Sounds pretty amazing. Great feature. Apple Music app is probably the best way to get it. You must use the cars built in Apple Music app for Atmos to work. You need an external internet connection such as your phones hot spot internet connection or the available T Mobile external connection. There is a free one month trial for Apple Music after that it’s 10.95 a month. Worth checking out it sounds very good. I compared it to streaming Apple Music through car play. It’s much better.

The real bonus I’m seeing with the Dolby Atmos is you don’t have to crank the sound up real loud for it to sound great. I’ll save some of my hearing this way for my older years lol.

Thank you for this. Is there still an Atmos effect if played using car play Apple Music?

You won't see the Atmos Logo on the songs playing through Car Play so you won't have any of the Atmos effect. Only Though the built in apps and maybe music that was recorded in Atmos using memory Sticks. I think Tidal might have some Atmos selections although I've never tried that app. I think they specialize in high end lossless music. It is very easy to use the built in app. Just take a picture with you phone of coded image on the car screen and at least with an iPhone it'll do the rest if you have a apple music account, first month is a free trial, might be worth it to try it. To get your internet access just tap with your finger on the touch screen the upper right signal bars and that'll bring you to the internet wifi connect screen and you can either hit in a hotspot from you're phone or even use the wifi from you house if your not too far away just to try it out, it's just like a computer setup for the wifi .

Thanks! is Atmos only available on Pinnacle?

No, you need the 4d burmester system, which is standard on the all terrain, part of pinnacle on the sedans, or a standalone option on the sedans.

It does sound terrific when you use the Apple Music app and configure the audio settings to your liking. I've heard notes and instruments on songs crystal clearly that I've not heard outside the Apple Music App. Apple Music will show the Atmos symbol for albums/songs encoded that way. Also, if you use Apple Music on CarPlay, you will not pay extra to use the App - just log into your account. The App, as expected, will have all of your playlists and such.

There shouldn’t be an extra charge to use the built in app as it’s just a device added to the account. The good thing with the built in app also is if you don’t have your cell phone you can still listen to music. I listened to it both ways and to me it sounded better with the built in app although it still does sound good through CarPlay.

so... Apple music is gone? is there any way left to play Atmos audio?

It will eventually come back. I play Atmos music from a USB drive, but you have to have the physical media and then go through the process to properly rip it to a computer in a lossless format. Not very straightforward, but doable if you know how.

Why not download Atmos music to your USB drive? There are many sites such as trpk.com with Atmos content.

What is this referring to? I haven't driven my e350 since friday, but apple music and atmos were working then.

Also, not atmos, but still a huge sound improvement: Spotify running through the car's built in DAC sounds better than running through carplay. Not sure why, but Spotify sounds very very flat in CarPlay compared to the built in system.

my brand new E53 has no Apple Music….. I think it disappeared with an update so maybe you are on older software?

I'm referring to my current 2024 E350 so definitely older software. I hope this isn't true. my e53 wagon doesn't get built til the end of the month, and I'll really miss the ease of getting atmos music in the car :/

Thanks for posting. I would not have figured this out. I was assuming that CarPlay would play spatial music with ATMOS in the 2025/2025 E-Class with ATMOS.

I tried playing Atmos music through CarPlay on an E450 All-Terrain and was surprised that it didn't sound spatial. One salesperson did mention using a USB stick for spatial music.

I would prefer using the CarPlay Apple Music app, but I'll use the car's Apple Music app for ATMOS.

To be clear - there is currently no Apple music app in the car, so there is effectively no way to play Atmos content. USB drive is not a viable option for me (too much work / cost / effort).

So CarPlay doesn't play Atmos content, there is no Apple music app in the E53 and the only way to play Atmos content is on a USB stick?

I wonder if it is an Apple CarPlay issue where Apple doesn't do Atmos over CarPlay or if Mercedes hasn't implemented Atmos from CarPlay.

I'm probably not licensed to move Apple One music to a USB stick, so if I wanted to play Atmos music, I would need to purchase individual songs somewhere?

Atmos is well worth it for movies and TV shows, For music, spatial is not a major improvement over stereo, but I would use it in the car if it was easy to do.

Correct. CarPlay does not support atmos on any app - has to do with how the car talks to the phone. So currently usb is the only way. And you’d need to buy the files from some special source or else rip them in some cumbersome process. Pretty dumb.

Maybe you misunderstood me. I do put Atmos music on a USB drive.

I don't believe you can purchase individual tracks in Atmos. Typically you would buy the physical media which would be a DVD. For example, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon is available on DVD in Dolby Atmos. Then there is a multi-step process to rip and extract the multiple tracks in a lossless format such as FLAC that can be put on a USB drive. There is a clear and significant difference when listening to an Atmos track verses a stero track. I wish all my music was in Atmos. It's way better.

Maybe Spotify will get their act together and use Atmos...fingers crossed!

I don’t think my car has Tidal either…. No Apple Music and no Tidal

I think this happened when they updated to the latest software that is Android based. There is no apple music app for this new android based backend and until there will be one, it will be MIA.

What is your source for Apple Music native app "it will eventually come back"? I don't know anything different, I am just trying to assess if this is a rumor/wishful thinking or has been confirmed by a reliable source. Thanks.