Auro 3D speaker dilema

J

Jack N

Audioholic
Posted this on another forum but didn't get any answers so I thought I'd try here.

I’m in the process of building a dedicated home theater in my basement and would like to have all 3 major formats of immersive sound. 7.2.4 Atmos/DTSX will fit, however a major HVAC duct that feeds over ½ the house (really can’t be moved) is right smack dab in the way for the Auro 3D VOG speaker. For the VOG speaker, would it work to pair one left and one right overhead Atmos speakers together to simulate a single speaker? Any other ideas?
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Jack, are you in the US? Auro is basically dead in the water here. I wouldn’t bother with it personally. Also, I think the Auro renderer will do something like you suggested and use the 4 overheads to phantom image a single “vog” point source.
 
J

Jack N

Audioholic
Thanks for the renderer info.

I've wanted to incorporate Auro into the theater since it's inception but thought about skipping it when this problem cropped up. I know Auro isn't very big here, but every now and then I read something about it making slow but steady progress. At any rate, from everyone who's had the luxury of hearing both formats say Auro sounds noticeably better so that's got my curiosity up.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
The biggest proponent for Auro that I know of on AH is @VonMagnum. His setup is not conventional but he has spent a lot of time with each format and can probably help with your questions.
 
Last edited:
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
You could run parallel mono too (one in front of the duct and one behind it). I thought about doing that myself for "Top Middle" (I have surround height running top middle with a switchbox and it's right up against a steel beam box for the house so my front/rear heights are higher than the "top middle/surround height" speaker. It's not really noticeable (slight difference in height in the middle perhaps for some sounds that are more in focus). I mean ideally, following Auro's diagrams, you'd want the VOG speaker like 10 feet above the side heights to give it a different 3D perspective, but that's just not realistic, IMO. Having them at the same height doesn't really do anything different. It'd just be a center middle height speaker in effect. But given the lack of Auro-3D content, I don't know that it matters.

I went with that configuration because I already had my Dolby Digital/DTS "surround" speakers mounted there already and didn't want to move them. I just added speakers below for bed level and called it a day. I connected a switchbox so I can use "surround height" or an extracted "top middle" (the latter can also be used with Auro-3D by extracting the same middle from front/rear height with Auro-3D movies as well. All my testing shows similar results playing Auro-3D movies extended that way that sound more like Atmos and using a 5.1.4 config with Atmos material sounds more like Auro-3D (using the same speakers). I think it's almost a myth there's any real difference at all between them in those configurations. It's the speaker configuration that sounds "different" not the signal feeding it, IMO (at least for 5.1.4 and 7.1.4. I'm sure Atmos/X would be more interesting than Auro-3D with 30+ speakers. But then those locations are really just extending the size of the overall rectangle anyway (i.e. for larger rooms). But then you could array speakers and get a similar effect, just with "larger images" perhaps. It's hard enough to find good content as it is without worrying about it, IMO.
 
ellisr63

ellisr63

Full Audioholic
You could build a bracket or box that extends to each side of the duct, and the suspend the speaker from it.

I am with you on Auro3d... I this is going to get more popular all over the world very soon, and even if it doesn't AURO3D is supposed to sound better on umpiring anyway.

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Auro-3D is dead, IMO. The combination of slow moving on their part to secure BD disc manufacturing using it plus holding back on 13.1 (even 11-channel AVRs should have the OPTION to use rear surrounds instead of CH/TS as rear surrounds are vastly more common than otherwise non-existent CH/TS) and only TWO movies ever released in 13.1 killed it before it began. I love the music format with dual-quad mikes, but there's very little of that either and mostly jazz, orchestral and chamber music.... oh boy. There hasn't been a single major release on Blu-Ray the past year. Not one. I'd love to see them pull a hail mary, but I just don't see it happening when DTS:X can use the same layout and with DTS:X Pro will have 30.2 speakers to play with in any combination you want.

I've got 10 movies plus a demo disc in Auro-3D (wasn't easy getting that many, even; I had to buy them all from Europe and Australia) and other than Red Tails, there aren't any others that aren't also available in Atmos with more channels available. You're basically doing 5.1.4 with Auro 9 and two extra odd channels with 10 and 11. 13 adds rear surrounds, but then you either move surround height to the back or copy it. There's no support for separate middle and rear unless you create your own like I have with "scatmos" (Pro Logic extracting a channel in-between). Most if not all those movies use an Atmos master so small wonder they sound identical to Atmos in 5.1.4 playback.

Now the dual quad mike recordings are neat (very holographic), but there's no reason Atmos or X couldn't have recordings done that way, really. They just don't, unfortunately.
 
Last edited:
J

Jack N

Audioholic
I apologize for taking so long to reply. I work a ton of hours so that doesn't leave hardly any time for fun stuff.

Thanks for all the info. It's both interesting and depressing at the same time. I think I'll wire for Auro too but hold off on buying any speakers until I see more availability of media.

Thanks again.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
I apologize for taking so long to reply. I work a ton of hours so that doesn't leave hardly any time for fun stuff.

Thanks for all the info. It's both interesting and depressing at the same time. I think I'll wire for Auro too but hold off on buying any speakers until I see more availability of media.

Thanks again.
No worries! Forum time is different than real time lol.

Wiring definitely won’t hurt. Ya just never know... although I wouldn’t hold your breath for content. FWIW though, Atmos and dtsx are great(mostly) and DSU and dtsnx can make older films awesome as well.
 
ellisr63

ellisr63

Full Audioholic
I apologize for taking so long to reply. I work a ton of hours so that doesn't leave hardly any time for fun stuff.

Thanks for all the info. It's both interesting and depressing at the same time. I think I'll wire for Auro too but hold off on buying any speakers until I see more availability of media.

Thanks again.
You can always wire for Auro3d, and use it for Atmos until you get a Auro3d unit...that is what I am doing now.

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
How much content is out there that supports Auro3D right now anyway? Agree there's no harm in wiring for it or if the same configuration of speakers works for Atmos tho.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
How much content is out there that supports Auro3D right now anyway? Agree there's no harm in wiring for it or if the same configuration of speakers works for Atmos tho.
Basically all, which is very little is available from the UK. I’m afraid it’s never gonna get much traction
 
J

Jack N

Audioholic
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it does. I'm wiring for it but probably won't buy speakers for it until more headway is made. Not only that, but buying so many speakers all at the same time would put a serious hurt on the pocketbook.
 
ellisr63

ellisr63

Full Audioholic
A friend of mine has Auro3D, and Atmos...he listens to all with Auro.3d, and he says it sounds much better than Atmos. I have heard this from many others too.

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
A friend of mine has Auro3D, and Atmos...he listens to all with Auro.3d, and he says it sounds much better than Atmos. I have heard this from many others too.

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk
I’ve seen more often that on native content people reported the soundtracks to sound almost the same. Then I’ve seen where two guys, one with an Auro based system, and one with a trinnov powered Atmos system(it’s like 11.2.6 I think) watched the same film, that had both versions, and reported two different outcomes. The Auro owner preferred that track and the Atmos owner preferred that as well. I’m sure it had much to do with listening to soundtracks made for each respective system too. My point is that there’s a great deal of subjectivity, and system anomalies and setup differences and expectational bias that ya just can’t tell. Problem is, it’s not like you can go listen to a bunch of people’s systems, so having a “preference” is nearly impossible.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I think there are too many systems already. I do not have much Atmos program. But the Dolby upmixer is excellent and the DTS awful.

My lay out is Dolby 7.2.4 by the book. So you can use the Auro 3D up mixer. It is better then DTS but not as good as Dolby.
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top