Atmos’ killer app? Sounds like, amusingly, headphones


I read a great article from a non-audiophile here. It raises a good point...if atmos can deliver 85% of the sound through headphones rather than speakers, then *that* is going to be massive. 

I had never thought about how if you had a good remaster, with the digital data, you could do some cool things with respect to actually having different “tracks” getting to your ears at the same time. Instead of having a mixed waveform simulating that, you can actually get individual waves. 

Granted, you will need to remaster tracks, but...I would really like to hear that on orchestral pieces. 
avlee

Showing 2 responses by erik_squires

Sorry for being so flippant. Let me back up a bit.

The problem with movie sound is that it has always been effect driven, AND is designed to work for the broadest seating areas possible. Dolby sells equipment and WOW. Special effects. Personally I prefer sound tracks which are subtle, and constantly immersive, as opposed to explosive when needed.

For the home, the multiple speakers that ATMOS brings seems really old school stuff. I feel strongly they are more interestsed in selling amps and speakers than merely focusing on the experience. Dolby could have relied on HRTF research to create the height and width of ATMOS but instead  they add more and more speakers which are not really needed. What IS cool about ATMOS and the DTS version is the object-oriented storage of a sound. Instead of being put on a specific track (L, C or R) now it is stored as a waveform and a direction from the center. The playback processor now interprets this and maps it to the best combination of speakers that are available.

A large part of this by the way is the theater experience. HRTF work I think works better when you have a narrow seating arrangement. In theaters  you have a lot of seats outside of the sweet spot, so more speakers is a good thing. Also, HRTF is hard to sell to people. I'm sure movies pre-Atmos already incorporated HRTF research into their sound tracks, and some processors will be reverse-engineering the ATMOS tracks with height and width simulation.

It is a lot easier to sell you on the idea of more speakers, and more amps than it is better processing.

The one area where I DO think an extra speaker in music makes sense is the center channel. Partly historical, partly HRTF. But height, width, 12 speakers in my home... I'll pass.

Best,

E
Um, I get better sound through my speakers than my headphones, and I don't need no Atmos to do it.

Best,

E