It's this attitude about surround speakers that drives me nuts, no wonder we have the ongoing myth that multich systems
are inferior to 2 ch systems. Would someone even think of saying they "may be acceptable for the Left channel of a 2ch rig"?
In todays world of surround music each and every bed channel is of equal importance and demanding of the same level of performance. Heck not only today, but back to the days of Quad where much of the recorded music used all four channels equally.,
expected sound quality could only be achieved if all speakers are the same.
You will never have a great surround system by mixing and matching different speakers than you would with a stereo system.
This is especially true for Atmos configurations. I have a Sonos Arc and a Sub that I originally paired with Sonos Play:3 surrounds; the latter belonged to one of their earlier lines that is not Atmos-capable and only fires in an outward direction. It’s also fairly lackluster in sound quality.
When I listened to Atmos soundtracks or albums with these as my surrounds, even after utilizing Sonos’ TruePlay room calibration thingamajig, the sounds that came from these Play:3s threw me out of the experience—because their elements were not integrated into the whole soundstage, and from my listening position I kept hearing this disembodied guitar track drowning out the rest of the mix—it was so glaringly coming from that specific driver. It got me thinking of Atmos as something gimmicky, and a format I’d never adjust to for every day music enjoyment.
Then I finally decided to get a pair of Sonos’ most recent ERA 300s to replace the Play:3s—speakers that are Atmos-capable, multi-directional, and far better in sound quality. This time, after I performed the calibration, it was a whole different story. I listened to several favorite albums of mine that were mixed/mastered in Atmos—the Beatles “Revolver”, “Dark Side of the Moon”, XTC’s “The Big Express” (Steven Wilson) and ABC’s “The Lexicon of Love” (also Steven Wilson). Now I felt like I was experiencing these albums exactly as I had heard them countless times before—the mix was perfectly balanced, the speakers disappeared, and it was simply the same presentation I was accustomed to, except
bigger. Immersive. There was nothing gimmicky about it at all, and I could absolutely imagine a future where this would be the conventional way we listen to all music, just as stereo is the convention of the past and present, and mono before that.
Surround engineers aren’t just throwing “dispensable” elements to surrounds anymore, such as a gunshot ricochet or a helicopter blade here and there, where sound quality was once of negligible concern. They’re employing surrounds far more aesthetically and essential to the overall mix. Nor do I think that multichannel audio is a niche market any longer, as it had been before object-based surround mixes were developed.
The number of Spatial Audio or Atmos versions of album catalogs is burgeoning every day. And say what you want about Apple, when everyone was gushing over Tidal’s lossless and high resolution masters and trashing Apple for not following suit, when they finally announced they were “upgrading” their entire catalog to these formats (for free), they made it clear that they were only doing so based on consumer demand, and that their primary focus is on Spatial Audio. They summoned some highly-regarded minds to collaborate on the research and development of their audio technology, and I’m sure at least one of them was aware that the negligible differences between contemporary lossy and lossless formats was far less likely to make a future impact than pursuing a whole new way of experiencing music altogether.
I think they recognized that the state of the art had reached the stage where it’s time to add the third dimension to the average consumer’s listening experience, and manufacturers are designing affordable options to facilitate this not only through complicated home theater speaker configurations, but in everyday ear buds using psychoacoustic and holographic techniques.
For that reason, I think the days of perceiving surround speakers as incidental and dispensable in sound quality are over—and anyone seeking to invest substantial cost into a home theater setup should take heed of where consumer-grade technology is heading. There are a multitude of manufacturers making discreet and tasteful ceiling or wall mounted drivers that balance aesthetics with performance. They may not be “invisible”, but I’m of the mindset that audio pollution can destroy the ambience of a valued space every bit as much as an unseemly visual object.
