360 Audio (Dolby Atmos) bugs.

[Pythagorean]

I'm quite disappointed in Samsung's handling of Dolby Atmos content with headtracking.
The implementation is needlessly flawed, leading to a terrible listening experience. Especially when compared to Apple's implementation.

The bugs:
- When listening to Dolby Atmos music and turning on 360 Audio in the Wearables app, it automatically switches the Dolby Atmos setting to 'film'.
The 'film' setting simply sound horrible with music. I want to use the 'music' setting of Dolby Atmos which does sound good. But Samsung won't let me since the Dolby Atmos settings under Settings - Sounds - Sound Effects are not accessible once I take my Buds 3 Pro out of their case as it is then automatically controlled by the Samsung Wearable app. So there's absolutely no way to switch Dolby Atmos to 'music' setting.
Please fix this. This is just such a horrible implementation I'm calling it a bug.

- When the screen goes to black 360 Audio / headtracking stops working.
How are we supposed to enjoy music in Dolby Atmos with headtracking when it stops working when the screen goes off?
And it seems like it also tries to detect when you're walking around and also tries to turn off 360 Audio if it detects this (luckily it's quite bad at detecting this).
Please stop auto-turning off 360 Audio. We WANT head tracking when moving around and when audio is playing, that's the whole point of head-tracking.

Samsung, PLEASE fix these things.
The way you're doing things now makes spatial audio / Dolby Atmos for headphones with headtracking / 360 audio totally unusable for music. You're making it sound worse instead of better.
It seems like you've only set it up as a gimmick for movies.
Fixing the above two bugs should be very easy and it would make Dolby Atmos with 360 Audio headtracking actually work great for music.
Simply don't turn off headtracking when the screen goes off, and don't auto select 'movie' mode under Dolby Atmos when 360 audio is active (let the user choose).

My setup for reference:
Apple Music app with Apple Music subscription (with spatial audio turned on under settings) - Galaxy S23 with One UI 6.1 - Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Thank you.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hello 👋 @Pythagorean 

Welcome to the Samsung Community Forum. 

Yes I have noticed that also when I remove my Buds³ Pro from the case this takes over. 

This is a customer to customer help and chat Forum and as such Samsung wouldn't read your post here.

I totally understand and appreciate your comments.  

There are a couple of options however. 

There is a specific thread to drop a post in and there is the options to use the Samsung Members App to send feedback within. 

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/mobile-apps-services/the-suggestions-amp-ideas-thread-for-softwa... 

If i can be of any further help please don't hesitate to ask  😎 

[Pythagorean]

Thank you for the welcome and your suggestions!
I've now posted this in the thread you suggested as well and will also use the internal feedback system.
Hope Samsung picks it up and it gets fixed.

[BandOfBrothers]

You're most welcome @Pythagorean 

Any enhancement that betters the user experience gets my vote 👍

[Pythagorean]

Just did more thorough testing of Dolby Atmos playback with headtracking.
Sad news. The implementation is flawed and beyond repair.
I'll even call it misleading and false advertising.
There is no real Dolby Atmos playback with headtracking possible on S23 with Buds 3 Pro (or any other earbuds or headphones for that matter).

What Samung is doing is the following:
With Dolby Atmos content and supported players it makes a stereo binaural downmix of the Atmos audio.
And only AFTER this stereo downmix does the '360 Audio' headtracking do some stereo panning based on head movements.
This is NOT how it's supposed to work and the result is NOT real immersive 360 audio.
What it's supposed to do is do the headtracking on the multichannel Atmos channels and THEN do the binaural downmix to stereo.
The difference between these two methods is very large. With the second method you get sounds that are in a certain location around you, for instance to the left-back of you, and as you turn your head it gets perfect localization in a circle.
With the wrong method that Samsung uses you never get a sound to track your head movement correctly, for instance a sound to the left becomes a sound in your head with the wrong HRTF as you move your head, and a sound in the left-back behaves like a sound in the lef-front when you move your head. Etc.
There is no easy fix for the way Samsung does things. It's just a completely wrong and lazy implementation.

Apple does it the right way btw and is vastly superior sounding.
I'm selling my S23 and Buds3 Pro again. I work in audio and Atmos is important to me.

Goodbye Samsung.

For reference:
Used official Dolby Atmos test files and Dolby Atmos sanctioned Exo Player Pro for the tests (and also tested it with the Apple Music app with susbscription and correct settings)

[Subatomic]

I have been a Samsung smartphone customer for many years now, right through to the present with my Samsung S24 Ultra. I am, however, very disappointed that headtracking and spacial audio settings have been purposely made unavailable for my brand headphones. This is really not good business conduct, and as Samsung doesn't make headphones anymore, I do not see a problem. Please, Samsung, as a long-standing customer, and for other customers who purchase your phones, give a firmware update to reinstate headtracking and spacial audio for other products. If not, my next phone may be purchased from another brand. I think I am one of many Samsung customers who feel this way, too! Think about it, you would probably create more custom if these features were accessible.

Thank you.