Apple
A lot of folk contract a new set of Apple or Beatswireless headphonesor earbuds for the vacation , only to discover that things do n’t voice as good as expected when mind toApple Music . If that ’s been your experience too , do n’t care — it ’s very unlikely that your newwireless earbudsor headphones are to blame .
The material culprit is Apple Music itself . That sounds like hooey , especially if you ’re a longtime Apple Music auditor and it ’s never been a job for you in the past . But if your previous earbuds or headphones were made by a society other than Apple or Beats , you may not realize that Apple Music treats Apple and Beats product a little otherwise .
Apple
The Dolby Atmos default
In 2021 , Apple add together two new data format to Apple Music : Dolby Atmos Music(akaspatial audio recording ) , and lossless audio . Apple Music was n’t the first subscription streaming music inspection and repair to do so ( Amazon Music and Tidal already offer Dolby Atmos and lossless ) , but it was the first service to make Dolby Atmos Music the default choice when listen on an iPhone or iPad via Apple or Beats wireless headphone equip with the Apple H2 chip , like theBeats Studio ProorApple AirPods Pro .
If you were n’t using an H2 - enable set of headphones , you could still hear Dolby Atmos Music ( when available ) , but you had to manually turn it on , and a fate of folks never did . It ’s potential you eventhoughtyou were listen to Dolby Atmos — the nonremittal Dolby Atmos set for the Apple Music app is something call off “ Automatic , ” which kind of vocalise like something you may just allow alone . But not really .
It rick out that Automatic is only automatic if you ’re using one of those H2 - enable Cartesian product I cite earlier . Apple Music then play a Dolby Atmos version of a song if it subsist . But any other bent of earpiece will still get veritable , two - channel stereoscopic picture . The only way to get Dolby Atmos using a third - party set of headphones is to switch the setting to Always On — another misnomer give way that it still only apply when a Dolby Atmos translation of a rail is usable .
To summarize : If you ’re using Apple or Beats headphones with Apple Music ( on an Io or iPadOS gadget ) for the first time , you ’re go to start out hearing Dolby Atmos Music versions of songs by nonpayment .
Why so quiet?
Dolby Atmos Music can sound incredible — especially if you own a dedicated Dolby Atmos sound organization like aSonos Arc , plus a Sonos Sub and two Sonos Era 300 surroundings speaker unit . But even then , some Atmos Music lead are better than others . It ’s still a new format and it ’s clear-cut thatnot all artist and recording engineer have an ear for it yet . Hopefully , that improves over time .
unluckily , this quality variance becomes magnified when listen with headphones . All too often , Dolby Atmos Music rendering of your favorite songs can sound diminished .
It ’s partly the nature of Dolby Atmos when render asbinaural phone . It ’s attempting to revivify a room full of talker , ( admit overhead channels , using just one source of audio for each pinna . In rules of order to trick your brain into hearing a wider , deeper , and taller soundstage , some audio simply have to be reduced in their intensity . You may discover most with song , which can sound a fleck distant or hollow .
But the self-aggrandizing way out is comparative volume level . If you listened to just Dolby Atmos Music or just stereophonic cartroad , there would be some natural variation in volume levels from one track to another — some tracks are just mastered at louder levels . However , if you listen to a mix of Atmos and stereo — which is probably the case given that Apple Music is far from possessing Dolby Atmos versions of every course in its 100 million - plus - song catalogue — the relative mass levels can be much more noticeable , with Dolby Atmos Music typically sounding quieter than stereo .
Since most of us are n’t in the habit of check our headphone every time a new vocal begin to play to see if it ’s in stereo or Dolby Atmos Music , all we know is what we get word — and it go kind of weak compared to stereo .
Two solutions
So how do you fix this ?
If you like Dolby Atmos Music and you but want it to sound as absolved and as garish as stereo tracks , try enable Sound Check in the Apple Music preferences ( in iOS : setting > Music ) . Sound Check attempts to compensate for the innate loudness conflict between formats ( and even between two tracks of the same data formatting ) , so that you could just select your preferred hearing grade without invariably adjusting the volume .
I ’ve found it to be a unspoilt answer , but not everyone agrees . Moreover , Sound Check might make unlike effect in different listening scenarios ( for instance , wireless phone versus Apple AirPlay versus Apple CarPlay ) , so it wo n’t always be a panacea .
Then there ’s the thermonuclear option : disabling Dolby Atmos altogether . you could do this by setting Dolby Atmos from Automatic or Always On to Off . You wo n’t get to hear spatial audio tracks from Apple Music even if they exist , and thing will probably sound exactly as you call up them sounding before you switched headphones .
