Why am I so underwhelmed with Atmos/DTS-X?

[Auditor55]

You mean like you?
Btw. A video about “bad mixes” means what for the format as a whole?
Again. What is your experience level? Or are you gonna sidestep? Again…

Also. Pretty sure the guy in your video is from Auro. Wow. Great case you’ve made.

I'm not an expert and never claimed to be one. I'm just a consumer and A/V enthusiast. Just giving my two cents like everyone else. You can agree or disagree, that's what makes these forums go.

The bad mixes are part of the reason some consumers might be disappointed with their home Atmos experience.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Locked in your CC? You mean center channel? Sorry, I think you misunderstood.

Check out min 2:55 of the demo, when his voice is in the center of the room, basically at the main listen position, in between the top and lower layers. The sound should not be located in your center speaker. I assume his voice should be literally next you. Instead, for me, his voice just sounds like it is everywhere and nowhere at once. That’s not what I expected from 3D sound.

The good news is I DO get sound located directly above me. That makes me think there is a problem with a track on Dolby’s demo disc, I think it is called “Amazed”. During the rain, I hear nothing directly above my head and it drive me nuts!!! Now I’m thinking, did Dolby play 4 DIFFERENT rain tracks for each atmos speaker? No, they wouldn’t be that dumb, would they? If the 4 top speakers are play 4 different (not identical) rain sounds, then of course there would be no sound directly above, right? Man, either I’m way wrong, or that demo track is crap.

Which demo do you mean? Afaik in the second one I linked he basically illustrates by moving his voice from speaker to speaker stopping in between. There shouldn’t anything in room except a diagonal pan from RTF down to the center. The first link has in room stuff but I haven’t tried it yet. Yo say his voice sounds like it’s everywhere. That sounds like a speaker is out of phase.
On the road again. I’ll check in later.

 

[SFS]

Overcoming Problems with Bad Immersive Audio Mixes

Watch this video. If you would like, you fast forward to the 17 minutes where the position of speakers is addressed.

This was helpful too. It confirms that placement does matter, and some mixes are bad. I’m glad they confirmed star wars and MCU sound like crap… so it’s not just me.

 

[Auditor55]

Locked in your CC? You mean center channel? Sorry, I think you misunderstood.

Check out min 2:55 of the demo, when his voice is in the center of the room, basically at the main listen position, in between the top and lower layers. The sound should not be located in your center speaker. I assume his voice should be literally next you. Instead, for me, his voice just sounds like it is everywhere and nowhere at once. That’s not what I expected from 3D sound.

The good news is I DO get sound located directly above me. That makes me think there is a problem with a track on Dolby’s demo disc, I think it is called “Amazed”. During the rain, I hear nothing directly above my head and it drives me nuts!!! Now I’m thinking, did Dolby play 4 DIFFERENT rain tracks for each atmos speaker? No, they wouldn’t be that dumb, would they? If the 4 top speakers are playing 4 different (not identical) rain sounds, then of course there would be no sound directly above, right? Man, either I’m way wrong, or that demo track is crap.

Are your height channels (top) turned up enough to hear them? Are they putting out any sounds at all?

 

[SFS]

Which demo do you mean? Afaik in the second one I linked he basically illustrates by moving his voice from speaker to speaker stopping in between. There shouldn’t anything in room except a diagonal pan from RTF down to the center. The first link has in room stuff but I haven’t tried it yet. Yo say his voice sounds like it’s everywhere. That sounds like a speaker is out of phase.
On the road again. I’ll check in later.

I mean the demo you sent. See the attached screen shot of the moment I’m talking about. See the green ball in the dead center of the room. On your system, where exactly do you hear his voice at that moment?

Could it be out of phase at only that moment? Everything thing else is pretty accurate.

 

[SFS]

Are your height channels (top) turned up enough to hear them? Are they putting out any sounds at all?

Yes and yes. Levels calibrated then confirmed with sound pressure meter, all channels same dB.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You know the saying - "If it's too loud, you're too old"? Well that's not true.

What is true is the statement - "If something GOOD sounds bad, your system sucks".

So if people are saying that some Atmos soundtracks sound great, but it doesn't sound great in your system, then either your system is not set up correctly or it sucks.

 

[Trebdp83]

This guy is angry and takes this stuff too personal.

You would use the adverb “personally” here to end the sentence rather than the adjective “personal.” Somebody didn’t watch enough “School House Rock.” “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here…”

 

[SFS]

You know the saying - "If it's too loud, you're too old"? Well that's not true.

What is true is the statement - "If something GOOD sounds bad, your system sucks".

So if people are saying that some Atmos soundtracks sound great, but it doesn't sound great in your system, then either your system is not set up correctly or it sucks.

true. I’m starting to think I have been using really bad demo material, including Dolby’s own demos. That German guy in the video also criticized one of the tracks on Dolby’s demo disc… drove him nutsI think. And I think that is actually one of the better tracks on the disc.

As a side point, if most content sucks, then what’s the point? To be fair, it doesn’t SUCK, it’s just not meeting (high) expectations.

I gave up being an audiophile for largely the same reason. I discovered that most recordings sucked. My library ended up with a bunch of music that sounded really good, but I didn't really like enough to listen to very often, so what’s the point. Anyway, I digress.

if your system is too good, then only really good stuff sounds good. Bad stuff sounds even worse. And if most stuff is bad, it’s a lonely place to be.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I mean the demo you sent. See the attached screen shot of the moment I’m talking about. See the green ball in the dead center of the room. On your system, where exactly do you hear his voice at that moment?

Could it be out of phase at only that moment? Everything thing else is pretty accurate.

Ok. I got two seconds.
I actually posted two videos. The screenshot you have here is from the video I haven’t tried yet. The second one linked is the one I thought you were talking about. I will download and test the new one tonight.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

As a side point, if most content sucks, then what’s the point?

I think it's like saying, "If most movies and TV shows suck, then what's the point? If most music suck, then what's the point?"

There are 2 points.

1. We know how AWESOME the great ones are, whether it's music, movies, TV shows or Atmos soundtracks. So we know how awesome they perform in our system.

2. We continue to search for the great ones and trash the bad ones.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Yes and yes. Levels calibrated then confirmed with sound pressure meter, all channels same dB.

Also. On my system, with the “Amaze” demo I do get good rain sounds from above and all over. I would definitely try bumping the tops up a couple db.

 

[SFS]

Also. On my system, with the “Amaze” demo I do get good rain sounds from above and all over. I would definitely try bumping the tops up a couple db.

Ok, that’s really helpful. I should trying Amaze normally, then try it again with entire ground level turned off. If there is a difference in the upper imaging, then there must be some sort of interference between the upper and lower levels. I’m no sound engineer but someone in another forum said this can be an issue (so it must be true, right? Lol)

 

[SFS]

So I did some more testing. I’m not sensing any interference between the lower and upper layers. But I’m wondering if 2 (not all 4) of the top speakers need a volume boost.

Even though my 4 top speakers are leveled and confirmed with a sound pressure meter, the imaging seems to be pulled behind me… it’s overhead, but behind me. So I increased front top row 2dB. I think is might be pulling the image more to the middle. There is a lot going in the Amaze demo, so it’s hard to tell. I like that YouTube demo you posted because it isolates a single voice so you can pin point any issues. I’m feeling more optimistic now, thanks… even if it’s the placebo effect

 

[Auditor55]

You would use the adverb “personally” here to end the sentence rather than the adjective “personal.” Somebody didn’t watch enough “School House Rock.” “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here…”

Wow, and I'm using Grammarly software!!

 

[Auditor55]

So I did some more testing. I’m not sensing any interference between the lower and upper layers. But I’m wondering if 2 (not all 4) of the top speakers need a volume boost.

Even though my 4 top speakers are leveled and confirmed with a sound pressure meter, the imaging seems to be pulled behind me… it’s overhead, but behind me. So I increased front top row 2dB. I think is might be pulling the image more to the middle. There is a lot going in the Amaze demo, so it’s hard to tell. I like that YouTube demo you posted because it isolates a single voice so you can pin point any issues. I’m feeling more optimistic now, thanks… even if it’s the placebo effect