The Dolby Atmos Home Theater Paradox

How Many Speakers are You running in your Home Theater?

  • 5.1 or up to 5.4

    Votes: 108 46.8%
  • 6.1 or up to 6.4

    Votes: 6 2.6%
  • 7.1 or up to 7.4

    Votes: 70 30.3%
  • 9.1 or up to 9.4

    Votes: 20 8.7%
  • 11.1 or up to 11.4

    Votes: 15 6.5%
  • Two-Channel is where it's at!

    Votes: 12 5.2%

  • Total voters
    231
D

desertrider

Audioholic Intern
When I first read about Atmos, I felt...hmm...sounds a little gimmicky. Until I went to an Atmos theater. Then I was sold. Im in Phoenix, and lucky enough to have not only an Atmos theater but a Dolby Cinema theater as well. I agree with RBGOBLUE a few posts above mine: "...if you haven't heard dtsx or Dolby Atmos, you probably won't do it but once you hear it you will...".

Previously I was running 7.1. We sold our house in March, and are building a new house now. Im having it pre-wired for Atmos 5.1.4. Im selling my current receiver (Pioneer Elite VSX-52) and getting a Yamaha 3060 when they're released. It really is spectacular.
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
When I first read about Atmos, I felt...hmm...sounds a little gimmicky. Until I went to an Atmos theater. Then I was sold. Im in Phoenix, and lucky enough to have not only an Atmos theater but a Dolby Cinema theater as well. I agree with RBGOBLUE a few posts above mine: "...if you haven't heard dtsx or Dolby Atmos, you probably won't do it but once you hear it you will...".

Previously I was running 7.1. We sold our house in March, and are building a new house now. Im having it pre-wired for Atmos 5.1.4. Im selling my current receiver (Pioneer Elite VSX-52) and getting a Yamaha 3060 when they're released. It really is spectacular.
It is a gimmick and as I predicted, will never become mainstream, although A/V receivers will be equipped Dolby Atmos. BTW, DTS-X is just about dead. Can we say R.I.P. for DTS-X or should I wait a little longer. Optical Disc is circling the drain as a medium and I don't Dolby Atmos streaming anytime in the near or distant future.
 
KenM10759

KenM10759

Audioholic Samurai
Oh ye of little faith. Atmos works really quite good and those unknowing folks who experience it in the right theaters do walk out saying "Wow!".

It will be no more "mainstream" than higher-end audio, watches, cars or other things that select groups of enthusiasts may grasp in small numbers. That's because it requires a certain level of technical knowledge to execute the installation, and more money (for speakers and installation) than most folk deem worthwhile.

An awful lot of people are intimidated enough to hook up two speakers to a black (or silver) box. Adding a subwoofer to the mix may be beyond them, and a center speaker and surrounds is over the top. This is why Bose and other HTIB kits have been successful, it's made easy. That's not going to be the case with Atmos in the average living room.

Atmos is no gimmick, but it is technical to get working and "the masses" will never tolerate the effort it takes to make it work. Many would spend the money, far fewer would spend the time.
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
Oh ye of little faith. Atmos works really quite good and those unknowing folks who experience it in the right theaters do walk out saying "Wow!".

It will be no more "mainstream" than higher-end audio, watches, cars or other things that select groups of enthusiasts may grasp in small numbers. That's because it requires a certain level of technical knowledge to execute the installation, and more money (for speakers and installation) than most folk deem worthwhile.

An awful lot of people are intimidated enough to hook up two speakers to a black (or silver) box. Adding a subwoofer to the mix may be beyond them, and a center speaker and surrounds is over the top. This is why Bose and other HTIB kits have been successful, it's made easy. That's not going to be the case with Atmos in the average living room.

Atmos is no gimmick, but it is technical to get working and "the masses" will never tolerate the effort it takes to make it work. Many would spend the money, far fewer would spend the time.
OK, let's not call it it a gimmick, you don't like that word. How about a "flash n the Pan" here today, gone tomorrow. You do realize that 90% of Dolby Atmos installed A/V receivers are still running 5.1? BTW, I got that number from Gene DeSalla. Hardware like Dolby Atmos equipped A/V receivers isn't the problem, its the software. As I said before, optical disc is circling the drain, from my observation its on its way out as mass market medium and streaming is the future. BTW, streaming is inferior to optical disc. I don't see, if ever, Dolby Atmos streaming. I know there are more and more disc with Dolby Atmos, still a drop in the bucket in comparison to the overall number of movies on optical disc. I don't see the studios going back and remastering old movies with Dolby Atmos soundtracks like they did previously with 5.1.

Also, it might be cool for theaters, that's where I think it belongs, but not for the home, its just not practical. Many people have dual purpose rooms that just won't allow them to set up a Dolby Atmos system. Setting up Dolby Atmos in the home and doing it right must very difficult and challenging. I heard a demo of Dolby Atmos Best Buy, I haven't gone to the cinema to watch a movie presented in Dolby Atmos since there's only about 2-3 theaters in my region equipped with Dolby Atmos playback. I just don't think its catching on even in the cinema like Dolby might have thought.
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
There is no ear level sound at my local theater. The lowest speakers are 10 feet high. So, Atmos consists for height and overhead. Honestly, the most important sound comes from the center channel.

The most important improvement has been the reclining leather seats and assigned seating purchased in advanced from MovieTickets.com.

- Rich
 
R

RBGOBLUE

Audioholic Intern
No way you just haven't heard a good one I have 7.2.2 people that heard my system that are in the business are blown away .With the Marantz 8802 a processor ATI amps, it's simply amazing I used to just run 7.1

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk
 
D

desertrider

Audioholic Intern
It is a gimmick and as I predicted, will never become mainstream, although A/V receivers will be equipped Dolby Atmos. BTW, DTS-X is just about dead. Can we say R.I.P. for DTS-X or should I wait a little longer. Optical Disc is circling the drain as a medium and I don't Dolby Atmos streaming anytime in the near or distant future.
Mainstream as in, in the majority of people's homes? I can agree with that. Look at 5.1. The majority of homes today at best use a soundbar. So in that sense, 5.1 is a gimmick too. But Atmos isnt going anywhere.
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
Mainstream as in, in the majority of people's homes? I can agree with that. Look at 5.1. The majority of homes today at best use a soundbar. So in that sense, 5.1 is a gimmick too. But Atmos isnt going anywhere.
Before 5.1 people had pro-logic home theater systems, so there was no need to overhaul your speaker system, all you needed was the software and a Dolby Digital A/V receiver. First there was Laser Discs, they were Dolby AC-3 encoded (some were DTS encoded), back then, you couldn't have Dolby 5.1 playback unless you owned a laser disc player and some titles on laser disc. Laser Disc players were expensive and laser disc movies were expensive, like $50.00 each, they never went mainstream. Laser Disc players and Laser disc movies eventually ended up as a niche product, only found for the most part, in high-end stores. Dolby 5.1 would have died, but then came DVD which exploded and became the most successful consumer electronics product ever and Dolby 5.1/AC-3 became the standard audio format for DVD.

DVD Players, after the first generation, became widespread and affordable and even offered better picture quality than Laser Disc. Dolby 5.1 became mainstream in the advent of the world wide success of DVD. After DVD, came Blu Ray, Blu Ray is successful, but not as successful as DVD, DVD still sales more than Blu Ray. I know that's hard for some enthusiast to believe or accept, because Blu Ray is so superior to DVD. Dolby Atmos is reliant upon the long term viability of Blu Ray as medium. However, streaming has surpassed to sales of Blu Ray and DVD and threatens to make optical disc obsolete, unfortunately so because Blu Ray is, in my opinion, superior to streaming content. Now Dolby Atmos is piggybacking off of the Blu Ray format while the Blu Ray format is a sinking ship. So how is Dolby Atmos viable? Why would anyone invest in A/V receiver, extra speakers, subwoofers, even to a degree, retrofitting a room for Dolby Atmos when the future doesn't look bright for home Dolby Atmos? Unless you tell me we're going to see 11.2 channels of audio streaming.

I'm telling you, I've been in this hobby for awhile, I've seen formats come and go and some die on the vine. Look, people thought that 3D TV was going to be the next great consumer electronic success, but it failed. I own a 3D TV, I have few 3D Blu Rays, I have yet to experience streamed 3D movies. Also, 3D movies are few and often $10-12 dollars more than the 2D versions, which in my opinion, hurt the viability of 3D TV as a consumer electronics success. I have heard that some TV manufacturers are dropping support for 3D TV, not even included it on their new 4K displays.

I don't think we will ever see Dolby Atmos in homes to the level of 5.1. I don't understand it, most people can't even get two channel right and they want to jump to 7.4, 11.2 etc.
 
Steve81

Steve81

Audioholics Five-0
Dolby Atmos is reliant upon the long term viability of Blu Ray as medium.
Not so. In addition to being encoded within Dolby TrueHD tracks for Blu-ray, Atmos can be encoded into Dolby Digital Plus tracks for streaming. According to Dolby, both Netflix and Amazon offer some streaming titles in Atmos, though it may not be a significant number at this time.
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
The Netflix Daredevil series has some of the best sound design and dynamics I have heard in my home. It is lossy but excellent. I am sure that an Atmos system would sound very good with sources like this.

Of course, not with an Apple TV since they insist on decoding DD+ to PCM. ARGGHH.

For me, there is not a snow-balls chance in hell that I am going to install Atmos; There are too many obstacles - WAF, un-even ceiling, amps, and a general lack of interest. I went for quality over quantity. :p

- Rich
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
The Netflix Daredevil series has some of the best sound design and dynamics I have heard in my home. It is lossy but excellent. I am sure that an Atmos system would sound very good with sources like this.

Of course, not with an Apple TV since they insist on decoding DD+ to PCM. ARGGHH.

For me, there is not a snow-balls chance in hell that I am going to install Atmos; There are too many obstacles - WAF, un-even ceiling, amps, and a general lack of interest. I went for quality over quantity. :p

- Rich
Agreed Daredevil sounds fabulous on Netflix. I wish they had more than 13 episodes/season. What the hell is that?

AppleTV doesn't pass DD+ as a bitstream? I know my Amazon FireTV does. Maybe check your settings again?
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
AppleTV doesn't pass DD+ as a bitstream? I know my Amazon FireTV does. Maybe check your settings again?
The Apple TV 4 supports down-converting standard Dolby Digital or output as PCM. The Oppo BPD-10x(D) players and TiVo Roamio all pass the DD+ stream.

I doubt this is a hardware restriction, but sometimes Apple makes aircraft carriers look nimble. :D

- Rich
 
Last edited:
BlwnAway

BlwnAway

Audioholic
Regardless of if it becomes mainstream in the home or not, it's not a flash-in-the-pan, immersive audio is here to stay, and those of us who have embraced it have many hours of superior enjoyment ahead, whether it be native Atmos or upmixed.
 
DJWPAR3

DJWPAR3

Audioholic Intern
While Atmos is NOT an easy setup, it's not really that complicated either. I think it will thrive because it IS that good. My system is 5.1.4 and the 4k disks in Atmos really impress me. Yes the rollout is slow, but Atmos capability is even spreading to soundbars and LCR speakers....that kind of exposure puts filmakers on alert. It's what people want. Be patient. Not everyone will have the luxury of a 7.1.4 or better, but more and more are finally ditching their TV speakers for better sound.
I think that the people on this forum, because they appreciate quality, have an obligation to help others, by exposing them to this advance.
Yes, when the entire industry thrives, speakers, players, filmakers etc....we all benefit.
My friends and relatives walk away after hearing and seeing my system- and ALL say, "guess it's time to upgrade".
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
Sound bars can make sense. Surround and 3d sound from sound-bars, not so much. :)

- Rich
 
BlwnAway

BlwnAway

Audioholic
Sound bars can make sense. Surround and 3d sound from sound-bars, not so much. :)

- Rich
True, but since when did making sense rule out over "look at the new thing" when it comes to mainstream consumers...:D
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
True, but since when did making sense rule out over "look at the new thing" when it comes to mainstream consumers...:D
Sales person:

Would you like our standard soundbar, surround soundbar, or this one here which is surround plus height for a full-3D surround soundbar.​

Buyer:

I'll take two of those 3D ones :)

- Rich
 
M

Methodical

Audioholic
Audoholic President and Vice President of Marketing didn't seem too thrilled about this in some of their earlier videos ('12 and'14). How do they feel about it now? Have they been won over by this new get up?

Thanks
 
RichB

RichB

Audioholic Field Marshall
There are technical reasons to be dubious of up-firing (bouncy) speakers.
It is also notable that most in-home systems are 5.1 and never made it to 7.1 or greater.

This is no disputing that Atmos and DTS-X with overhead speakers can provide a great experience.

IMO, the up-firing tech and over- marketing of fully-object speak that drew huge distinctions between channel based and channel beds that required some reality checking.

- Rich
 
Auditor55

Auditor55

Audioholic General
Not so. In addition to being encoded within Dolby TrueHD tracks for Blu-ray, Atmos can be encoded into Dolby Digital Plus tracks for streaming. According to Dolby, both Netflix and Amazon offer some streaming titles in Atmos, though it may not be a significant number at this time.
Please, you're being overly optimistic here. How many movies are streamed in 7.1? Are you telling me that they never offered 7.1 and now their going to jump to 11.1, I don't buy what Netflix or Amazon is saying. I have Amazon Prime and I have yet to see a movie offered in 7.1 or Dolby Atmos. BTW, a great majority of their movies are still stereo.

Also, the 5.1 audio that is streamed is sub-par.
 

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