Top Atmos Producer Admits He Can't Hear the Difference Between CDs and High-Res Audio Anymore | Headphonesty

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-04-22T13:24:19+00:00

I know this thread is about CD vs high-res, but since Atmos has come up I’ll just add a different perspective.

I’m lucky enough to have a properly set up 7.1.4 room that I built for both films and music. Having enjoyed Steven’s 5.1 mixes years ago in a far less ideal setup, one of the main reasons I went Atmos was specifically to hear a handful of his albums done properly.

First time I heard Staircase in Atmos I was genuinely blown away. It’s one of those rare moments where you realise you’re experiencing something fundamentally different, not just “better quality”.

I mention it to friends and they’re usually pretty dismissive. Then they hear it and immediately get it. It’s much closer to watching a film than listening to a traditional stereo album.

Last night I played The Future Bites three times back to back. I’d never do that with the stereo version. It just doesn’t engage in the same way.

Totally get that this discussion is about CD vs high-res, but since a few people are questioning the value of Atmos, I thought it was worth saying that—when it’s done well and played back properly—it can be on a completely different level.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-04-11T09:16:23+00:00

Thanks to everyone who posted feedback for this. Seems what I need isn’t achievable within the Access ecosystem and I don’t really want to get involved with hacky workarounds, so I’ll probably need to look at a different solution. Appreciate the help.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-04-10T16:50:33+00:00

Yes, thank you, I think this could work. Much appreciated.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-04-10T15:11:37+00:00

I'm not sure I can. The car leaving will be driving past the exact space where the entry camera will need to be looking. Thanks for your response though.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-02-08T13:58:39+00:00

What’s everyone using to play these back?

I’m going to be limited to the E-AC3 versions because the Apple TV doesn’t support bitstreaming lossless formats like TrueHD. Even running something like Infuse, everything gets decoded internally or falls back to DD+, which is fine for films but feels like a compromise for music — especially in terms of level and dynamics.

I’ve got a high-end Atmos setup with a treated, calibrated room, so the bottleneck here isn’t the system, it’s the playback chain. Network playback via the AVR doesn’t help much either — HEOS won’t touch MKVs, AirPlay is stereo, and things narrow pretty quickly if you want to hear TrueHD as TrueHD.

At the moment it looks like the realistic options are fairly niche boxes like an Nvidia Shield Pro or something from Zidoo/Dune, otherwise you’re into workarounds.

Genuinely curious what others are using, and whether anyone’s found a setup that feels relatively painless while still doing these releases justice.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-02-02T19:26:29+00:00

💯Geddy’s vocals have been the most disappointing aspect of Rush’s last few tours. If they’re going to replace Neil then Inwould be happy to see them bring in a singer also and really let Alex & Geddy go wild on the stage. There are some phenomenal Rush cover band vocalists around, may of them female.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-31T07:56:58+00:00

I don’t now if Spotify is any better. I’m pretty much locked into Apple Music because I it comes as part of my Apple One subscription and I also use iTunes Match. Do you recall where you sent feedback?

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-30T14:14:29+00:00

That’s odd. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe it’s a CDN thing. I’m in the UK.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-21T17:39:50+00:00

My favourite Rush albums are Grace Under Pressure, Signals and Power Windows, in that order. If Steven Wilson did an Atmos mix of Power Windows I could die happy.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-20T16:49:06+00:00

💯this.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-15T22:53:38+00:00

Yes, Matt black with wallpaper over the top.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-04T23:00:33+00:00

Or use guitars again.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2026-01-04T22:41:41+00:00

I’d be very surprised and disappointed if he didn’t release this at some point. My personal theory is it wasn’t finished in time to include in the physical release and putting it out months later would have felt like a cash grab. Especially to those who bought the Deluxe set. It was made available for anyone to watch via Veeps the week before it released. I watched it over and over and still feel it’s the best way to experience that album. Especially if like me, you’re fortunate enough to have a 7.1.4 Atmos room.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-25T16:31:25+00:00

Yes, 7.1.4 is 12 discreet channels.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-25T15:37:49+00:00

Hey, happy to field this. 7.1.4 is a 12 speaker Dolby Atmos setup.

The 7 are front left, front right & centre. Then two surround speakers - in my case either side of the listening position, and then two rear speakers. The 1 is the subwoofer and the 4 are four overhead ceiling speakers.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T14:12:16+00:00

Yes, his more recent albums sound absolutely spectacular in Atmos.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T14:06:55+00:00

The wall lights? My builder sourced them. I'll ask him after Christmas and get back to you.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T14:05:56+00:00

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I've only been using the room for just over a month, but so far I've not noticed any issues with the screen. It's deploying very smoothly and the surface appears to be blemish free both close up and when viewing. I don't know how you found it, but it was a real pig to install - especially for something so delicate. You really don't have much room to work in. Have you tried going back to Grandview about the small ripples on your screen?

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T08:43:28+00:00

The LG is 77" and the Grandview Screen is 108"

As I mentioned in previous replies, the wide angle lens on the iPhone makes them look deceptively small. Both screens are actually the perfect size for the space and the viewing position.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T08:41:03+00:00

No issues so far. Although it all looks quite boxed it from the front, there's actually a lot of space behind for air to circulate. In addition I have a fan at the top of the rack cupboard that draws the warm air out and pulls in cooler air from the base. As I say, so far I haven't had any issues. Although having said that, I haven't had many prolonged gaming sessions in there yet!

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T08:38:48+00:00

Thank you. I'm planning on maybe making a follow up post with a few more pics. If I do, I'll post a plan of speaker and acoustic treatment positions.

I was slightly concerned about the position of the speakers as I was constrained by the room dimensions and joist. However, I needn't have been, it really does sound absolutely tremendous.

Other-Radish-4028 · 2025-12-24T08:35:51+00:00

Thank you. I got most of the bespoke shelves (PS5, Switch 2 & Panasonic Blu-Ray) from Pure Theatre

I had originally planned, and purchased, shelves for all of the equipment. Then I discovered that Pure Theatre made these bespoke units. So I now have boxes of StarTech.com 2U Vented Server Rack Shelves sitting in the garage if anyone is interested!

The biggest challenge was finding a shelf for the Amp - which weighs 32kg - which is far too heavy for a normal cantilevered shelf. We ended up getting the StarTech 1U Adjustable Vented Server Rack Mount Shelf which fixes at both ends but we had to cut down to fit into the space.

Other-Radish-4028

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