MacOS Tahoe problems with Atmos content

[juliangst-00]

I encountered an annoying issue in new MacOS Tahoe regarding Dolby Atmos playback.

I use Blackhole together with CamillaDSP to integrate a small 4.0 setup for Atmos content.
The usual procedure is installing Blackhole 16 and configuring it as "Quadrophonic" in the audio midi setup.
MacOS will then downmix the Atmos content to your specified setup (like "Quadrophonic", 5.1, 7.1,...).

In MacOS Tahoe though, MacOS will ALWAYS use all 16 Blackhole channels and not downmix anymore no matter what setup you specify in the Midi-Setup.

I fixed this by specifically building BlackHole with only 4 channel so that MacOS is forced to use only 4 channels.

Can anyone explain why this happens? Did Apple change something about CoreAudio that causes this?

[devinroth]

That definitely sounds like a bug. Best bet is to file a report with Apple. And hopefully they fix it in the next macOS release. Sigh.

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On Sep 16, 2025 at 2:35 PM -0700, juliangst-00 ***@***.***>, wrote: I encountered an annoying issue in new MacOS Tahoe regarding Dolby Atmos playback. I use Blackhole together with CamillaDSP to integrate a small 4.0 setup for Atmos content. The usual procedure is installing Blackhole 16 and configuring it as "Quadrophonic" in the audio midi setup. MacOS will then downmix the Atmos content to your specified setup (like "Quadrophonic", 5.1, 7.1,...). In MacOS Tahoe though, MacOS will ALWAYS use all 16 Blackhole channels and not downmix anymore no matter what setup you specify in the Midi-Setup. I fixed this by specifically building BlackHole with only 4 channel so that MacOS is forced to use only 4 channels. Can anyone explain why this happens? Did Apple change something about CoreAudio that causes this? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>