[Android Software Development] Alanon:
[MENTION=4445176]guitardedhero[/MENTION]: I took some time with all the variants in order to provide a more nuanced, if somewhat too specific review. I took up testing the levelling features of both Dolby versions, in hopes that it will be of use to all of us who like loud music, and whose choice in general falls between Atmos or DD+.

Firstly, there's a definite difference between the levelling procedure for the Atmos and Dolby Digital versions. If you use this setting, Atmos is the winner for me, because it provides better clarity, better overall soundstage, and a greater feeling of vibrance in the music. This is especially so in any kind of orchestral music. Atmos' bass is a bit more "boomier" than in DD, but the vocals used with levelling tone down this shortcoming. DD+ levelling simply doesn't have these effects, and the overall impression is that it's - more neutral (some would say simpler). The difference becomes obvious after listening to some music with both for about 30 minutes each. DD+ amps the music volume, while Atmos adds something to it. It adds complexity to certain parts of tracks, so that sometimes you really can't say that they're the same pieces of music. It's especially true for live tracks, tracks that lean heavily on highs, acoustic tracks, etc. This can also be heard within quieter parts of individual tracks, as they will most often get amped down for a greater dynamic feel. While DD+ might be better with straight processing, when its levelling is turned off (although my experience says it's pretty close either way), if you use the levelling in Atmos, it surpasses DD+, because it complements the other components of Genesis so well. To put it more bluntly, there were tracks where I felt that DD+ levelling went against the mod as a whole, especially with some blues vinyl rips. While Atmos levelling does have a slightly different approach to bass, I haven't experienced that degree of problems on bass-heavy music, and the tracks that were troublesome for DD+ weren't for Atmos. And again, I need to stress that all these observations concern the levelling function - in both cases I used the same settings: music preset, with a flat EQ and surround turned on.

I was just planning to post this when Exodus hit the shelves, but I held off so that I could compare my fresh impressions of Genesis Atmos to Exodus with Dolby libraries. Honestly, to me it's quite a step back. I see folks commenting on the improvement of Exodus, and its closeness to earlier versions that I've not used. To me, quite a lot of the aspects that I've loved about Genesis are simply missing from Exodus, and i'm not talking just about Atmos. To be honest, I wasn't able to hear the Dolby in Exodus. Both the soundstage and clarity of highs were missing. I haven't used the non-dolby variant, but that's only because I was a bit disappointed. While I was listening, I had a strange feeling that something was going on with my music. No matter which setting I used, the music sounded poorer. I even heard a strange hissing in some of my tracks that weren't present in any variant of the mod including Viper 5.5 Sony Beats. What's more, I reflashed that old Viper variant and it sounded better. I've read in a comment somewhere that Exodus is more neutral. I'm not sure if this is the case, but to me it sounds as if some of the libraries are in conflict, as if some big element of the sound was missing. I've just now seen that there's a 0.6 version of the mod - perhaps 0.4 was too young a version for it to measure up, I don't know. I realise it's early days, and that Exodus is in for a long road of development, and I also realise that compatibility is it's primary purpose, but I would recommend folks that lean towards my tastes musically to skip Exodus for now and stick to Genesis Atmos.

Thanks for reading! :D