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This isn't about my HT preferences, it is only a thread to see what the view is about the future of Atmos.
I could argue for page after page about various speaker types and dispersion characteristics.
None of this is new, I was experimenting with in ceiling surrounds speakers 14 years go (see AudioEnz).
So for me I get it. Really, I do.
In 2003 I was enjoying a simulated helicopter going overhead and rain that appeared to come from the ceiling. I get it.
So finally Dolby introduce a ceiling surround system and the platform of playback has shifted again.
Here is what I wrote about dipoles back in 2003:
"The objective is to retrieve *without alteration or colouration* the information that is on the soundtrack.
This analogy still works for me: An envelope is to a letter what the HT speaker system is to a soundtrack. It is merely a means of delivery.
If your HT system interferes with the signal as created by the soundtrack engineer, that is distortion."
Dolby is in no doubt about the issue:
“Dolby has found by using Dipoles at home in a discrete digital system gives you too much diffusion on what is a completely discrete signal. We have found that dipoles disperse the image such that it is utterly directionless, seemingly everywhere at once which is not desired because the mixer has control of the signal placement when he does the mix .” (Mix magazine on “Multichannel replay” as taken from the Dolby press conference at AES 2002)."
So come forward to 2017 and we now have object based surround that requires an neutral platform that allows precise FX placement within 'the bubble'. So you add dipoles that smear rather than steer detail in to this mix? Really?
Anyway..look I am interested in opinions on Atmos as viable surround format, not the technicalities because I think I knew where this is all headed.
So, are there more titles crossing genres coming out or are they primarily Hollywood films?
Sony 77" A80J OLED, Integra 60.7, Panasonic UB820, Toshiba HD-XE1, Apple TV 4K, JBL L100T,JBL 18Ti, JBL L20T, Velodyne HGS15
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One way that Atmos might make it easier for casual installs is with two additions:
1) Active wireless speakers that clip to the ceiling like fire alarms (see pic example) - do they exist from any current speaker company?
2) Add-on Atmos decoders. These may never appear as the companies have too much to gain by the upgrade chain from 5.1/7.1 receivers to Atmos receivers.
Maxcat:One way that Atmos might make it easier for casual installs is with two additions:
1) Active wireless speakers that clip to the ceiling like fire alarms (see pic example) - do they exist from any current speaker company?
2) Add-on Atmos decoders. These may never appear as the companies have too much to gain by the upgrade chain from 5.1/7.1 receivers to Atmos receivers.
rokki:Maxcat:
One way that Atmos might make it easier for casual installs is with two additions:
1) Active wireless speakers that clip to the ceiling like fire alarms (see pic example) - do they exist from any current speaker company?
2) Add-on Atmos decoders. These may never appear as the companies have too much to gain by the upgrade chain from 5.1/7.1 receivers to Atmos receivers.
Hi Max I am not entirely sure you know how Atmos or DTS X works I don't believe their could ever be an Add on Atmos decoder.
The source material has to have the Atmos track embedded in it then you need a Reciever to recognise it and be able to send the object based sound to the appropriate area. As Dunnersfella said it is not a channel system it is attempting to put a specific sound into specific place in relation to your ears.
I have a 7.1.2 based system and love it. Some movies have a more in your face approach others a more subtle it all depends what the Director/Sound Engineer want you to experience.
Just my 2 cents worth.
I have read the same Dolby info as everyone else. I have to say the object based branding is (as another reviewer put it..) somewhat 'nebulous' to put it mildly.
However, the key issue for me and many others is the success of the Atmos format. There are many barriers to it gaining traction, not the least of which is the issue of ease of install in existing systems.
I thought one way this might be possible is to add a decoder with a simple HDMI pass-through option routed through the add-on Atmos device and then to the main receiver processing. The add-on decoder would have wireless RF/Bluetooth to the ceiling speakers which are active.
In this way both the receiver and add-on work together to create the 'object based' soundfield - only this time all done in the digital domain.
In so doing it may provide a cheap add-on just as my Dolby Surround processor and the early Yamaha DSP units (1985) and Pro-Logic and DD/DTS units did in the 1990s.
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