How to Enable Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio and Apple Lossless on HomePod

[MacRumors]

Apple's ‌HomePod‌ (first- and second-generation) and HomePod mini feature support for Apple Music's Lossless Audio and Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio formats. This article explains how to enable them.

Apple's spatial audio feature uses Dolby Atmos to create a richer, more immersive soundstage when listening to songs in the Apple Music catalog that support spatial audio. With Dolby Atmos enabled, the subjective experience is that musical notes are coming from all around you. ‌Meanwhile, Apple Music‌ Lossless provides listeners with higher quality audio in a lossless file format, which is great news for audiophiles and purists.

To enable Dolby Atmos and Apple Lossless on your HomePod, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the ellipsis button (three dots encircled) in the top-right of the screen.
   Select Home Settings from the dropdown menu.
3. Under "People," select your named owner profile.
   
   
   Under "Media," select Apple Music.
   Scroll down and toggle the switches beside Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio to the green ON position.
   

Now that you've enabled Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio, you'll be able to enjoy a more immersive audio experience, and if you've enabled Apple Lossless, higher quality music tracks. You can check which songs support the audio effects by looking for the respective logos in the Apple Music app interface.

Article Link: How to Enable Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio and Apple Lossless on HomePod

 

[xmach]

Why isn't Dolby Atmos on by default? Is there any penalty to having it on, or other reason to leave it off?

 

[Pro Apple Silicon]

Is it just me or has the Home Pod received more new updates and features after it has been discontinued than it did while it was still available?

 

[scottSE]

Is it just me or has the Home Pod received more new updates and features after it has been discontinued than it did while it was still available?

I believe this was part of its problem: did anyone know it could play music from Spotify by the end of its life? Iterative software updates are only a boon if they add 'extra' features as time goes on, not if they release a product without core expected functionality and add it in (much) later once the initial reviews have already set public expectations.

 

[kurtfoster]

Why isn't Dolby Atmos on by default? Is there any penalty to having it on, or other reason to leave it off?

Some of us don’t like the sound of Dolby Atmos. To me it sounds tinny and underwater and has a sound reminiscent to 1960s fake stereo sound. Honestly, it gives me a headache and I’m glad that they don’t turn it on by default.

 

[LV426]

Some of us don’t do Apple Music either.

 

[Kylo83]

Lossless all the way, special audio is a gimmick that ruins songs and makes them sound like demo tracks

 

[TIOATIOA]

It seems obvious now that Apple will soon be releasing a new HomePod capable of Dolby Atmos. Back when MacRumors was a rumors site first and foremost and not an advertising juggernaut, we would have heard about it by now. So here it is, your “hot tip” on the new HomePod ][ Max Pro SE:

It will be a HomePod AtmoSphere in the shape of a… you guessed it.

 

[aibo82]

Hate the fact they discontinued the original HomePod, I love mine it was Siri that killed it and will kill off any speaker that Apple produces because people expect it to be like Alexa.

If you not buying one on the basis of a smart speaker they are great for music but useless at what Amazon have done.

 

[Minato1990]

Loseless doesn’t appear for my homepod minis
For example if I play Any Winehouse Back to Black on my normal homepods the dolby atmos sign comes on, but for my minis no sign on the music app.
However for a song or album that is only Loseless the signs appears.

Maybe the fact that its dolby Atmos as well messes it up?

 

[Pro Apple Silicon]

I believe this was part of its problem: did anyone know it could play music from Spotify by the end of its life? Iterative software updates are only a boon if they add 'extra' features as time goes on, not if they release a product without core expected functionality and add it in (much) later once the initial reviews have already set public expectations.

Maybe it is because a lot of the newer features center around stereo pairs, and at $600 a stereo pair of Home Pods was priced out of the market, and rather than lower the price of the Home Pod, they discontinued it in favor of the already low priced Home Pod mini.

That and the fact that despite it being placed as a premium speaker, its actual competition was the low cost smart speaker market. The most comparable product was the Sonos One, which could be had for $199 ($169 on sale), and was actually part of a larger ecosystem of speakers, and supported more features.

 

[aibo82]

They should of sold the original at a loss at about £99, got them into peoples homes and increased the price year on year with new more capable ones. They needed to have pushed the original one into peoples homes to show what people are actually missing sound quality wise regardless of Siri.

I think the HomePod mini is a bad approach because Siri is nowhere near good enough and neither is the sound….

 

[Antes]

Just tried it out: Atmos again varies depending on what you’re listening to. Sounds really interesting and immersive on some songs… others it sounds like someone messed with the EQ or like I have water in my ears.
Turned off Atmos and left lossless on but when playing Lossless it doesn’t show the logo like it does with atmos. ??‍♂️ I wanna say it sounds more crisp but honestly the stereo HomePods already have great sound quality.

 

[chabig]

Why isn't Dolby Atmos on by default? Is there any penalty to having it on, or other reason to leave it off?

Mine was on without me doing anything.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Only the homeowner has to enable it right? I don’t have the Apple Music setting for any of the residents.

 

[wwinter86]

Is it just me or has the Home Pod received more new updates and features after it has been discontinued than it did while it was still available?

Yes they started making a lot of updates with major features that could have made them sale well, after discontinuing them. Weird.

 

[syklee26]

They should of sold the original at a loss at about £99, got them into peoples homes and increased the price year on year with new more capable ones. They needed to have pushed the original one into peoples homes to show what people are actually missing sound quality wise regardless of Siri.

I think the HomePod mini is a bad approach because Siri is nowhere near good enough and neither is the sound….

Why would Apple want to do that?

 

[chabig]

Only the homeowner has to enable it right? I don’t have the Apple Music setting for any of the residents.

I don't see it on my Mac. I see it on my iPhone.

 

[Solver]

Here's something, I don't get Dolby Atmos when airplaying from my devices to an Apple TV 4K 2G connected with two OG HomePods. I do get Dolby Atmos by remotely controlling the audio or TV. My devices are a iPhone 8 plus an iPad Pro M1. Lossless works just fine on both.

 

[EricNau]

If you have your homepod(s) set as the default audio source to an Apple TV, seems like the Apple TV settings override anything you set in the Home app, at least pertaining to Dolby. Even if you aren’t currently using the Apple TV.

e.g. I was getting Dolby atmos on my HomePods even though I had it disabled in the Home app per these instructions.

Frankly, Apple really needs to sync these settings across devices if they’re going to work like this.

 

[brezz]

I have the update and Atmos turned on in settings, but I don’t get the logo when I play music on the HomePod. It sounds like it’s in Atmos, so I wonder if this is a bug. I get the Loseless logo. And if I switch to my AirPods the Atmos logo shows up immediately. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[chrisincanada]

HomePod mini doesn't seem to support Dolby Atmos, it only supports Lossless

 

[Zeke92]

I know some of you say that Lossless isn't that noticeable, but I swear the lossless tracks sounds amazing on two paired HomePods in stereo. Dolby Atmos I don't mess with that at all.

 

[SurferPup]

I can't wait to try out loseless audio upon my arrival home tonight. Thank you MacRumours for these tips as I enabled the loseless audio as soon as I read your article. Dolby ATOMS was already switched on.

 

[The_Gream]

All I know is, since the 15 update, my HomePods have finally stopped falling out of sync with one another. I have had a stereo pair for a while and this is the longest span of time I can remember where they have stayed I sync. Thank you, whom ever at Apple fixed this.