Apple vs. Tidal comparison review -- and Atmos

[s4wrxttcs]

Atmos music, to my ears, is a big step backwards.

I don't doubt the technical mastery of this but there are two very REAL problems with Atmos music when listening not on headphones:

1) I've been listening to non-atmos music my whole life, so songs which I am used to all of a sudden have audio pieces which are "missing" from the sound stage I'm used to. Often I find that parts of the track moved to rear or height channels is unnatural - there is no reason a guitar solo from the same instrument which was just in front of me would move to behind or above my head...

2) The best speakers in a stereo setup have historically been the L & R channels. Smaller speakers are used for center, surround and satellite. Same with our Rivian where the speakers in the headliner are far inferior to the ones in the dash and door. This means that whole parts of the music are moved from "good" speakers to "bad" speakers.

At best Atmos is distracting, at worst it degrades the sound quality by moving more load to inferior components. On headphones, (AirPods Pro, Max etc) it is brilliant and very enjoyable, but for a stereo in a room or in a car it just doesn't work.

I agree on both points despite being a fan of ATMOS.

For ATMOS you have to use headphones or a speaker setup meant for it. Like to my ears the Sonos ER300 sound pretty good.

There is definitely music that tailors well to ATMOS and music that isn't.

I haven't had a chance to use it, but I wish I could have ATMOS only enabled for an ATMOS playlist.

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[s4wrxttcs]

I admire all you audiophiles, but I would just like audio version of a giant food court - lots of variety, all in one place, served up fast and cheap. I know I am a philistine, but I am happy to leave the audio fine dining to you guys. My pallet is not that sophisticated. I want to "Connect Minus" audio package with the foodcourt option!

I'd love for FM radio to actually work well in the Rivian, but it does not.

 

[SFphoto]

I don't have the "Sound Stage" option in my EQ settings with the new update. Has anyone else had that issue?

 

[cjust2006]

Exactly right - this is similar though not as extreme as the "3D" TV fad. I turned off Atmos music on my Apple TVs which are connected to 7.1 or 5.1.2 stereo systems. I was fairly happy with the Rivian audio before this, so hoping there is a way to turn off Atmos within Apple Music.

There is. In Apple Music main screen, just click on the little person icon to bring up your account/settings. It's just a toggle switch there.

 

[mrodriguez]

I'm really torn on this so far. I love having Apple Music available and although buggy that will be fixed, I imagine. The part I find annoying is not all of my music is Atmos. In fact most isn't. What I have observed is Atmos music comes in at a lower volume and I need to crank up the volume to get the right sound. Then I get the next song which isn't Atmos and my ears begin to bleed listening and I have to scroll way back down. I really struggle to understand why I have to adjust the volume so much. It seems trivial and it is, but its annoying to be at a level and need to constantly adjust it over and over. I'm almost wondering whether I should just turn it off.

 

[Brian A]

I'd love for FM radio to actually work well in the Rivian, but it does not.

What doesn't work well with it? I haven't seen any problems with it but I only listen to it 10% of the time. Most of time it's Pandora or Alexa/Amazon

 

[mikehmb]

I'm guessing you don't use airpod pro's and listen to spatial audio much? Kinda the whole point of the atmos/spatial is that it's made to sound like you're practically on the stage and different sounds come from all over the place.

The good news for you is you can just switch off the atmos in the settings if you dont' like the way it sounds.

Side note; I found that i had to turn off the truck's 3d surround is key to getting some really good sound.

No, I use Spatial all the time with AirPods and it is no where near as invasive as this.

The sound stage is -completely- different on the Meridian system.

 

[RealBillNye]

I'm surprised to hear about the negative reviews here. Maybe it is my limited sample size so far, but the songs that I have listened to with Apple Music Atmos in the Rivian have been incredible.

Rocketman and the entire Rumor album was a joy to experience.

 

[Singletracker]

I just installed the app update and went for a drive to test the Apple Music. I have a subscription and have been playing Apple Music by way of BT from my iPhone. It has been uninspiring, to say the least. Now, it’s a whole new world! It has come alive! Is it perfect? Well, probably not, but it works for me. I will have to do some experimenting with equalization, but I’m loving the upgrade. Another reason to not have to carry my phone with me all of the time.

 

[SeaGeo]

I'm surprised to hear about the negative reviews here. Maybe it is my limited sample size so far, but the songs that I have listened to with Apple Music Atmos in the Rivian have been incredible.

Rocketman and the entire Rumor album was a joy to experience.

I just installed the app update and went for a drive to test the Apple Music. I have a subscription and have been playing Apple Music by way of BT from my iPhone. It has been uninspiring, to say the least. Now, it’s a whole new world! It has come alive! Is it perfect? Well, probably not, but it works for me. I will have to do some experimenting with equalization, but I’m loving the upgrade. Another reason to not have to carry my phone with me all of the time.

That's probably mostly because it now sounds like you have more than the dash speakers, and someone told Rivian that we all have subwoofers.

 

[Singletracker]

That's probably mostly because it now sounds like you have more than the dash speakers, and someone told Rivian that we all have subwoofers.

Well, this is true. I am hearing speakers I have simply not heard before. I’m sure a lot of sound quality was lost when using BT from my phone. Whatever, I like it.

 

[Hillbilly]

Well Apple won't even let me "create an ID at this time” for some inexplicable reason. Never even owned an apple product. Probably won't start anytime soon since I've never had this much of a problem trying to set up an online account anywhere. Boo.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

Appreciate all the comments.

I've noticed that when listening to Apple, a certain playlist will have Atmos and non-Atmos songs. The Atmos songs play with "normal" volume, but now the non-Atmos songs come up and are REALLY loud, even on like volume 3 it's very loud. Is anyone else noticing this? It's kinda annoying and I'm wondering if I'm missing something simple.

 

[JayinNJ]

There is. In Apple Music main screen, just click on the little person icon to bring up your account/settings. It's just a toggle switch there.

Note you must be in park to use this button, so no switching Atmos on or off while driving.

 

[RivianRunner]

I'm a fan of Tidal. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, but Tidal has different sound quality, different bit rates, depending upon whether you have a premium account. On my Tesla's, I can tell which I am listening to because the current selection either has a little "HiFi" icon, or not.

Even though I have Premium Connectivity and can stream to my heart's content, HiFi only streams over WiFi. That means in order to listen to HiFi when I drive, I need to download playlists to the vehicle over WiFi, then I can play them off the USB memory stick as I drive.

The difference in sound quality is substantial and pretty obvious. The HiFi bitrate sounds like I'm sitting in the nicest concert hall in the world. The regular streaming bitrate doesn't have as much depth and breadth.

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