Dolby Atmos - is it for Audiophiles?


A friend asked me over to his house this morning to audition Dolby Atmos on his pretty good 2 channel system.

Apparently - Apple are going to convert their entire streaming library to Atmos (please don’t shoot the messenger) and another well known streaming service is going to adopt it also.

Since this is my first exposure to Dolby Atmos, I came away a little confused

From the brief audition I experienced...
  • some tracks presented very well - better clarity, separation and dynamics with larger more articulate image
  • other tracks were less impressive, especially the really old tracks
  • some classical tracks sounded quite shrill and harsh
  • and one of the more recently recorded tracks did not sound too much different from the regular stereo version - but then it was Taylor Swift - again, don’t shoot the messenger:-)
Is this really meant for two channel systems?
  • it seems it may be targeting Airpod users - as opposed to 2-channel systems that use speakers
  • from the description (i.e. diagrammatically ) it looks like surround sound for Airpods.
  • does it work with existing surround sound systems?
  • it seems it only works with Atmos enabled devices - how long before my Node 2i streamer becomes obsolete?
I must admit - when it worked well it was quite impressive, but that was not even 50% of the time, so it seems there is work to be done.
  • violins sometimes sound quite harsh
  • cellos sometimes sounded very "thin" - poor bottom end and poor timbre
  • some orchestras sounded very unnatural in the top end and less bottom end than normal

If you have first hand experience with Atmos, please share your thoughts/insights with the rest of us

Many Thanks - Steve


williewonka

Showing 3 responses by mikelavigne

what is Dolby Atmos?

basically it’s object based reproduction, as opposed to discrete channels. which means it uses dsp to steer objects through the soundfield instead of discrete separate channels.

the benefit is that it scales really well to higher speaker counts really beyond 5.1 channel surround. i use 9.3.6 channels in my Home Theater room. but with 2 channels it’s benefit is marginal, to the point that it’s a negative. you are adding dsp to a 2 channel playback and the negatives of dsp are greater than the benefit in most cases. it is perceived as distortion.

so how good can Dolby Atmos be for music?

done all the way right (not trivial to execute) it can rival top level 2 channel music reproduction. i have a no holds bared 2 channel system, and a completely separate Home Theater system where i’ve just installed 15 surround speakers and 3 subwoofer (9.3.6). even not really tweaked it can do some wonderful things for music. and the room is not nearly as critical as what is needed for top level 2 channel. and until you have heard what the very top level software can do for multi-channel room optimization you cannot judge this approach to music reproduction. and i'm as committed to a pure 2 channel signal path as anyone on this forum.

https://www.dolby.com/about/support/guide/speaker-setup-guides/9.1.6-overhead-speaker-setup-guide/

Audiogon is not a good forum for this discussion. if you really want to learn about Dolby Atmos and what is possible here is where you need to go. this is a Trinnov thread on the AVS forum. Trinnov makes the best multi-channel processor by far; they are the object based dsp sound reproduction experts.....up to 64 channels.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/trinnov-altitude.1516103/

these guys are as serious about object based music and movie sound as we are here with 2 channel.

i mostly stream 2 channel with Tidal and Quboz in my 2 channel room. so Apple streaming Dolby Atmos is not relevant for me. i know Tidal does stream some Dolby Atmos and so maybe at some point i will connect Roon in my Home Theater room and check out Dolby Atmos multi-chnanel streaming. but my own view is that i have zero interest in 2 channel Dolby Atmos for my 2 channel room. my pure analog signal path is not getting corrupted with dsp.
@mijostyn
See Mike, even you think the theater folks are second class citizens :-)
Your 2 way system is not pure analog as I do believe you have described playing CDs and digital files.



not sure how you can make that case. having a digital source is a different thing than adding dsp to your signal path. heck, i have plenty of Lp’s that i like/love that were originally mastered digitally. i’m into music not dogma. sure; my pure analog media is my top of the heap......but i’m not limited to that. and have never claimed different.

and assuming your room is properly tuned, digital sources benefit as much from a pure analog signal path as analog sources. garbage in <-> garbage out. can some challenging rooms benefit from dsp with 2 channel? i would assume so but not experienced that personally.

if you look at my digital source, it’s bit perfect.....not upsampled or further manipulated. my guiding perspective is that i prefer to hear my music with media as close as possible to how it was recorded......in the native format. whether digital, vinyl or tape.

as far as Home Theater and the concept of ’second class’, i think that is a bad term to use. it infers some sort of negative to movies. for me movies are simply a different passtime than 2 channel music. i just bought a $17k Home Theater surround processor (Trinnov Altitude 16). i assure you my wife thinks i like my Home Theater too much. :-) many people combine 2-channel and movies. and i have a separate place upstairs in my barn where i watch sports, a rec room/game room. but i don’t view that as second class either. i like all these places to enjoy media that are each optimized for the media i use there. obviously i am most involved with my 2-channel. but i’m not feeling ’second class’ watching movies or sports.


@brianlucey

it’s interesting to read your perspective, as you have one of the best 2 Ch and likely best Atmos set ups in the worldI mean what makes anyone think the normal music enjoying person wants to add more and more speakers? Will there be more Atmos users than 2 CHaudiophiles? This is creating a need for $, corporate BS 101


thanks Brian.

i have always had a ’pretty good’ separate Home Theater system for "movies only" in my house. my over-the-top 2 channel system is in my barn. this Home Theater has a top level front projector but the sound there was always just an "ok" surround system. recently with the advances in surround sound to the object based dsp (Dolby Atmos) approach i decided to take the plunge to see how far i could go with it. my agenda was optimizing movies. the music benefit was a bonus. and i’m just starting to discover how music ’only’ can benefit with 15 surround channels and 3 subwoofers. i’m in the discovery phase of those investigations.

without the attraction of a better home movie experience i’m not sure i would have ventured down this road for music only. i have been a signal path and 2 channel purist in the past. 15 years ago i did install a 5.1 discrete surround sound set-up in my 2 channel room for 18 months to see where that might go but found that my 2 channel was more involving. i do think Dolby Atmos object based with high speaker count has much more music only potential. we will see how that goes.