Apple vs. Tidal comparison review -- and Atmos

[Runs_4_beer]

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.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I spent two hours yelling at Apple yesterday for their BS process to get set up, never did get it. I'll live vicariously through others here on how great my audio could be.

Sponsored

 

[wski441]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I spent two hours yelling at Apple yesterday for their BS process to get set up, never did get it. I'll live vicariously through others here on how great my audio could be.

I had to set up an account, install apple music, create a subscription in the account and then link it. It is completely bass-ackwards process where Apple wants all your information first, including CC info before you are allowed to create an account.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

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

The biggest issue is reception itself. It's almost like they forgot to connect the antenna.

Then there is the fact that the signal strength has to be some minimum for the station to be selected as I use the steering wheel button to go through my favorites. Usually there will be no stations at all when I pull into my neighborhood. An issue I simply haven't had with all my other vehicles. Sure I've seen differences in how well each vehicle can pull in each station, but nothing has been as bad as the Rivian.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

I have the exact same vehicle configuration as the OP, but I'm not seeing the ATMOS setting within Apple Music App like the release notes mention.

I'm also not seeing any 3D button in the Audio settings where the balance/fade and Dynamic music toggle (between three settings) is.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

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.

I'll test this out, but I agree that Apple Music is way too loud at volume 3.

 

[s12dxer]

The biggest issue is reception itself. It's almost like they forgot to connect the antenna.

Then there is the fact that the signal strength has to be some minimum for the station to be selected as I use the steering wheel button to go through my favorites. Usually there will be no stations at all when I pull into my neighborhood. An issue I simply haven't had with all my other vehicles. Sure I've seen differences in how well each vehicle can pull in each station, but nothing has been as bad as the Rivian.

I agree, the FM setup is quite strange in the truck, and always has been. When I first got my truck I opened a ticket about it and they replaced the entire antenna array, and it still has issues. One thing a tech told me is that there are actually two antennas, and that the SW decides which one to use depending on signal strength it gets (not sure how accurate this is). What i've noticed is that with weaker FM signals (which happens a lot in the PNW due to hills) there tends to be a lot of "searching" the truck does on a particular frequency, resulting in bleed-over that comes through from other adjacent frequencies. I'm not an FM engineer, but it does seem like something is off. It's almost like they not using PLL tuning to lock on a station or the antennas aren't shielded properly. Many times here in Eugene I can pick up Portland stations just fine (which is pretty good for any FM radio) but then all of the sudden it will switch to bleed-over audio from a local FM station up/down the dial a few frequencies. It makes me wonder if its more of a Software issue vs hardware.

Overall a minor issue for a truck that is otherwise awesome, but FM radio reception seems like something that was clearly solved in my 1999 Toyota Tacoma....

 

[Alanparkcity]

I flipped back and forth across a couple Billie Eilish tracks with Atmos encoding on Tidal and Apple (3D surround set to off; EQ set to superfluid's curve for elevation sound system R1S). Much preferred Apple to Tidal. I plan to keep experimenting before I cancel Tidal, but for now my preference is the Apple offering (as much as I like the idea of Tidal).

A great album to hear the Dolby Spatial Audio difference on Apple Music is “Long Way Home” by Ray LaMontagne. It is brand new and seems to have very good spatial mixing!

 

[Brian A]

The biggest issue is reception itself. It's almost like they forgot to connect the antenna.

Then there is the fact that the signal strength has to be some minimum for the station to be selected as I use the steering wheel button to go through my favorites. Usually there will be no stations at all when I pull into my neighborhood. An issue I simply haven't had with all my other vehicles. Sure I've seen differences in how well each vehicle can pull in each station, but nothing has been as bad as the Rivian.

I haven't seen that issue with mine. You may want to have the service dept look at it the next time you take it in.

 

[JayinNJ]

A great album to hear the Dolby Spatial Audio difference on Apple Music is “Long Way Home” by Ray LaMontagne. It is brand new and seems to have very good spatial mixing!

Love his old stuff. Have to give it a listen.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

@mikehmb I approve of your choices.

My morning off road.

 

[dleepnw]

I have an R1T, Meridian Elevation. Its an amazing sound system. Not the best I've heard and should be better for the price of the vehicle but great nonetheless. 3D Surround is great. Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio is a meh for me after about 30-35 songs optimized for SA. They both create different immersive sound experiences. Probably comes down to preference but to me Spatial Audio sounds a bit hollow and unnatural.

 

[itripn]

I'll test this out, but I agree that Apple Music is way too loud at volume 3.

Glad it's not just me. In my R1S, it's even too loud on 1 for general conversation in the vehicle. When I switch to Tidal, volume 1 is just right for background music while talking. No way with Apple Music.

Even before Apple Music being twice as loud as Tidal, I found the volume ramp in general (Tidal, Spotify, etc) to be much too aggressive, without enough granularity. My R1S gets as loud on volume 17 as most other cards I've driven are on volume 30. I know the numbers are a bit arbitrary and I don't use that example necessarily as apples to apples -- just that I'd love it if 17 in my R1S was actually 30, and I had that many more steps between 1 and 30 then, to adjust volume more gently.

Cheers,
Ron

 

[Meash20]

I've been a Spotify user until now, now I'm embracing the Apple Music bus due to the update. I hadn't even heard of Tidal before getting my Rivian. I have really appreciated the Apple Music quality with the last update.

 

[s4wrxttcs]

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.

Unless you have my 2022 with Meridian and then its not in there.

I sent an email support request to Rivian to try to figure out why its missing. Not much is in there. Just crossfade settings, explicit music toggle, and some weird add to favorites which has no toggle.

 

[cjust2006]

Unless you have my 2022 with Meridian and then its not in there.

I sent an email support request to Rivian to try to figure out why its missing. Not much is in there. Just crossfade settings, explicit music toggle, and some weird add to favorites which has no toggle.

Interesting. I also have 2022 with Meridian.

Sponsored