 2D signal with poor results. Some artists mixed their recordings with this in mind and the affect is better as they have all channel data. For me though, the number of tracks that are mastered with multi-channel is low. Most of the music I listen to wasn’t recorded in the last few years. This makes the number of faked tracks proportionally high.

What would be nice is to have a setting that only played Spacial audio tracks when they were mastered in multi-channel. But that isn’t an option Apple gives.

I also don’t like the 3D faked auto enabled in the Rivian for other sources for the same reason. It adds “breadth” to the sound which sounds open and large, but it make things sound “shallow” and washed out to me.

 

[k9ltd3]

I have a T, but the EQ settings in this thread are worth trying:

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/threads/how-to-improve-a-rivian-r1s’s-elevation-sound-system-with-simple-eq-changes-equipment-measured-tests-results.24034/

I tried those setting and it sounds horrible as does everything after this update. They really messed with the frequencies, especially the bass. I cannot for the life of me fix it, even after resets and adjustments to the EQ. Very disappointed.

 

[COdogman]

I tried those setting and it sounds horrible as does everything after this update. They really messed with the frequencies, especially the bass. I cannot for the life of me fix it, even after resets and adjustments to the EQ. Very disappointed.

I'm sorry to hear that. I was pretty happy with it before the update and it got even better. I have the Meridian system and it got much louder and bass is deeper and fuller. It's very hard to make comparisons between the different systems, especially now with Gen 2 having 2 options, then there is the differences between the S and T on top of it. It might be worth creating a ticket and having service take a look at it.

 

[alexm305]

2023 R1S w/ Elevation here. My system finally became alive after this update. The improvement for me is significant. The original 3D sounded horrible in my car so kept that off, but I really couldn't tell I had all those strategically placed speakers until now. Volume also much louder for me as well. Def some songs sound better than others on Dolby/Spatial, and I do have to toggle my volume control on some, but 1000X better than before from any source including Spotify (on highest setting) which improved big time as well. More depth, more bass, better sound stage, much better listening experience. Super happy although my wifi and hot spot was a little buggy after the update and had to do a restart for that yesterday.

 

[DuoRivians]

The spacial audio sounds much better on my R1T with Meridian than it does on my Gen 2 R1S with Rivian Premium Audio.

In the latter, the mid range still sounds quite muddled. The 1K range frequency isn’t great.

Not sure why Rivian decided to remove the mid range speakers… head scratcher.

 

[vordo]

I figure I should chime in - I'm a film sound professional and a recovering DJ. I generally work in some very refined audio environments. I got my R1T from the shop and my only requirement was the Meridian system and I've been generally pleased, I do, do some very slight EQ and have been happy with the sound for the most part.

I stay away from Spotify (that's the wife's realm) and never did the Tidal deep dive. When I am listening to music, I use PlexAmp from my phone via bluetooth. I do this for several reasons. 1) I live in an area where there is NO cell service for around 15 min from my house and PlexAmp will cache plenty of audio to keep me going. 2) it does a great job of nice little segues between tracks when listening to a mix and it's generally seemless and lovely (old DJ vibes here).

I did listen to the new Apple app and sure some of the modern mixed tunes do sound really great, however if you play a sampling from my library its a relatively small subset of tracks that are encoded in atmos - and if not, it's no better than PlexAmp. If I want to listen to streaming content, I suppose I would use Apple but my audio diet isn't centered on finding new music to listen to.

So in general, FOR ME, the utility of the new Apple front end is kinda meh. I went on a bit of a road trip with by boys this weekend (soccer tournament) and had Apple on for a good bit and almost immediately I missed how PlexAmp handles going from song to song and by the end of the day, I was back to streaming from my phone. FWIW, I don't re-encode via PlexAmp so I am playing Apple lossless from my library and it sounds pretty damn good.

(A quick asside here: I had an audio shootout with a colleague who has a new Tesla Y with him playing high bit rate audio from a USB stick and me playing from PlexAmp in the Rivian and the Tesla had a slight edge, but everyone was surprised how good the bluetooth streaming was in the RIvian - its a totally subjective test but of course I am biased about my new toy, but for sure when a group people who listen critically for a living get together to measure their, um speaker setups, I have to say there wasn't any shade being thrown the Rivian / Meridian way.)

Of course what I REALLY miss is the ability to play lossless audio from an USB stick - that's what I did in the Tesla S and I am still pretty annoyed that the Rivian won't do it.

 

[Southern R1S]

Not sure why Rivian decided to remove the mid range speakers… head scratcher.

To quote Wyclef, "Dolla dolla bills y'all."

uhhh, I mean. Saving rare earth magnets.

 

[R1S88]

I must be the only one who likes it - I think on the Dolby coded tracks I can tease apart the sound more and it's a better listening experience. Everything is more clear.

That said since the update Alexa refuses to control my Spotify or Apple music (despite linking them in the Alexa app) so that's been a bummer.

(Gen 1 24 RIS)

same here. - I used to be able to say "Alexa, play something on Spotify" but it's not working after the update. I tried fiddling with the Alexa app on my phone and reinstalling everything, but no success - is this working for anyone? Alexa won't control Apple Music either.

 

[s0ysauce]

Agreed on the miss for not enabling local lossless playback. That would be a great stopgap for us while they work on the other aspects of the vehicle.

I have a Plex server, but never really looked into PlexAmp. Thanks to your comment, I will look into it to stream my local files over BT.

So in general, FOR ME, the utility of the new Apple front end is kinda meh. I went on a bit of a road trip with by boys this weekend (soccer tournament) and had Apple on for a good bit and almost immediately I missed how PlexAmp handles going from song to song and by the end of the day, I was back to streaming from my phone. FWIW, I don't re-encode via PlexAmp so I am playing Apple lossless from my library and it sounds pretty damn good.

(A quick asside here: I had an audio shootout with a colleague who has a new Tesla Y with him playing high bit rate audio from a USB stick and me playing from PlexAmp in the Rivian and the Tesla had a slight edge, but everyone was surprised how good the bluetooth streaming was in the RIvian - its a totally subjective test but of course I am biased about my new toy, but for sure when a group people who listen critically for a living get together to measure their, um speaker setups, I have to say there wasn't any shade being thrown the Rivian / Meridian way.)

Of course what I REALLY miss is the ability to play lossless audio from an USB stick - that's what I did in the Tesla S and I am still pretty annoyed that the Rivian won't do it.

 

[RadDad]

I swear my sound is getting worse everyday, both on Spotify and on Apple atmps.

Also, the Apple app is super glitchy, freezes up constantly and becomes unresponsive.

 

[iforbes]

Overall, I am loving the update and Apple Music.

I wish that:

A- there was a way to control the volume of the driver’s side speaker above the B pillar. My ear is 6” (less than a foot) away and it can be distractingly loud and take me out of the environment created by ATMOS.
B- a way to make the volume consistent between all songs. Somewhat bothersome to change the volume with some regularity.
C- occasionally, especially at increased volumes and with treble rich passages, the audio can be quite harsh? Brash? Not sure of the right word but look forward to a fix.

Having said that, so glad to be rid of Spotify and its horrible algorithm and app.

Looking forward to continued improvements to the Apple Music app.

 

[RadDad]

Finally just read that some people's Atmos is glitching. Did the test track and the system failed miserably. Did an infotainment reset and quality definitely seems better, passed the test.

 

[4RNROFL]

I have been thoroughly enjoying the Apple Music update. The sound stage feels a lot wider for the indie, punk, rock, pop music I’ve been cycling the past week- all had Dolby Atmos badges on the tracks. Switching back and forth from Spotify on the some tracks it seems everything is compressed into the mids and muddier. Switching back to Apple Music has a cooler sound, but I feel like I’m sitting in the middle of the drum kit. Clearer highs and improved bass. I’m now an Apple Music convert even though I have to maintain both subscriptions anyway.

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