An audio engineer explains why Dolby Atmos Music is “definitely going to supersede stereo”

[Sal1950]

and the remote is an actual crime against usability, holy crap Apple)

LOL, THATS A FACT!
Don't know which one you have but I got the first gen one with the touch (in)sensitive pad on top.
For the first few months I bout went nuts with the POS.
And since I don't have anything else Apple to help control it, I came close to going Amazon who aren't my fav either.
Then I learned I could get a cheap $12 bluetooth keyboard to do much of the needed input chores from the Lazyboy and it made my life a lot easier.

Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard For Windows PC Mac iOS iPhone Phone Tablet Universal | eBay

Bluetooth-enabled iMac / MacBook with Mac iOS X 10.2.8 or above. Slim Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 Keyboard - Universal. Bluetooth 3.0 technology provides a wireless & clutter-free connection. 1 x Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard (Batteries not included).

www.ebay.com

 

[BentonF]

Here’s the article: I personally love ATMOS for Movies and have explored the limited sampling of ATMOS Music available on Tidal and Amazon. I find it different and rewarding as a change of pace. What say You?

https://www.musicradar.com/news/an-...music-is-definitely-going-to-supersede-stereo

I think this engineer has been spending too much time in his dark, LED illuminated laboratory and not enough time outside in the sunshine of the real world. From what is flagrantly obvious, not only is this not happening but 99.9999999% population are abandoning stereo for a mono soundbar in the kitchen/longe costing no more than £500. Who cares about quality audio with the masses wanting convenience, the smallest form factor on a budget platform which streams the cheapest low resolution mp3. Wake up and smell the Cwoff-feeeee.

 

[tuga]

Gimmick. A niche within a niche…

A chance to sell more gadgets we don’t need. Not science, just greed.

 

[Sal1950]

I think this engineer has been spending too much time in his dark, LED illuminated laboratory and not enough time outside in the sunshine of the real world. From what is flagrantly obvious, not only is this not happening but 99.9999999% population are abandoning stereo for a mono soundbar in the kitchen/longe costing no more than £500. Who cares about quality audio with the masses wanting convenience, the smallest form factor on a budget platform which streams the cheapest low resolution mp3. Wake up and smell the Cwoff-feeeee.

That's just wrong.
Everyone wants better sound, at least they think they do.
Where do you see these "mono" soundbars? They buy crapbars that claim all sort of stereo, 5.1 7.1 Atmos sound.
Don't matter what they actually sound like, they don't KNOW the difference, that's true.
Spotify is the last remaining paid streamer not bragging about HiRez lossless sound.
Your just seeing things as-backwards.

 

[AdamG]

Gimmick. A niche within a niche…

A chance to sell more gadgets we don’t need. Not science, just greed.

That’s Exactly what they said about Stereo Sound. So glad they paid no attention.

 

[tuga]

That’s Exactly what they said about Stereo Sound. So glad they paid no attention.

I see more people getting sound bars and mono bluetooth active smart speakers than 2-channel stereos, let alone ATMOS...

 

[maverickronin]

Where do you see these "mono" soundbars?

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that either means that most soundbars have so little channel separation and imaging that they may as be mono regardless of of what formats they can accept or decode or that he meant mono bluetooth/smart speakers.

That’s Exactly what they said about Stereo Sound. So glad they paid no attention.

Stereo is a open format though. The last thing I need is another hobby ruined by more proprietary BS.

 

[AdamG]

I see more people getting sound bars and mono bluetooth active smart speakers than 2-channel stereos, let alone ATMOS...

Yes, I’m sure you do. But how many of those type of buyers do you think are Member and/or readers of Audio Science Review? This forum is a place people who are looking for more/better sound come to learn. But of course you are right. Now go troll another thread.

 

[Sal1950]

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that either means that most soundbars have so little channel separation and imaging that they may as be mono regardless of of what formats they can accept or decode or that he meant mono bluetooth/smart speakers.

Ah but that's not the point.
NO ONE is actively seeking "mono" sound bars, or anything marketed as low-fi.
Just the opposite, they're buying the bars marketed as 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos because they believe they will give them BETTER sound, no matter the reality.

Stereo is a open format though. The last thing I need is another hobby ruined by more proprietary BS.

Stereo is a ancient format that has been significantly improved by todays multich formats.
If you chose to stay in the past, your choice. But then why not save some big money and just go back to mono, stereo is just a fad anyhow.
2 of everything is just a enormous waste of money and space.

 

[Soundmixer]

A chance to sell more gadgets we don’t need. Not science, just greed.

Or a chance to appeal to those who already have those gadgets but didn't have the musical content to support them. I've had a 7.1(4).4 system and a 7.1.2 system since 2014. I have a lot of movies encoded with Atmos and X, and now I have access to a whole bunch of Atmos music content to listen to on them as well.

This is not about NEED. We don't NEED a audio or video system, we need food, water, air, and shelter. This is about want, and I have no problem wanting Atmos encoded music to play on my two systems.

 

[Sonic icons]

I think this engineer has been spending too much time in his dark, LED illuminated laboratory and not enough time outside in the sunshine of the real world. From what is flagrantly obvious, not only is this not happening but 99.9999999% population are abandoning stereo for a mono soundbar in the kitchen/longe costing no more than £500. Who cares about quality audio with the masses wanting convenience, the smallest form factor on a budget platform which streams the cheapest low resolution mp3. Wake up and smell the Cwoff-feeeee.

I believe the majority of the population, especially "millennial" and younger, has moved to listening with headphones or earphones. Oddly enough, 2-channel separation is quite good with those devices. And Dolby has come out with Atmos for Headphones.

 

[DonH56]

My boys (late 20's/early 30's) had iPods and such but were exposed to my sound system all of their lives. Perhaps as a result, they have always wanted (and usually had) some sort of "real" stereo, and that is true of most of their friends as well. Yes they use earbuds a lot, but at home they listen to a "real" system, currently decent hand-me-downs from my systems (Pioneer Elite and Denon AVRs, a mix of Infinity/Revel/Mirage speakers, our old 52" TV for one and the other bought his own, etc.) When they were home they lived for the days I was away on trips so they could use the "big" system, and often enough wanted friends over to listen/watch on my system or at one of the other homes that had a nice HT setup. So at least for my boys and their group of friends, while earbuds and headphones are likely used most of the time, they all have/want/appreciate conventional systems. The biggest barrier to most of them is the cost since not everyone has a father who's been an audiophile for decades and collected a bunch of equipment they can use. Many graduated from college in debt and with a range of jobs, not all of which provide the means to lay out a few thousand dollars for a nice stereo system, but even those tend to have some sort of HTIB system as soon as they can.

FWIWFM - Don

 

[maverickronin]

Ah but that's not the point.
NO ONE is actively seeking "mono" sound bars, or anything marketed as low-fi.
Just the opposite, they're buying the bars marketed as 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos because they believe they will give them BETTER sound, no matter the reality

There's still all those really popular mono smart speakers though.

Stereo is a ancient format that has been significantly improved by todays multich formats.
If you chose to stay in the past, your choice. But then why not save some big money and just go back to mono, stereo is just a fad anyhow.
2 of everything is just a enormous waste of money and space.

I'm not saying mch isn't an improvement. It's just the way that that Dolby is basically using Atmos as a pseudo-DRM scheme is bad for both artists and fans.

 

[Sal1950]

I believe the majority of the population, especially "millennial" and younger, has moved to listening with headphones or earphones. Oddly enough, 2-channel separation is quite good with those devices. And Dolby has come out with Atmos for Headphones.

Headphones are quite popular today but I'm not so sure about your claim of "majority".
We as music lovers & audio enthusiasts are still in the main a speaker driven hobby.
Maybe someday in a distant future fancy technolgy will offer headphone listening that is the equal of speakers that "immersive" experience but (at least for me) there is a comfort issue I've never been able to deal with for long term listening.
Headphones offer that low cost entry level into High Fidelity listening, $250-1,000 will bring inner detail and FR excellence that would take 20x as much to equal in stereo. But there is much more to the experience then that and areas where headphones are very lacking.

There's still all those really popular mono smart speakers though.

Where, show me one marketed as such? Most AFAIK have a pair (or more) of small stereo speakers in them arranged and technically tweeked to offer a expanded presentation of sound. but whatever.

It's just the way that that Dolby is basically using Atmos as a pseudo-DRM scheme is bad for both artists and fans.

I get your opposition to proprietary software and hardware, but that ship has sailed in todays world of which Dolby is just a tiny spec.
Artists may have been hurt by streaming but you can't lay that at Atmos feet please.
It's a new/old world out there, artists may have to get out and go to work playing on a daily basis like the rest of us now. Not just sit home and become multi millionares on the basis of a couple hit albums. That short lived (1950s-2000) ideal is over.

 

[maverickronin]

Where, show me one marketed as such? Most AFAIK have a pair (or more) of small stereo speakers in them arranged and technically tweeked to offer a expanded presentation of sound. but whatever.

Most are sold as singles, even if the the particular model does support stereo pairing.

I get your opposition to proprietary software and hardware, but that ship has sailed in todays world of which Dolby is just a tiny spec.
Artists may have been hurt by streaming but you can't lay that at Atmos feet please.
It's a new/old world out there, artists may have to get out and go to work playing on a daily basis like the rest of us now. Not just sit home and become multi millionares on the basis of a couple hit albums. That short lived (1950s-2000) ideal is over.

Music is really one of the last places without that proprietary BS though and that's why this especially bothers me. Labels have generally preyed upon smaller artists but I want to make a slightly different point. This is essentially worst case scenario, and for various reasons I don't think it will actually happen, but...

If Atmos or some other proprietary format became such a household name that everyone expected new music to be released in it and enough "classics" were remixed in it that people were no longer used to stereo it would have to potential to destroy the indie market. Even if a bedroom producer or small band could afford to mix in Atmos what good would releasing it on Bandcamp do when none of the customers would have a way to play it? It would almost turn into the movie industry.

I see that it does add add to the experience. I was at SVS's room at AXPONA today where they demoed a 5.2.2 system with the Hans Zimmer Live in Prague BD and it was very impressive. It's just that very few of my favorites are in any flavor of multichannel though, so even discounting the proprietary headache it's a very poor value for me. If it fits your tastes than go for it. I'm not going to be some kind of "purist" insisting that it's a gimmick.

 

[Newman]

LOL, THATS A FACT!
Don't know which one you have but I got the first gen one with the touch (in)sensitive pad on top.
For the first few months I bout went nuts with the POS.

A couple of weeks ago I got my first Apple TV unit, the current 4K version and remote.

It's different for sure, but I am getting used to it. No issues here.

 

[haen]

Out of curiosity - as Apple Music seems to be a major proponent - is there an easy way search what artists/records are available there in Atmos? I've found some page that seems to list those but with no ability to query them just an infinite list of albums or something like that. Note that I don't have a subscription to Apple Music.

I expect that no more that 5% of music I listen to have a chance of being mixed to Atmos, and I suspect that number will rather go down then up. Also at the moment space limitations make any kind of thinking of more than 2 speakers rather unrealistic. But that should change in a year or two so depending on records availability I may take into the account requirements for a multichannel system.

 

[anmpr1]

Coming late to the article, which is still up, I read...

The system installed at Dean St. Studios is what Stan describes as “a world-class PMC 9.1.4 setup”. It features PMC’s IB2S XBD-A active monitors for the left and right main channels, a PMC IB2S-A monitor for the centre channel, 10 discrete Wafer2 loudspeakers for surround and height channels and four sub2 subwoofers.

When I think about it, I think, "If something requires this kind of complexity in set-up, how can it possibly 'definitely supersede' something as simple and as ubiquitous as stereo?

I believe it was Dave Ranada (or was it Tom Nousaine, may he RIP) who wrote how 5.1 was going to make stereo obsolete. And that was twenty or thirty years ago. Outside of death and taxes, you never want to go on record trying to predict the future.

 

[Vacceo]

I believe the majority of the population, especially "millennial" and younger, has moved to listening with headphones or earphones. Oddly enough, 2-channel separation is quite good with those devices. And Dolby has come out with Atmos for Headphones.

In younger generations (judging from my students), that tendency is even more widespread. It also makes quite a lot of sense, due to the increased quality of headphones and earphones at quite reasonable prices.

The area of sound reproduction that needs to catch up is car headunits and amps. With the extension of affordable class D amps and solutions such as APTX and APTX HD, getting good reproduction inside a vehicle should be for easier than ever.

 

[Newman]

as Apple Music seems to be a major proponent - is there an easy way search what artists/records are available there in Atmos? I've found some page that seems to list those but with no ability to query them just an infinite list of albums or something like that. Note that I don't have a subscription to Apple Music.

I expect that no more that 5% of music I listen to have a chance of being mixed to Atmos,

I too don’t have a subscription (yet), but in case it helps, Apple’s original announcement said, “Apple Music will be adding new Dolby Atmos tracks constantly and will be curating a special set of Dolby Atmos playlists to help listeners find the music they love. In addition, albums that are available in Dolby Atmos will have a badge on the detail page for easy discovery.”