I get the master recordings, depending on the track you pick you may be getting Atmos. Or not. Most of it is a 5.1 variant; sound moves, front to back, and side to side or have a surround presence. With some of them you get the sound moving up and down and they have a vertical presence in the sound stage as well, not many though, they're the exception.

In Tidal if you have the top plan and select master recordings you're going to get some HD variant; Atmos, Sony 360, etc. The GUI in the car is bare bones, you can't tell what the recording is unless I've missed the option. You can see it if you look at the history on the PC, the tracks will be labeled Atmos or whatever. In order to get masters in the car you have to select it in your options on the phone or PC to use master only. That is what you will then get in the car. Took me a few to figure that one out.

 

Crabman, are you tethering or did you just add your car to your cell phone plan? I tried to get Apple music through tethering but the car kept fighting me since it forces me to drop CarPlay.

 

Tidal is built into the GUI, same with Amazon. I think the same is true of Apple and Spotify but I don't have them and haven't tried in the car. My guess is you may want to do 2 things: set up data and sign in to Apple.

I signed into the accounts in my car through the cars GUI. For the car to then get high def I needed to sign up for the onboard plan or connect the phone as a data connection via the phones hotspot in the settings. I have both setup and they both work.

I'm not an Apple user, not my groove. If I understand correctly, you should be able to use their carplay and access music from inside it. You'd have to be on a leash to get lossless. Maybe one of those guys can confirm or deny?

Edit: There may be other ways to get it to work, what I described was how I got it to work. I don't like to plug in so without the leash it was the only way I could figure out.

 

When I select online music, it immediately asks me how I want to connect. Since I don’t yet have a separate data plan for this car, I tried using my tether but it kept fighting me since it tried forcing me to drop CarPlay.

 

Maybe tether the car and then put your Apple credentials into the car's Apple music app.

 

I gotta set these up, I signed up for almost all of them for my ModelS Plaid. Already have spotify setup, didnt know they had the others. I finally just got my Toll system working again after 8 weeks lol

 

So there is no way to tell from the MBUX/GUI that the music is in Atmos??

 

Not that I'm aware of; the Tidal app is a simplistic implementation with a limited feature set. As I said, on the PC the streaming history shows that it's being streamed in the car on some tracks. I did not hire engineers from Dolby Labs to verify that the car actually played them in Atmos and the car does not tell you the type of stream or its quality anywhere I can find. I don't know any more than that; I'm sorry.

As to the quality, it's better than the lossless I have on disk. Vastly better than XM. Tidal is better than HD Amazon but not all the time. There is better sound staging in Tidal on some tracks, other times it sounds very similar to Amazon. I think this is probably the uneven nature of Tidal's masters.

 

So how would one know if it’s actual Atmos streaming from the 4D Burmester?

 

If it needs a badge so you can tell the difference it doesn't really matter, does it?

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of experts being fooled/not noticing the difference between digital music and vinyl,,,,

 

Yep. I've been on the home theater forums for quite a long time. But again, if you can't tell the difference, does it matter? I signed up for Tidal with Atmos directly in the car, it was specifically called that. My Tidal app tells me I'm streaming master recordings some of which are clearly labeled Atmos, in the car. It sounds good, I can pick it out, whatever it is, blind. I don't have anything to add to that.

This is now the 3rd time I've said the same thing and it's not going to change.

 

crabman - do you know if I pay for the data plan in my S580 and use any of the online streaming services, does it defer to the highest quality available for that service? I know when connecting using the mobile clients, you must go into settings to select the higher bandwidth options. I'm curious if this is chosen by default or if a lower-bandwidth (and thus a lower quality stream) is selected. And if the latter, is there a way to choose a high quality stream for all the services? I chose the unlimited yearly plan, so bandwidth isn't a concern for me.

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

 

It uses the settings you have with the service on Tidal. I'm on master recordings and my history shows this is streamed to the car. If there is a way to change it in the car, I haven't discovered it. Nor do I see a way to tell what is being streamed in real time.

The in car apps are not well featured and you need to use the phone or PC to access a number of functions. Or again, maybe I'm too stupid to find them. In any event you can hear the difference. My copilot handles the DJ duties and I can usually tell in short order when she's switched out of Tidal to XM, my lossless on disc, etc.

 

So all of this time I assumed there was no notification for Dolby Atmos while streaming. Well I figured out today that the reason being is because the bulk of the music I listen to (Classic Rock) isn’t in Atmos. I stumbled upon one track that had it and it does show if Atmos is active.

Also, if you dig deeper into the Apple Music setting in the car, I stumbled upon a Dolby Atmos toggle switch. Mine was already on but it wouldn’t hurt to check yours.

 

I haven't found a way to get into the settings for the various online music options. How did you get to the toggle for Apple Music?

 

I’m going for from memory but I think you have to select the home button then settings and finally media. Once there select online music and it should show all choices.

 

When I go to settings, it only shows me the subscription plan I'm on; noting else. This is the case for all the music services: Amazon, Apple, Tidal, and Spotify. So, I'm wondering if my MBUX needs a firmware update?

 

Do you have a data plan for your car via T-mobile/internal or tethering through your phone?

 

Yes sir! I paid for the yearly plan through TMobile that includes unlimited data.

 

Maybe you can take a picture of the screen and I can do the same later.

 

Sounds good. I can grab one in a couple hours. Thanks Frenetic!

 

Hi, it’s just for online music? What about music stored/downloaded in iPhone Music ?

 

Dolby Atmos and spatial audio only work for in car streaming. It doesn’t work through CarPlay. I don’t know about plugging in a USB stick, though, assuming our car allows that. Maybe?

 

Here are some various screenshots.

So the first screen is from the media button. 1. Takes you to your Apple Music library and playlists. 2. Takes you to the second image, which is a music services settings page. The Dolby Atmos toggle is found on this page at the settings button next the Apple Music.

One note is that every time you start the car it starts playing some random playlist and you have to manually change it each time, which is kind of a pain.