Chris from Lafayette

Sorry to be late to the discussion - I should really check this site more often, especially considering all the help I've received here! Anyway, I do not now use digital room correction - but I did about 10 or 12 years ago. At the time, my subwoofer wouldn't behave itself and I couldn't adjust it manually to my satisfaction: it would fluctuate between ghetto blaster bass and seemingly no bass at all. I then acquired a Marantz receiver which had digital room correction built in. (I forget who made it - it was some predecessor of Dirac.) So after going through the set-up with the calibration microphone, etc., I tried recordings which I knew to be problematical. Wow! Problem solved - and I was a happy camper! So why am I not using digital room correction today? After all, my JBL pre/pro has what I would assume to be a more sophisticated built-in system than my old Marantz receiver had. The answer is that we had to move the subwoofer because it had been situated in front of an unused fireplace. Once we started using it, I was out-voted by my wife and my cat (who loves sitting in front of the working fireplace at night!), and the only other place we had room for the subwoofer was along the back wall. I'd read that this kind of placement often doesn't work out too well, and a great deal of care must be exercised in the subwoofer's level and exact placement. HOWEVER, I was astounded that the subwoofer now sounded much better integrated into the overall system sound than I could ever have expected. Once again, I was a happy camper, and I've never looked back since then! Nor have I been tempted to experiment with the digital room correction since we made this change to have the subwoofer in back of us.

Thanks to everyone (especially Chris) who contributed to this thread. Although I think that the discussion got a bit off track and needlessly complicated in places, I also think my present path is clear. Thanks again! I'm sure I'll report on my progress very soon!

Hi, Chris. . . Aha! I think you have provided what I hope is the "missing link" in the solution to my predicament. Yeay! So. . . Per my OP in this thread, I can go back to my original plan to get another Mac Mini (with Logic pre-installed on it) to play back my Audite download (which, indeed, I obsess about every day!). And if I understand correctly, this is what things would look like: New Mac Mini (with Logic pre-installed) --> HDMI connected to my pre-pro. And that would be it? I would also need to have the Dolby Atmos plug-in for Logic. I could then use Logic to play back the downloaded files directly into my pre/pro? And I wouldn't need Nvidia Shield Pro? If I haven't missed anything (please let me know if I have!), then this is an investment I am willing to make! 😃 As always, thank you VERY VERY much for all your help and patience! p.s.: On another site, Kal Rubinson says that he can play his Audite downloads just with Jriver - apparently no other processing or conversion required.

Now that I've slept on it, here's my summary of our exciting story so far: I can play Dolby Atmos using Dolby Atmos blu-rays in my blu-ray player and streaming via my Apple TV 4K device. But for Dolby Atmos downloads, there doesn't seem to be any straightforward, simple, cheap (!) way to play them right now. And there seem to be a number of "gotchas" involved in playing back what I thought was a straightforward 24/48 album in Dolby Atmos I'd downloaded from the Audite site. For one thing, I would need to add an Nvidia Shield (a little hardware box, similar to the Apple TV 4K device) to my system (no problem - an extra $200). And for another thing, the format of the Atmos files downloaded from the Audite site is different from that of the Atmos files downloaded from the 2L or other sites. And here's where things get even more complicated: the download from Audite unzipped to a bunch of WAV files (for the different tracks) - but it seems that they're special WAV files which won't play back like other WAV files (because they have all this Atmos meta information in them) and need to be passed through "Dolby Renderer" software ($300) and possibly another piece of software (? - I think it's software) from Dolby Labs, the Dolby Encoder ($400/year). And it seems that I don't actually want .wav files. I'm told what I REALLY need is .mkv files. Do I have it right?

Those prices are a bit steep for the amount of use I anticipate. Nevertheless, I'm tempted! My outboard DAC is capable of 7.1, but I only use 5.1. (I play 5.1.4 via my pre/pro - bypassing my outboard DAC.) For playback of my downloads on the computer, I mostly use HQ Player ( even though it's back level - I stopped upgrading it when the ASIO driver for for Mac wasn't supported in the newer versions), although I also have VLC Media Player (free and up to date!) and Audirvana (way back level - I haven't used it in years).

Oops! Things just got a bit murkier! I suspect that more releases in Dolby Atmos will become available on the Audite site (since they didn't start that long ago), but I don't have any proof. Anyway, if I've followed all this correctly, it seems I will need the Dolby Renderer app, the Dolby encoder app, and Kodi (or an equivalent)? So which software goes where (assuming I still want to use Shield)? I'm assuming that some of these apps can reside on my computer, and I could "pre-process" the files there before copying them to disk. (Or would they need to reside on Shield?) Once again, I'm sorry to rely on your expertise rather than do my own research - but the advantage of talking to you is the informational interactivity and exchange, which I DO appreciate! Thanks again!

Chris - hello again! You and the other guys are life savers! Thanks again! So I went to the Dolby site and found the renderer app. (I'll download it on my other computer) I haven't read the instructions yet, but is the output of the Dolby Renderer app a bunch of .mkv files (or a single mkv file)? And once I get the .mkv file(s), I just kind of leave it/them as they are, and THAT's what I copy onto the the drive which I then would attach to the Nvidia Shield Pro? I feel that I may be getting close! 🙂

Wow - Thanks so much, Chris! Your Option No. 1 sounds even easier than what I was considering - cheaper too! LOL! As you anticipated however, I still have some questions. You mention MKV as a "container", but I've always thought it was a file type (.mkv). Am I just parsing things too much? You mention that files downloaded from Audite are ADM files. However, when I unzipped my download, yes, I got an adm folder, but the files themselves were .wav files. (Please see my screen shot.) Did I miss something? And when you say that "no processor can handle these files correctly", do you mean the unzipped .wav files? So if I copy that ADM folder onto some kind of drive and attach it to the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, will the Nvidia device be able to play these files? Here is what I'm understanding (as far as the connectivity is concerned) from your reply: drive (usb connection) -> Nvidia Shield Pro (hdmi connection) - pre/pro. . . . and I'm in business? Thanks again! p.s.: I also have a download from TPRPTK - IIRC, it's uncompressed 12-channel hi-rez (DXD or something near to that). I'm assuming from the specs of the Nvidia shield pro that it would NOT be able to handle a file like that?

I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here to ask for advice, and my apologies if I am. I have been a Dolby Atmos fan ever since I heard my first Dolby Atmos blu-ray a couple of years ago. My enthusiasm shifted into even higher gear when I obtained an Apple TV 4K device and was able to access and play back the huge number of Dolby Atmos recordings on Apple Music last summer. However, there's one thing I can't do right now, and that's playback downloaded files of Dolby Atmos albums on my computer. My current set-up may explain why I'm unable to do this: For Dolby Atmos blu-rays, I simply play them in my Sony UDP X1100es player, which is HDMI connected to my pre/pro. For Dolby Atmos on Apple Music, I play them via my Apple TV 4K device, which is also HDMI connected to my pre-pro. For the vast majority of my other music files EXCEPT Dolby Atmos, I use my Mac MIni (M1) as the source, which is USB connected to my exaSound e38 8-channel DAC, which then connects to the pre/pro through its analog connections. It supports up to DSD 256 and DXD. (Since my MCh set-up is 5.1, I am using only 6 of the 8 channels on the exaSound DAC.) The HDMI port on the Mac Mini goes directly to the TV and is used for video only. What I would LIKE to do is play back Dolby Atmos files via my Mac Mini too. I've already downloaded a couple, one of which is from the Audite site (24/48, presumably lossless). I've checked the "Info" on the various tracks of the album I downloaded and it does indicate that there are 12 channels on each track (7.1.2). So I'm ready to go, right? Well, not really. The connection goes through my DAC, which does not support Dolby Atmos (and only supports 8 channels anyway) - so that's out. What else I've tried: I thought I could just copy the downloaded Dolby Atmos album onto a thumb drive, and then connect that drive to the USB port on my blu-ray player in order to play it. But alas, no success: the files (tracks) do show up, but they are not recognized as playable by the player. So you can perhaps see my problem: I'm already using the Mac Mini's HDMI port for the video connection to the TV. And I'm wondering what the simplest (and cheapest!) way to help myself get to this goal. What I'm considering doing now is buying ANOTHER Mac Mini and connecting it to the pre/pro via ITS HDMI port, using one of the many HDMI ports now free on the pre/pro at the other end. (I could copy the Dolby Atmos file to the new Mac Mini.) It wouldn't be that expensive and it should work - right? Do folks here agree with my plan? Or would there be a better way - but remember, it has to be simple and cheap. I don't want a lot of extra complication at this point. And one final question: I believe I read I could use VLC Media Player to play the Dolby Atmos files. But I'm also considering Logic (pre-installed on the Mac Mini) to use (for the time being) as a player for the Dolby Atmos files. Would that give me any advantage (or disadvantage) over VLC Media Player? Please feel free to throw darts at this any way you feel! And thank you so much in advance if you choose to respond to this post!

My set-up is of the 5.1.4 persuasion which was developed through accretion over time - LOL! Lots of different amps and speakers! I play Dolby Atmos music losslessly on blu-rays through my blu-ray player, and lossy through my Apple TV 4K device. The extent of the Dolby Atmos catalog on Apple Music is nothing short of astounding to me, with new selections every week (even in my niche category of classical music!). I'm a very happy camper, but the only thing I can't do right now is play Dolby Atmos files/downloads through my Mac Mini. I'll be starting a new thread on this topic soon (mainly to ask for advice on how to get this capability while keeping it simple!).

Hi, Roy Boy - Please accept my apologies for the late reply to your post! As you've no doubt seen, Chris (Chris Connaker) replied with a wonderful resource for helping to find Dolby Atmos titles on Apple Music. I've played around with it, and I'm certainly glad to have it. It also revealed some anomalies with Dolby Atmos titles on Apple Music, i.e., that a couple of Dolby Atmos titles I'd found in Dolby Atmos last August and September seem to have vanished in that format! For instance, Apple was showing some titles, originally recorded in MONO, as being available in Dolby Atmos. (Dolby Atmos mono - who knew!?) I actually listened to one of them (the Callas recording of Cavallaria rusticana - from 1953!), and, sure enough, the Dolby Atmos indicator on my pre/pro lit up and I heard sound from all my speakers. I was surprised when I didn't see that title in the search engine which Chris linked to. So I checked again on Apple Music - and the Dolby Atmos indication is GONE! Another Atmos recording I heard from back in September was the Harnoncourt/Concertrgebouw recording of Haydn's Symphonies nos. 95, 97 and 98. It was so great that I even posted about it on Audio Asylum at the time. But the Dolby Atmos incarnation on Apple Music is gone now. One possibility for this strangeness is that there used to be a fair amount of duplicate listings of given albums on Apple Music. I notice that Apple seems to have been cleaning up many of these duplicate listings (such as that Harnoncourt Haydn album), but in the case of that Harnoncourt album, they may have thrown the baby out with the bath water! Listening to Dolby Atmos music is still an adventure - in more ways than one!

I've been posting my favorite classical albums on the Audio Asylum site for more than 10 years, but this year, I selected a LOT more faves than I usually do - because of the apocalyptic explosion of choice in Dolby Atmos (immersive) titles made possible by Apple Music: 36 selections this year, about 30 of which are Dolby Atmos. Each selection has a short commentary associated with it. The 36 selections are spread among three separate posts (10 + 10 + 16). If you're interested, here's a link to the first group of 10 (although the very first selection is 5Ch, not Dolby Atmos): https://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/classical/messages/3/37627.html Remember, unless the album is specifically identified as 2Ch, 5Ch, etc., it is Dolby Atmos. And these are all specifically 2023 releases - nothing earlier. I feel that I probably could have chosen even more selections, but I just lack the listening time! So many Dolby Atmos titles, so little time! 🙂

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more - every day when I fire up Apple Music now, I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to Atmos. I never know what wonderful surprise I'll discover next!

Indeed - that's why I described that use of the term as "non-standard". But again, I apologize for kind of promoting the confusion! 🙁