Anyone compare the 360RA and Atmos versions of Dua Lipa's albums on Tidal? Thoughts?

[ziggy]

Hi, I'm looking for thoughts on the 360RA and Atmos versions of Dua Lipa's albums on Tidal, for each album, is the 360RA or Atmos version better?

Also, please let us know what kind of sound system you have, thank you and cheers!

Dua Lipa
360RA https://tidal.com/album/157117504Atmos https://tidal.com/album/251362624
Future Nostalgia
360RA https://tidal.com/album/135513605Atmos https://tidal.com/album/192309307

 

[MrSmithers]

The 360RA mix on Future Nostalgia is streets ahead from the Atmos mix… For some reason in Atmos it sounds incredibly bland and non adventurous? Whereas the 360RA is really discrete with sounds pinging around from all over the place… And it sounds great!

I haven’t yet properly compared the self titled album but the Atmos on that sounded pretty good…

I’m not sure if they’re separate mixes (seems unlikely)? Or if something just didn’t gel on the Atmos conversion for Future Nostalgia to make it sound so different?

I have a Marantz 7015 AVR with B&W speakers listening in 5.1.4

 

[ziggy]

Thank you for the reply, I’m eagerly awaiting the self-titled album comparison. I think the 360RA versions were released before the Atmos versions and interested in other’s thoughts because I haven’t found many titles with both 360RA and Atmos versions. Thank you again.

I haven’t yet properly compared the self titled album but the Atmos on that sounded pretty good…

 

[~dave~~wave~]

The 360RA mix on Future Nostalgia is streets ahead from the Atmos mix… For some reason in Atmos it sounds incredibly bland and non adventurous? Whereas the 360RA is really discrete with sounds pinging around from all over the place… And it sounds great!

I haven’t yet properly compared the self titled album but the Atmos on that sounded pretty good…

I’m not sure if they’re separate mixes (seems unlikely)? Or if something just didn’t gel on the Atmos conversion for Future Nostalgia to make it sound so different?

I have a Marantz 7015 AVR with B&W speakers listening in 5.1.4

Sorry, I don't understand.

Are you now in fact able to listen to RA360 in surround from your AVR, contrary to this post?

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ther-mpeg-h-ready-receivers.32566/post-647277

 

[MrSmithers]

Sorry, I don't understand.

Are you now in fact able to listen to RA360 in surround from your AVR, contrary to this post?

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ther-mpeg-h-ready-receivers.32566/post-647277

Not exactly… It’s complicated… But I just heard a version and thought the results were stark enough to comment.

Encouragingly - IIS Fraunhofer just recently updated their MPEG-H suite to include a player which is good news…

It just requires any of the media players to implement the codec into their systems. They simply need to keep up with things, this is the problem! I tried the J River forums but have fallen on deaf ears…

Apparently it might be possible to ‘cast’ 360RA to a Google Chromecast on the Deezer 360 App? But I’m not going to bother personally as Deezer are shutting down 360RA in a couple of weeks…

 

[anibal]

Thank you for the reply, I’m eagerly awaiting the self-titled album comparison. I think the 360RA versions were released before the Atmos versions and interested in other’s thoughts because I haven’t found many titles with both 360RA and Atmos versions. Thank you again.

(I love necroposting )
Indeed the difference in mix for the debut album is pretty jarring. The 360RA mix is incredible, I absolutely love it, up to the point that I would buy a physical edition of this album based on this version. But the Atmos version is awfully front-centric, like most Dua Lipa atmos mixes.

For reference: listening in a 5.1 setup, Amazon Music through Google TV for Atmos and software decoding Tidal for the 360RA.

 

[MrSmithers]

(I love necroposting )
Indeed the difference in mix for the debut album is pretty jarring. The 360RA mix is incredible, I absolutely love it, up to the point that I would buy a physical edition of this album based on this version. But the Atmos version is awfully front-centric, like most Dua Lipa atmos mixes.

For reference: listening in a 5.1 setup, Amazon Music through Google TV for Atmos and software decoding Tidal for the 360RA.

Cool, yeah the difference is incredible! On both albums the 360RA mix is fantasticly good. And the Atmos version is like a damp squib by comparison. I'd go as far to say that they could be up there in at least the top 10 of object based mixes I've ever heard from streaming...

@anibal did you have any playback issues on track 11. Begging on the self titled album? I can't get that track to work properly.

The funny thing is that these albums are on Warner Records, so I'm not sure why they had a 360RA mix to begin with? (Or indeed why they are so different?) That usually only happens with titles from the Sony Music camp. Maybe whoever mixed them started out that way? It's a good thing anyway...

 

[anibal]

Cool, yeah the difference is incredible! On both albums the 360RA mix is fantasticly good. And the Atmos version is like a damp squib by comparison. I'd go as far to say that they could be up there in at least the top 10 of object based mixes I've ever heard from streaming...

@anibal did you have any playback issues on track 11. Begging on the self titled album? I can't get that track to work properly.

The funny thing is that these albums are on Warner Records, so I'm not sure why they had a 360RA mix to begin with? (Or indeed why they are so different?) That usually only happens with titles from the Sony Music camp. Maybe whoever mixed them started out that way? It's a good thing anyway...

@MrSmithers , no Begging problems here... I just double checked. Super nice mix too. I am about to listen to Future Nostalgia, I will report back.

 

[anibal]

Ok, definitely the same experience with Future Nostalgia.
"Levitaing" was a revelation, I never noticed the vocoder backing vocals before! pretty cool effect.
I also love how the kickdrum is mixed in a way that seems like I am sitting on top of it (my sub is in the front left, so it is not that). And the occasional Dua Lipa whispers in the surrounds give me goosebumps

 

[woody]

I couldn’t find the 360 version of these albums on Amazon music. (Only Atmos- I don’t have Tidal)

 

[gingerbeardman]

Ok, definitely the same experience with Future Nostalgia.
"Levitaing" was a revelation, I never noticed the vocoder backing vocals before! pretty cool effect.
I also love how the kickdrum is mixed in a way that seems like I am sitting on top of it (my sub is in the front left, so it is not that). And the occasional Dua Lipa whispers in the surrounds give me goosebumps

Just listening to Future Nostalgia, AirPods Pro via Apple Music Dolby Atmos, and got up to close the door and head tracking kicked in and I walked into the scatting background singer. Made me smile.

I'd prefer if things were a bit further away from me in space, but the head tracking really shows off the object placement.