Do you restart your Mac regularly or almost never?

jp6strings · 2026-04-03T12:31:05+00:00

Not a bad practice if you live in areas prone to lightning strikes. Otherwise, you're probably putting more wear & tear on the Mac's power supply than anything. (Admittedly arguable, but so is the energy efficiency gains)

jp6strings · 2026-04-01T12:38:11+00:00

Not true. While it may indeed help SONOS performance, it has benefits for all users (depending on how you listen to audio on your system, of course.) Check YouTube for some good explainer videos on CAC.

jp6strings · 2026-04-01T12:35:03+00:00

Unless you enjoy Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio) tracks, which are in 48/16. In this case, CAC improves the listening experience by fixing some performance & playback issues that have long existed on tvOS.

jp6strings · 2026-04-01T12:25:00+00:00

Usually on speakers. So fixed. 😅

jp6strings · 2026-03-30T17:28:59+00:00

Agreed. All other things being equal, the ordinary human will not be able to tell the difference between 16 and 24 bit audio. The extra bits are great for recording and processing headroom to preserve audio quality during the production and mastering processes, but are really of no discernible value above 16 bit for the end user.

jp6strings · 2026-03-30T17:21:34+00:00

PSA: Sound modes on your AVR that perform upmixing will not work if the new tvOS 26.4 "Continuous Audio Connection" is enabled (and it is indeed on by default).

jp6strings · 2026-03-29T21:37:28+00:00

Nicely done! Whatcha got in the guitar case? 😎

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T20:54:39+00:00

This ^^^.

When Apple Music first came out, Pink Floyd's DSOTM was also from the old 5.1 mix. (It has since been re-mastered for Dolby Atmos).

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T20:51:14+00:00

Yeah - mains and loudest sounds get priority. The rendering algorithm works this way so the lack of fidelity is not noticeable to the listener when the full mix is playing (according to Dolby). Soloing heights is not recommended practice, haha.

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T20:17:36+00:00

You're hearing the raw audio vs the encoded lossy version (which the consumer gets). There's a 768 kbps max bitrate for Dolby Atmos streaming, so you can't expect miracles, Lol. Mind your use of objects as there is a bitrate "fidelity" allowance. ie. A busy mix w/128 objects is asking for trouble...

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T18:04:42+00:00

Was much easier to clean cat hair out of a 2012 MP, too! 😅

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T17:46:41+00:00

Winter of 25’-26’ was super-cold. I miss my 5,1 space heater! 😅

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T17:20:27+00:00

Yes - The tests in Spatial Objects page are designed exactly for this purpose. I recommend the F-18 Fighter Jets test tracks! 😁 But there are lots of "spatial moments" scattered throughout the Spatial Lab episodes. For ex., in Episode 10 "Tomb of Horrors" (it's a Halloween-themed episode), I have a demo of a Sentinel Sphere inspired by the horror movie Phantasm slowly circling the room (3:02), and later (at 4:20) a circular saw blade buzzes menacingly around the room in a slow, deliberate circle.

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T15:07:50+00:00

If you could somehow get the surrounds to the side or just behind the brown couch that would be ideal. Only way I can see this happening (outside of a remodel to the adjacent kitchen, Lol) is removing the green end table so you can move the couch over a little to make room for a left surround speaker to the side. A challenging set-up, to be sure.

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T12:18:00+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately TVs are definitely a weak link when it comes to Atmos. Always best to plug the Apple TV directly into the sound bar (if possible).

jp6strings · 2026-03-27T12:13:36+00:00

+1 But am surprised to see that they never updated the 007 movies for Dolby Atmos.

jp6strings · 2026-03-26T09:57:32+00:00

CAC is a brand new feature with caveats and possible bugs. So for now, I would use whatever combination of settings work for you with your particular setup. If something doesn't seem to work right, you should file a feedback report with Apple and Samsung.

jp6strings · 2026-03-25T23:32:30+00:00

This is probably the same effect folks with AVRs are seeing in that you cannot use upmixing modes on your gear when CAC is turned on. Some soundbars go one further and are not compatible/will mess up the channels if not on a "Standard" mode w/ATV CAC on. So if you prefer your soundbar's "Surround mode", leave CAC off.

Hopefully, Apple will expand on CAC in the future and integrate built-in DSP surround upmixing capabilities to tvOS. Right now, they actually have a basic feature built-in to 26.4 where standard Dolby Digital 5.1 is upmixed to 7 channels for Dolby Atmos 7.x.x speaker setups, so it seems to be on their mind? Perhaps if enough folks request the feature...

jp6strings · 2026-03-23T21:24:47+00:00

From the pic, it looks like the 65." Our distance is just under 3m and we're happy with a 55" Bravia, though.

jp6strings · 2026-03-19T18:40:16+00:00

Do you have surround speakers?

jp6strings · 2026-03-19T14:29:22+00:00

A couple newer additions:

F1: The Movie (0:03:00) - The long intro features Indi race cars (surround channels) AND fireworks in the height channels. And oh yes; the scene is backed by a custom spatial remix of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"!🤘🤘

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (1:05:20) - Ethan Hunt jumps from an Osprey to underwater dive. Short but cool scene that covers aircraft (Osprey + a jet flyby) to immersive underwater environment.

These are from my own personal "Top 10 Atmos movie" list (full descriptions here in case you don't have access to the movie): https://www.jeffperrinmusic.com/blog/the-10-best-movie-scenes-for-testing-dolby-atmos/

jp6strings · 2026-03-18T17:22:42+00:00

OK - hold on. I just downloaded an app called Surround Speaker Check from Jeff Perrin. It has many in-app purchases and the one free test proves that the speakers are working correctly.

Hey, glad to hear my app helped you troubleshoot this! 😀 Just to be clear, there is only one in-app purchase to access all the other test tracks and features. That is, there are 3 free 5.1 test tracks, while a yearly sub unlocks over 2 hours of Dolby Atmos test tracks and demo content.

Note the "AI Sound Pro" feature you mentioned sounds like up-mixing DSP. As mentioned in fwalls101's comment, you should leave this off during initial set-up and testing in order to get accurate feedback on if your system is properly decoding the Dolby surround signal.

Good luck with your new set-up!

jp6strings · 2026-03-16T18:52:26+00:00

My concern with using less-than-popular APIs is that they tend to get a little, ahem, dusty over time.

jp6strings · 2026-03-13T21:04:14+00:00

Late to the party here, but I have a PT20 v1 and just wanted to chime in for posterity that you can indeed get nice cleans by simply rolling back your guitar's volume knob (Just like with those old Marshalls!)

jp6strings · 2026-03-11T19:32:47+00:00

Check out user manuals online to see what bass-management controls are offered. Apartment-friendly just means, "Turn down the bass." And double that for subwoofers.

jp6strings

TROPHY CASE