5 Reasons Dolby Atmos May Be DOA

[Auditor55]

Putting in ceiling speakers when the wall is open is not a big deal. I recently added a family room addition with a vaulted ceiling to my old house. The room is reasonably well suited to 7.1.4 so I added in ceiling speakers and wiring for surrounds.

The downside, which I hadn't thought through, is now I need to power 11 speakers. Whoops. I think I'll wait a couple of months and see if Denon refreshes their high end models.

Why? Denon supposedly gives true power rating to their higher end receivers, so no external amplification is really necessary. Why not just get an eleven channel receiver?

 

[VonMagnum]

If you like throwing your money down the drain, go 11 powered. It's far cheaper to go 9 powered with one external amp. There are two channel amps good enough for surround or height for around $60.

 

[dzzmiller]

Why? Denon supposedly gives true power rating to their higher end receivers, so no external amplification is really necessary. Why not just get an eleven channel receiver?

I ended up buying the X3600H (9 channels powered) and I am using some older amps to power the front channels and zone 2.

Surprisingly my 35 year old Nikko Alpha II amp still works. The cost of 7.1.4 wasn't as bad as I expected. Not I need to figure out if I should connect my sources to the TV or the reciever.

 

[panteragstk]

I ended up buying the X3600H (9 channels powered) and I am using some older amps to power the front channels and zone 2.

Surprisingly my 35 year old Nikko Alpha II amp still works. The cost of 7.1.4 wasn't as bad as I expected. Not I need to figure out if I should connect my sources to the TV or the reciever.

Receiver. Always receiver.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Receiver. Always receiver.

Yes. Agreed.

Receiver. Always receiver.

 

[snakeeyes]

Yes. Agreed.

Receiver. Always receiver.

Not sure what TV but only concern is if Samsung 4K HDR10+ format or if anything 8K format. Those would be an issue on 2019 AVRs. These both will get support in the 2020 gear. (Yamaha announced already, so 99.9% Denon/Marantz as well).

 

[panteragstk]

Not sure what TV but only concern is if Samsung 4K HDR10+ format or if anything 8K format. Those would be an issue on 2019 AVRs. These both will get support in the 2020 gear. (Yamaha announced already, so 99.9% Denon/Marantz as well).

Gotta have a source that supports it or if t doesn't matter. It's my understanding that at this time there isn't any of that content. If I'm wrong a source would be neat to see.

 

[snakeeyes]

Gotta have a source that supports it or if t doesn't matter. It's my understanding that at this time there isn't any of that content. If I'm wrong a source would be neat to see.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the tech but there are 4K Panasonic players that can play 4K HDR10+ content that cannot pass through current AVRs to the TV. You could certainly run audio to AVR and Video separately, direct to the TV. Any Samsung TV owner with HDR10+ might want that.

As far as 8k, there’s no content yet I’m aware of but there eventually may be some at some point and 8K video would need to go through HDMI 2.1 and those AVRs aren’t available yet. 8k today is more of an upscaling than a format with native content

If anything can be done in software, that’s news to me.

Technology certainly changes and there’s no sense in never buying but we are soon to see both of these features in the 2020 Yamahas in June or so. There’s links to it on this forum. I would probably assume the other manufacturers will have the same.

Yamaha thread here.

Yamaha 2020 Receiver line up (HDMI 2.1 - Full 8K support)

Yamaha has new look in 2020 receivers! Lot of questions in mind after seeing these. Hope we get some more information soon! Aventage serie RX-A8 (11 channel) RX-A6 (9 channel) RX-A4 (7 channel) RX-A2 (7 channel) Normal serie RX-V6 (7 channel) RX-V4 (5 channel) Source...

forums.audioholics.com

And the link goes to source here:

Yamaha 2020 Serie vorgestellt m. 8K HDMI 2.1, Yamaha - HIFI-FORUM

Nun ist es raus - 2020er Series Modelle - ganz neues Design: 985304 985305 985306 Aventage RX-A8 (11 channel) RX-A6 (9 channel) RX-A4 (7 channel) RX-

www.hifi-forum.de

 

[panteragstk]

Maybe I’m misunderstanding the tech but there are 4K Panasonic players that can play 4K HDR10+ content that cannot pass through current AVRs to the TV. You could certainly run audio to AVR and Video separately, direct to the TV. Any Samsung TV owner with HDR10+ might want that.

As far as 8k, there’s no content yet I’m aware of but there eventually may be some at some point and 8K video would need to go through HDMI 2.1 and those AVRs aren’t available yet. 8k today is more of an upscaling than a format with native content

If anything can be done in software, that’s news to me.

Technology certainly changes and there’s no sense in never buying but we are soon to see both of these features in the 2020 Yamahas in June or so. There’s links to it on this forum. I would probably assume the other manufacturers will have the same.

Yamaha thread here.

Yamaha 2020 Receiver line up (HDMI 2.1 - Full 8K support)

Yamaha has new look in 2020 receivers! Lot of questions in mind after seeing these. Hope we get some more information soon! Aventage serie RX-A8 (11 channel) RX-A6 (9 channel) RX-A4 (7 channel) RX-A2 (7 channel) Normal serie RX-V6 (7 channel) RX-V4 (5 channel) Source...

forums.audioholics.com

And the link goes to source here:

Yamaha 2020 Serie vorgestellt m. 8K HDMI 2.1, Yamaha - HIFI-FORUM

Nun ist es raus - 2020er Series Modelle - ganz neues Design: 985304 985305 985306 Aventage RX-A8 (11 channel) RX-A6 (9 channel) RX-A4 (7 channel) RX-

www.hifi-forum.de

Yeah, I get what you're saying, I just didn't think any HDR10+ or 8K content was out there yet so it kinda sorta doesn't matter yet.

Looks like Amazon has HDR10+ content, but it apparently doesn't differentiate between that and plain old HDR10 in their list of titles/formats.

That and the fact that the HDR10 standard brightness is 1000 nits (which a lot of TVs aren't even capable of) then HDR10+ 4000 nits is pointless.

So, if you have a source and display capable of HDR10+ then plug them into the TV. Other than that Receiver.

Thanks for the links. Learned something new today.

 

[snakeeyes]

Yeah, I get what you're saying, I just didn't think any HDR10+ or 8K content was out there yet so it kinda sorta doesn't matter yet.

Looks like Amazon has HDR10+ content, but it apparently doesn't differentiate between that and plain old HDR10 in their list of titles/formats.

That and the fact that the HDR10 standard brightness is 1000 nits (which a lot of TVs aren't even capable of) then HDR10+ 4000 nits is pointless.

So, if you have a source and display capable of HDR10+ then plug them into the TV. Other than that Receiver.

Thanks for the links. Learned something new today.

Ya there are also some UHD Blu-rays with 4K HDR10+

Here’s a link:

List of UHDs that contain HDR10+ - Blu-ray Forum

List of UHDs that contain HDR10+ 4K Blu-ray and 4K Movies

forum.blu-ray.com

 

[panteragstk]

Ya there are also some UHD Blu-rays with 4K HDR10+

Here’s a link:

List of UHDs that contain HDR10+ - Blu-ray Forum

List of UHDs that contain HDR10+ 4K Blu-ray and 4K Movies

forum.blu-ray.com

Man this lack of standardization is annoying.

 

[dzzmiller]

I'm about a week into 7.1.4 in a new room. The $20 D&M equalizer app certainly improved the experience today.

I suspect I would have had about equal enjoyment going to 5.1.2. But I'm too lazy to experiment.

I've used Denon/Marantz for two decades. I don't know why the crappy interface and documentation still surprises me. Why zone 2 plays in some modes but not others is a mystery. Why the sub doesn't have a signal in stereo mode is a mystery.

 

[panteragstk]

I'm about a week into 7.1.4 in a new room. The $20 D&M equalizer app certainly improved the experience today.

I suspect I would have had about equal enjoyment going to 5.1.2. But I'm too lazy to experiment.

I've used Denon/Marantz for two decades. I don't know why the crappy interface and documentation still surprises me. Why zone 2 plays in some modes but not others is a mystery. Why the sub doesn't have a signal in stereo mode is a mystery.

There is a separate stereo setup on my 4300h when doing the speaker setup. Does yours have that too?

 

[dzzmiller]

There is a separate stereo setup on my 4300h when doing the speaker setup. Does yours have that too?

Thanks. I found that I had the sub set to LFE only. So the sub is on now in stereo mode.

What I still don't like is that I don't seem to have control of when the reciever will use all 11 main channels and cut out zone 2. I would like to tell the receiver to do a real 5.1 and leave zone 2 on.

If there is an actual Atmos signal I'm fine with the recceiver cutting out zone 2.

 

[panteragstk]

Thanks. I found that I had the sub set to LFE only. So the sub is on now in stereo mode.

What I still don't like is that I don't seem to have control of when the reciever will use all 11 main channels and cut out zone 2. I would like to tell the receiver to do a real 5.1 and leave zone 2 on.

If there is an actual Atmos signal I'm fine with the recceiver cutting out zone 2.

Not going to be much help there. I don't use multiple zone capability on any of my receivers.