Someone has just invented the dream lossless Dolby Atmos music service for audiophiles — but it needs some changes before it’s likely to really take off
- Headphone Dust is a new platform to buy audio with your pick of mixes
- Songs mixed into Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround, available in MKV and FLAC
- Far from a full platform yet, but shows how it can be done
A new music-downloading platform called Headphone Dust shows has been created by Grammy-nominated Porcupine Tree front man and solo artist Steven Wilson to show the big music services how it could be done – giving users an amazing choice of audio formats.
Wilson is, relevantly, known for remixing records into Dolby Atmos and 5.1-channel mixes. He’s upgraded Elton John, Black Sabbath, King Crimson and Guns N’ Roses tracks this way.
Headphone Dust is a platform for this kind of track, as a storefront to buy music mixed to such audiophile standards – not only in these formats, but also in full uncompressed audio quality (unlike the biggest streaming services).
Each album is available in two-channel stereo, or spatial Dolby Atmos, or mixed to 5.1 surround sound, or in a special headphones-specific version – and sometimes with accompanying 4K video too.
You don’t stream the tracks from the site; you can download them in FLAC, and it uses the MKV format to make it possible to choose which of the above formats you want to listen in.
The albums cost £14.99 or £18.99 (roughly $20, AU$30 or $26, AU$36), so it’s a cheaper option than physical releases tend to be. For now, though, there’s a couple of catches.
Limited offerings
At the time of writing, there are six albums available via Headphone Dust: four remixed Steven Wilson albums, one newly-mixed live album from the artist, and one album from Wilson’s solo project Bass Communion.
This isn’t an accident, with Wilson confirming that Headphone Dust will, initially, be for his own catalogue. He does posit using it to release work he’s mixed for other artists and bands, but that’ll likely depend on various deals and arrangements made later.
That’s obviously quite a limitation to its popularity, but we’re featuring it because it stands as a lifeline for audiophiles, offering a way to download high-resolution music that’ll sound as close as possible to the original master, but with the option of more interesting mixes if you have the equipment to make the most of them.
But that’s also the other limiting factor to the idea right now: not only do you need the correct equipment, it needs to be connected to your PC, if you’re relying on the MKV format to choose which version of the track to listen to.
There are obviously lots of people who have one of the best headphone DACs plugged into their PC, so that’s one way to get your music out of it at least – but how many people have a laptop connect to their Dolby Atmos system as standard?
We hope that Wilson can find a way to deliver his idea of uncompressed music with selectable mixes through a more user-friendly system – and can get other musicians on board, of course – because it’s a great idea. Ownership of the media, control of the format, maximum quality… even if this doesn’t take off, it at least gives us something to point to and say ‘Look! It can be done! That’s what we want!’
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