It definitely depends on the source material. Most of the studio recordings I could take it or leave it. Here’s a good one:
But live music that is recorded right can really take advantage:
I don’t have a good baseline for what the capabilities are. Right now, in my office, I’m trying Apple’s classical playlist for Spatial. In one article, early on, it said Bluetooth wasn’t supported, but that can’t be so if AirPods Max are. So I’m going from the iPad Pro to BT to Zen Blue and out to speakers - quietly. Chopin piano concerto #2 was certainly not objectionable, but I didn’t A/B it. Some stuff with wailing voices is next, not my cup of tea. Probably something that Apple thought would make people say Wow.
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I think that’s it right there - doesnt matter if it really works musically or sounds correct as long as someone thinks it cool. They aint targeting the meagre numbers of audiophiles. At least the lossless library is decent, the spatial/dolby options, event though I can do Atmos, I havent tried yet outside of a brief period when it was first released, for 5 minutes. Meh.
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I have three thoughts on Apple/Dolby’s “spacial audio”:
1 - Dolby is famously protective of their IP and licensing. Anyone who wants to do anything having anything to do with Dolby has to pay Dolby to use their codec. Partnering with Apple’s famously closed ecosystem seems like a natural match that does not surprise me at all. Also worth noting that as of the last time I checked, which was admittedly about 10 years ago, no Apple product will even recognize a DTS file/signal (Dolby’s biggest competitor). If you insert a DTS disk or play a DTS file on an Apple product, the Apple device will simply pretend the DTS signal/file is not there. Because licensing politics.
2 - Dolby compression made sense in a world where bandwidth - online and on physical media - was limited. Bandwidth is plentiful now, so the only real reason Dolby still exists is that streaming services would rather deliver a compressed audio signal than 5-7 pcm channels of audio. There is nothing magic in what Dolby brings to the table - it’s a compression codec, like “mp3” or “flac”.
3 - Apple, the world’s largest maker of speakers (as funny as that sounds it’s a fact), and maker of billions of shitty low end headphones, would like you to play their proprietary “spacial audio” on their cheap shitty headphones so that it sounds almost like you’re listening on a decent pair of headphones, thus the average joe will see no reason to ever pursue higher quality headphones.
You’re counting the speakers in phones, right?
Yes. Phones, laptops, tablets, earbuds, headphones, etc. It adds up.
I think it’s a gimmick. Especially in the case of re-mastered music. Maybe it’s OK if the artist is involved with Dolby Atmos in the creative process.
Had a chance to do some critical listening under the guise of “working at home”. During my extended “lunch break” I had fired up the Mini 
Bifrost2 STAX SRM T1S Nectar Hive eStats.
Did a careful comparison of Qobuz’ version of Eric Dolphy’s “Hat and Beard” from the 1964 album Out To Lunch!. Qobuz gives you a 192k 24bit FLAC. I don’t know what the original was mastered on, there are names in the credits, but nothing about equipment. Alfred Lion was the producer, there is a reissue producer, and Rudy Van Gelder is the engineer for the digital stuff. This is Qobuz highest resolution,
and I don’t hear even a hint of tape hiss. The band is precisely positioned on stage. Cymbals just shimmer. Bobby Hutcherson’s vibes are so cool, Tony Williams drums - what can I say. You can hear from the scape of brushes to the impact of snare and kick. Dolphy and Hubbard play off of each other from different quadrants of the stage, Sax in command, then Freddie’s trumpet. Wonderful performance.
The whole thing in Apple Music Spatial (Dolby ATMOS) is surreal. The cymbals lose the precise shimmering and definite point. It’s like they’ve turned into a brass flying saucer in a reverb chamber. The interplay of Dolphy’s sax and Hubbard’s trumpet is not as clean, it’s like it all has a fuzzy edge. They’re further apart. I can’t tell where the bass is - a blob in the middle - and yes the blob has fingers near it. The vibes no longer sound like vibes. No vibrating aluminum and resonating tubes - it sounds like a very good synthesized vibraphone. Not. Quite. Real. Quaaludes and Windowpane Momma, I’ve been Spatialized.
I can’t imagine that any of the artists involved, or their producers, or even the folks who did the remastering I hear on Qobuz would have approved.
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