How Is This Dolby Atmos?

[Trdat]

I thought Dolby Atmos was something like 11.1 channels is there something I have misunderstood?

How can a sound bar be considered Dolby Atmos?

Arc: The Wireless Dolby Atmos Home Theater Soundbar | Sonos

Experience immersive 3D sound for movies, sports, games, and more. Sonos Arc's upward-firing drivers create a multi-dimensional soundstage that moves around you, rendering every detail with dramatic clarity and depth. Enjoy control with your remote, the app, your voice, and Apple AirPlay 2.

www.sonos.com

 

[voodooless]

It can be however many channels you like... In this case, they are all crammed into a tiny stick The top and rear channels are done by reflecting the sound off the walls. This works with varying degrees of success and can give the actual impression that sound is coming from behind or from above.

My Ambeo Max will do up to 5.1.4 this way. It's just not a tiny stick but a 20kg hunk of metal and plastic. And in my room, it works very well. The emersion is amazing for a soundbar.

 

[JSmith]

How can a sound bar be considered Dolby Atmos?

Well they aren't really... it's more "virtual" atmos. Some use up firing speakers, some also use side firing speakers... these just use the ceiling and walls (if side firing model) to direct the reflection so you perceive that is where the sound is coming from. Whilst these can do an ok job, it's no substitute for a proper atmos setup IMO.

Others just use height virtualization, which is worse... that uses DSP to create the impression of overhead sound. This is done by using height filters that simulate the height perceived.


JSmith

 

[TonyJZX]

dolby atmos exists in many phones... over 3.5mm stereo or bluetooth

so its whatever dolby wants it to be

 

[Trdat]

Okay, I get how they have managed it in a sound bar. I had no idea that it could be done that way even if it is a pseudo attempt.

 

[Andysu]

way i feel about it now , immersive audio is mostly such a lie
dolby labs are in the brainwashing business last , ten no years

 

[Trdat]

Well, my friend experienced it and his response was that it was quite immersive. I was automatically thinking 9 speakers of a Genelec type quality with 4 subs with a Denon or Marantz but then the link he showed me was the Sonos. Lol.

I suppose compared to a TV it does a great job but can it beat a stereo set up if the stereo had two pristine speakers. I suppose it depends on what the goal is, for movies perhaps the immersion is good enough with the smaller speakers.

 

[kschmit2]

The Yamaha YSP-5600 sound projector does a very decent job in a room that is close to their ideal recommendation.

YSP-5600 - Overview - Yamaha USA

Never go to the movie theater again. With Dolby Atmos® and 46 speakers that project sound around your room, the YSP-5600 makes home the best theater. MusicCast streaming enabled.

usa.yamaha.com

 

[Biblob]

The Yamaha YSP-5600 sound projector does a very decent job in a room that is close to their ideal recommendation.

YSP-5600 - Overview - Yamaha USA

Never go to the movie theater again. With Dolby Atmos® and 46 speakers that project sound around your room, the YSP-5600 makes home the best theater. MusicCast streaming enabled.

usa.yamaha.com

This looks horible lol. All those speakers scream interference

 

[GXAlan]

This looks horible lol. All those speakers scream interference

Sonos is probably the most science driven speaker company today with the largest anechoic chambers dedicated to audio in the world.

The Era 300 has a ton of drivers firing in seemingly random directions but in room measurements are great for something that is simple to setup and deploy.

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/sonos-era.42236/post-1537461

You cannot beat physics, so they aren’t going to be jaw-dropping at reference levels or even reduced volume, but for the specific needs of a soundbar, they’re pretty good.

 

[DeepSthBoy]

I have an Arc soundbar, sub, two Era 300s and 4 Ones (that are darn near superfluous). The sound may be incrementally different with a better-shaped room, but I can scarcel;y wrap my head around what I AM hearing, which is amazing, vs. what I MIGHT be hearing with a different manufacturer's gear.

 

[Ongii]

Hello,
I never heard something with/in Dolby Atmos, and would like to understand what to expect, in particular for music.
Foreword: I don't like most multichannel music, because I feel it not natural to have instruments and voices all around me: when I attend a show, the musicians are in front of me, and don't move.
So... What to expect from albums mastered or upmixed in Dolby Atmos?
Gimmicks like whistles and bells as in Pink Floyd DSOTM, or something -from my point of view- much more useful like a wider and more defined front stage?
Last comment: I read Atmos albums don't suffer from compression war. Good... Could I listen to them in stereo only?


Thanks!

 

[Cbdb2]

This looks horible lol

Than get one of these.

Porsche Shop

2.1.2 Virtual surround sound system made from an original 992 GT3 exhaust system.

shop.porsche.com

Kidding.

 

[-Matt-]

Attempting to answer the OP's question...

Think of Atmos as a package (or file type) for delivering audio data.

It comes in several flavours... When you connect to a streaming service the audio playback hardware that you have will determine which stream you are offered for download (i.e. stereo or multichannel). (This is to save you from downloading multichannel data if you can't use it).

Whichever Atmos compatible playback device you are using then decides how best to render the audio for its own capabilities. So a 5.1 soundbar will convert the Atmos data stream into discrete channels in a different way to a 7.2.4 AVR. A pair of headphones may attempt to render the audio as spatial (virtual) surround or as binaural.

Another flavour of Atmos is found on Blu-Ray discs. This is similar to the multichannel streaming version but without the lossy compression.

If you have a fully featured modern AVR then the key new features relative to Dolby True HD audio are height channels and potentially metadata defined sound positions, rather than discrete channels that must be hard-coded during production.

It is supposed to simplify user experience and production so that you don't have to pick between 10 different mixes for different channel setups, and so that the producers don't have to waste time mixing these separately.

When a device specification claims Atmos compatibility, this just means that it can be used as an Atmos renderer. It doesn't tell you anything about the number of channels it has. Listening to Atmos via headphones or a soundbar will be a very different experience to listening via a fully-featured modern AVR and associated speakers.

 

[Ongii]

Thank you @-Matt- for an explanation , which I couldn't find so clear somewhere else.

 

[goat76]

Well, my friend experienced it and his response was that it was quite immersive. I was automatically thinking 9 speakers of a Genelec type quality with 4 subs with a Denon or Marantz but then the link he showed me was the Sonos. Lol.

I suppose compared to a TV it does a great job but can it beat a stereo set up if the stereo had two pristine speakers. I suppose it depends on what the goal is, for movies perhaps the immersion is good enough with the smaller speakers.

Well, it comes down to the quality of the mix, whether it's the stereo mix or the Atmos mix that is considered better than the other. It also comes down to the quality of the speaker system, whether it's the stereo system or the Atmos system that is considered better than the other. And to make it all even more complicated, it's also down to the listener's taste whether he or she prefers the one over the other for whatever reason. Which one is better is down to a lot of things.

 

[Andysu]

another rubbish atmos movie , only watched it once and it was utter boring atmos mix , overhead surrounds hardly had any use , avoid this movie atmos at all costs
i may cut it up into bits and throw it in the bin as i not re-watched it , ir certainly ain't original star wars if you know what i mean ?

 

[Yorkshire Mouth]

another rubbish atmos movie , only watched it once and it was utter boring atmos mix , overhead surrounds hardly had any use , avoid this movie atmos at all costs
i may cut it up into bits and throw it in the bin as i not re-watched it , ir certainly ain't original star wars if you know what i mean ?

View attachment 373546

It’s a smashing film.

And, leaving Atmos aside for a second, has excellent sound design.

 

[Andysu]

another rubbish dolby labs , mixers atnos trash load of fad use of overhead surrounds that are hardly used , boring movie atmos don't expect a lot , it doesn't use all of the height or top overheads it is utterly boring its like listening to paint drying on the ceiling while its dripping down onto you , avoid it

 

[goat76]

Hello,
I never heard something with/in Dolby Atmos, and would like to understand what to expect, in particular for music.
Foreword: I don't like most multichannel music, because I feel it not natural to have instruments and voices all around me: when I attend a show, the musicians are in front of me, and don't move.
So... What to expect from albums mastered or upmixed in Dolby Atmos?
Gimmicks like whistles and bells as in Pink Floyd DSOTM, or something -from my point of view- much more useful like a wider and more defined front stage?

What works and doesn't work mixing-wise depends on the type of music and what it contains when it comes to instruments, it all comes down to how tasteful the Atmos mix is and how it suits the particular music.

In my opinion...
When it comes to normal rock bands, jazz bands, and similar types of music that typically come from some kind of "naturalism" of being played by humans on a scene in front of the listeners, then I prefer the band to be mostly in front of me, and the surround channels can just be used to widen that front stage of instruments and add a sensation of room and envelopment around the listener. But when and if the music doesn't have that kind of "naturalism" I just described, I don't mind at all if the Atmos mix is more "creative" with sounds coming from all directions.

I don't have a full Atmos system, just a 5.2 system of high-quality speakers. I find some Atmos mixes add a lot to the listening experience while others sound best as a normal stereo mix, so it all depends on the quality of the mix and which one I find most tastefully done. The thing is that everything has the potential to benefit greatly from additional speakers as long as the mix is tastefully done and suits the style of music.

Last comment: I read Atmos albums don't suffer from compression war. Good... Could I listen to them in stereo only?



Thanks!

I use Tidal as my streaming platform, and they re-route the Atmos stream to the normal stereo track whenever I use a playback system that doesn't have Atmos capabilities, as is the case with my normal stereo playback system.

I have not tried it yet, but I expect the Atmos mix to be downmixed to stereo if I use my Atmos-capable Marantz receiver as the playback device, and set it to stereo output.

One of the great things about Atmos is that they require that the loudness doesn't go over -18 LUFS, the tracks will otherwise not be released if they are louder than that.