Listening to in Dolby Atmos Streaming, via Tidal/Apple/Amazon

[atlantasteve]

No way that it's a different ears issue my friend.
Do you hear any separation in this song? Do you heard any discrete instruments in the surround or height level?
I pinned my ears to the left/right surrounds for 30 seconds each time and they are just mimicking the fronts.
Maybe this is an old mix and new one still hasn't uploaded in my territory?
I don't know what it is but there's no way that this is a proper Atmos mix. At least on my Apple tv 4K.
I'll try again tomorrow.

I was ready to write off all 3 albums until I heard All You Wanna Do Is Dance on Turnstiles. Looks like I will have to give all 3 a full spin.

 

[privateuniverse]

I was ready to write off all 3 albums until I heard All You Wanna Do Is Dance on Turnstiles. Looks like I will have to give all 3 a full spin.

I haven't gotten all the way through all three. I've played selected tracks from each. So far that's the only song that impressed me.

 

[sjcorne]

I was ready to write off all 3 albums until I heard All You Wanna Do Is Dance on Turnstiles.

The '70s quad mix of that track is even more impressive.

 

[chescowx]

Sounds like these mixes like most are going to be very subjective....as they should be. I have been going back and forth between the SACD mixes and Atmos and I honestly love both of them! They are different...certainly volumes (ATMOS lower) is different but after equalizing volumes - I hear unique aspects to both mixes. Of interest on the percussion side the high hat is much more prominent on the ATMOS mixes especially from the heights....much different from the SACD. The low end is also much more prominent on the ATMOS mixes. The vocals seem to be spread more equally on the SACD but I like the use of the room space on the vocals with the ATMOS mix and of course the bass is much better on the ATMOS mix IMHO.

 

[himey]

I have Turnstiles cued up, just warming up my ears and amps first with the Frampton...

 

[The Hoople]

The Joel mixes are quite front centric. Except for some acoustic guitar on Until The Night where they suddenly jump out of the surrounds. Very strange. But I do hear some heights. And it almost sounds like the multitrack tapes weren’t quite cued in sync in the middle of Italian Restaurant. My ears hear the drums just a tick ahead of being in the pocket after a couple of listens.

 

[Ick]

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant is one of my all time favorite songs. I heard it countless times.
This mix is one of the laziest efforts that I've heard of an Atmos mix.
Some cymbals, a bit of drums and that's it?!
I played the 5.1 SACD and there's a night and day difference between them.
If all of the albums sound that way, it will be very disappointing.

I agree with this assessment. It seems the songs on The Stranger are lazy like this. The other two albums are definitely more adventurous.

 

[Ick]

The Joel mixes are quite front centric. Except for some acoustic guitar on Until The Night where they suddenly jump out of the surrounds. Very strange. But I do hear some heights. And it almost sounds like the multitrack tapes weren’t quite cued in sync in the middle of Italian Restaurant. My ears hear the drums just a tick ahead of being in the pocket after a couple of listens.

I noticed that too. I thought it was from the smoke I just had.

 

[sjcorne]

Since the '70s quad mix is pretty flawed, I'd always wondered what a modern surround version of Turnstiles could sound like. Though the new Atmos mix does fix most of the obvious issues in the quad (i.e. missing instruments like the double-time percussion and piano midway through "Angry Young Man" are back), I'm not entirely convinced it's a better experience overall.

For instance "Summer Highland Falls" is basically stereo here, save for the short horn break in the front heights. The quad approach of putting Billy's voice in the fronts and the piano mostly in the rears is maybe a little weird, but at least they tried to be creative in making a pared-down song like this work within the expanded soundstage.

Some tracks sound really nice on my system ("James" with the keys in the sides and harmonies in the rears may be the standout on the album), but on others I'm finding the EQ choices kind of strange. Where's the 'punch' in the big drums throughout "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "Angry Young Man"? Why does the hi-hat throughout "Summer Highland Falls" sound all phase-y and sibilant? It's almost like the DD+ encoding was done at a lower bitrate than 768 kbps.

 

[humprof]

Vampire Weekend's new album Only God Was Above Us and Black Keys' Ohio Players are now complete. I liked the pre-released tracks. Looking forward to hear the rest this weekend.

Vampire Weekend did an interview segment and a performance of "Mary Boone" on last night's Daily Show:
https://www.cc.com/episodes/ow6qej/the-daily-show-april-10-2024-vampire-weekend-season-29-ep-31

 

[Bretho72]

I was ready to write off all 3 albums until I heard All You Wanna Do Is Dance on Turnstiles. Looks like I will have to give all 3 a full spin.

I was about to write the exact same thing, at least we know our ears are good

 

[The Bright Side]

So from what you guys describe, the new mixes of Turnstiles, Stranger and 52nd continue the trend of the previous 2 (Innocent Man, Piano Man) where they were front-heavy and uninspired. Shame. For the 3 new ones, we have the quad mix and 5.1 SACDs to fall back on, but it was already a shame about Innocent Man and I'm gonna be even sadder when Storm Front gets the same lacklustre Atmos treatment.

One thing. For me, upping the rear volume elevanted the Piano / Innocent Man mixes from unnecessary to acceptable. I see it's the same thing on Turnstiles. The fronts on Hollywood are at -19 dB and the rears at -31 dB. Highland Falls: -22 vs. -38. Of course it'll sound like shit!

Gonna correct them and report back.

 

[The Bright Side]

Yup. Can't say anything about full-on Atmos, all I have is 5.1, but: upping the rear volume actually results in pretty good Turnstiles experience!

Summer, Highland Falls is crazy jarring because the rears are just a massive echo of the vocals, making it feel like you're standing in an empty parking garage with Billy Joel. Of all the places I'd like to stand in with Billy Joel, an empty parking garage ranges at the lower end of the scale. Still, there's a solid 5.1 mix buried in this Atmos release!

Might try the other two albums as well, but then again, I also might not, seeing I have the SACDs. Not like we're starved for choice these days.

 

[fredblue]

Yup. Can't say anything about full-on Atmos, all I have is 5.1, but: upping the rear volume actually results in pretty good Turnstiles experience!

Summer, Highland Falls is crazy jarring because the rears are just a massive echo of the vocals, making it feel like you're standing in an empty parking garage with Billy Joel. Of all the places I'd like to stand in with Billy Joel, an empty parking garage ranges at the lower end of the scale. Still, there's a solid 5.1 mix buried in this Atmos release!

Might try the other two albums as well, but then again, I also might not, seeing I have the SACDs. Not like we're starved for choice these days.

you know i sometimes wonder with some of these mixes where there's clearly been an effort to discretely separate elements out into the Surround soundfield and so we know the engineer is not averse to panning stuff back there but the Rears just sound too low on too many QQ'ers domestic setups at home, if there's maybe an issue whereby the Surround speaker setup the engineer is using has been calibrated with some professional equivalent form of Dynamic EQ adjustment and so the system they are mixing/monitoring on has their Rears set too loud because when i engage Audyssey MultEQ with Dynamic EQ 'On' these types of mixes suddenly come alive around/across the Rears..

..and then i put on a discrete-o-matic old CBS Quad on a DV SACD or a Rhino Quadio BD, or a 5.1/Atmos mix by the likes of S. Wilson, E. Scheiner, S.W. Tayler, B. Soord, B. Clearmountain et al.. and the Rears are suddenly too loud until/unless i shut Dynamic EQ 'Off' again..!

as for these new BJ Atmos mixes, without coming across like i'm damning them with faint praise, i could quite happily live with "Turnstiles" and "52nd Street" if they were the only Surround mixes we have (fortunately they are not ) as they are quite enjoyable in their own right with some nice mix highlights but i guess something may have gone terribly awry with "The Stranger" because not only does it sound miserably lifeless and cludgey to me, like the balls have been ripped out of it but there's barely much panned around the Back when there's ample opportunity to do so, musically not just for fits and giggles. ugh. terrific album though, i'd forgotten just how good it is because i don't consume so much BJ as i did in my younger days

 

[Ick]

New Mark Knopfler is now available.

 

[perzon57]

New Mark Knopfler is now available.

That'll be a nice play with todays paper and the Friday Cognac later tonight.

 

[alansanchez86]

So Oasis Supersonic is up in Atmos on Apple apparently?

 

[benfolds5]

New Mark Knopfler is now available.

Should I wait to hear it first on the Blu Ray audio that's on his way to me? Hmmm...

 

[haikubass]

A new tune by Lennon/McCartney

 

[Pablo]

I don’t know if anyone already shared the latest album by French 79, Teenagers. I find it really well mixed with lots of activity and a sweet ass bass. Genre: Electronic/Progressive/Deep House.