I think one of the issues with Dolby Atmos currently is volume matching.
I have the volume turned up to 73% (I thought it was 80% which makes me more impressed — you can ask Siri what the volume level is set at) and the experience is significantly better than where I’d usually have it at around 50%.
“Duh, of course it sounds better at a higher volume.” Sure, but this is where I’d normally have it lately when listening to music with Atmos off.
I get why they can’t have it matched better since Atmos has a higher dynamic range. If Headphone Audio Levels are correct, then the song I’m listening to has hovered between 60-83dB.
This makes it so if I turn up the volume to listen to Atmos, which makes the experience slightly more magical on the right song like they intended and as it was in the car, and a non-Atmos song comes on then I’m going to have to turn the volume down otherwise it’s going to be a tad ear-piercing.
This is on Powerbeats Pro, so I’m fairly confident this would be potentially magical on AirPods Max. I suppose a lot of listeners are already blasting music so Apple didn’t account for this and they’re still trying to protect hearing instead of constantly making music and audio products louder.
Side note: I think it’s better in the car since the artificial sense of space makes me want the drivers themselves to be further from my ears, which would also be less fatiguing.
No pun intended.