Audioholics Product of the Year: Monolith M1000ANC Headphones

[cepage]

I enjoyed your Product of the Year feature, and picked up a pair of the M1000ANC headphones based on the writeup. The article stated that the Dirac Viruto DSP "provides 3D audio capability that adapts to Dolby Atmos and Apple Spatial Audio". But when I use the headphones with my iPhone or Mac (Dirac enabled), Apple Spatial Audio is disabled, and it treats the headphones as a stereo output. How did the reviewer get this product working with Atmos/Apple Spatial Audio?

 

[cepage]

Tried connecting through the 9mm jack. In this setup, my iPhone can output Atmos/Apple Spatial Audio, but it's to no avail, because using the jack disables both ANC and Dirac.

 

[Wayde Robson]

I enjoyed your Product of the Year feature, and picked up a pair of the M1000ANC headphones based on the writeup. The article stated that the Dirac Viruto DSP "provides 3D audio capability that adapts to Dolby Atmos and Apple Spatial Audio". But when I use the headphones with my iPhone or Mac (Dirac enabled), Apple Spatial Audio is disabled, and it treats the headphones as a stereo output. How did the reviewer get this product working with Atmos/Apple Spatial Audio?

Hey, cepage. Sorry about confusion. It's not actually decoding Atmos, it's giving you Dirac Virtuo 3D. Which is generally a step up in the surround rendering dept. from many higher-end headphones. B&W and Focal use an in-house DSP that don't claim to provide any surround audio. They don't license Dirac or Dolby.

As long as Dirac is enabled, you're getting its rendition of 3D audio from any input signal. It's the same way Audeze's Mobius uses Waves NX as their 3D audio technology. But if you've got a source that's reading the presence of a Dolby Atmos decoder, I wouldn't expect it to light up. It's not quite like an MQA where it would handshake with your source or any other processing stage in the audio chain.

 

[cepage]

Thanks for the clarification, Wayde!