The Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, and Auro-3D Discussion Thread

[snakeeyes]

K, good to know thanks. I saw it a while back but, just streamed off of Netflix in 5.2. Hopefully one day my heights will arrive(delayed again) so I can watch some of these movies I have amassed. Everything else is here(wall/ceiling mounts, wire, heatshrink, bananas, wire clips) just waiting on them and the new 4K player...

I feel your pain on shipping. I have spent some long weeks waiting on shipping speakers and gear from the east coast. The only quick shipping to Seattle I experienced was from HSU in California. They sent me a pair of subs in only a couple days.

What height speakers did you order?

 

[Tachead7075]

I feel your pain on shipping. I have spent some long weeks waiting on shipping speakers and gear from the east coast. The only quick shipping to Seattle I experienced was from HSU in California. They sent me a pair of subs in only a couple days.

What height speakers did you order?

Yeah, waiting for paid for items sucks. Especially when delays happen in addition to the timeframe you were quoted.

I hear lots of good things about HSU.

SVS Prime Elevation in Piano Black x 4. The delay is because I went with Piano Black instead of Black Ash as my base layer is also Piano Black and I wanted them to match. Hope it is worth it as it cost me about $280Can more for that finish.

What are you running?

 

[snakeeyes]

Yeah, waiting for paid for items sucks. Especially when delays happen in addition to the timeframe you were quoted.

I hear lots of good things about HSU.

SVS Prime Elevation in Piano Black x 4. The delay is because I went with Piano Black instead of Black Ash as my base layer is also Piano Black and I wanted them to match. Hope it is worth it as it cost me about $280Can more for that finish.

I have the black ash Elevations as my rear heights. They were returns but no scratches so got a discount. My front heights are Canton AR800 (got used from another AH member) which match my other Canton speakers. I doubt I’ll find matching Cantons for the rear heights at any reasonable price as the distributor in the US has changed and the prices skyrocketed.

 

[Tachead7075]

I have the black ash Elevations as my rear heights. They were returns but no scratches so got a discount. My front heights are Canton AR800 (got used from another AH member) which match my other Canton speakers. I doubt I’ll find matching Cantons for the rear heights at any reasonable price as the distributor in the US has changed and the prices skyrocketed.

Nice, are you happy with them? I considered all options and they seam to be the best and most rounded option. A lot of the other heights(Elac, KEF, Monitor Audio, etc) have a very limited frequency range and I think that a height should be full range to the XO point(about 15hz below it really) so you aren't missing things. The SVS's also had far better mounting options then most of the other heights in the market. They also look and have a similar construction to my base layer and are available in the same finish. I hope I like them.

I didn't know about those Cantons, they look nice. How do they compare to the SVS? They definitely look hard to acquire or I would have considered them as they come in Gloss black and have a nice wide frequency range. They probably wouldn't blend as well with my base layer though as they use ceramic tweets and a titanium mid/woofer where as my base layer uses an aluminum tweet and carbon loaded polypropylene mid/woofer similar to the SVS's.

 

[snakeeyes]

I am in limbo on keeping my home or upgrading so I didn’t install my preferred option of in ceiling. I had the opportunity to get the matching Cantons for front heights and I saw on YouTube that kpaceguy has AR800 fronts and Elevation rear heights so knew it would work out fine.

I’m very pleased with the setup. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am.

 

[Tachead7075]

I am in limbo on keeping my home or upgrading so I didn’t install my preferred option of in ceiling. I had the opportunity to get the matching Cantons for front heights and I saw on YouTube that kpaceguy has AR800 fronts and Elevation rear heights so knew it would work out fine.

I’m very pleased with the setup. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am.

Me too. I'm selling my current house soon and buying a new one so I didn't want to do in ceiling.

That's great! Thank you sir, I'll let you know what I think when it's all setup.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I watched Snyders Cut Justice League 4K Atmos (Fakemos).

There were some overhead scenes, but was lacking most of the movie.

Bass good. Regular Surround sound was decent. Just not very effective Atmos most of the time.

It has been about 3 years since I saw the original JL.

But it felt like this was a totally different movie, which is a good thing. Some stupid scenes. But it felt more like a TV series with 6 episodes (6 parts).

So I would give Snyders Cut thumbs up on the story.

PQ was awesome as expected since it was shot using 6.5K resolution digital cameras. But Aspect ratio was 1.43:1. Wish it were 1.78:1.

 

[Bruce53]

Watched JL as well. For me, the sound was really lacking; only DD Surround.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Watched JL as well. For me, the sound was really lacking; only DD Surround.

Yeah these people need to attend basic Sound School, then Atmos Sound School.

 

[snakeeyes]

Watching the Meg on Blu-ray Atmos.

 

[Movie2099]

Yeah these people need to attend basic Sound School, then Atmos Sound School.

Watched JL last night. Great movie, but the sound was not impressive at all. Had to crank it up just to have it sound somewhat decent. Physical copy should fix the sound issues. Just read, Snyder will be putting the movie on triple layer 100 gig 4K disc.

 

[snakeeyes]

Watching 2012 4K Atmos. This is a great one!!!

 

[Auditor55]

I watched Snyders Cut Justice League 4K Atmos (Fakemos).

There were some overhead scenes, but was lacking most of the movie.

Bass good. Regular Surround sound was decent. Just not very effective Atmos most of the time.

It has been about 3 years since I saw the original JL.

But it felt like this was a totally different movie, which is a good thing. Some stupid scenes. But it felt more like a TV series with 6 episodes (6 parts).

So I would give Snyders Cut thumbs up on the story.

PQ was awesome as expected since it was shot using 6.5K resolution digital cameras. But Aspect ratio was 1.43:1. Wish it were 1.78:1.

Yep and that's what was cool about JL (1.43.1), a bit artsier and more creative than the other JL.

 

[MalVeauX]

Any advice on the following (especially experience):

How important is the quality of the atmos purposed speaker, if it's mounted (suspended) on the ceiling and aimed at the listening position area? Think bookshelf speakers mounted on the roof and able to aim position towards listening area.

I'm curious how much high quality information is actually being sent to these speakers and how much difference it would make to have $50/each bookshelf quality for atmos purpose, versus $100/each bookshelf quality, or more...

Just thinking about it, if I were to re-build right now, I wouldn't put nearly as much into my surrounds as I did and instead would put nearly everything into the L/R/C & subs and the surrounds would be small and not very expensive because I've just never noticed much information that was really quality driven coming from them in surround formats in movies over the years. So I'm curious how Atmos would play into that in similar fashion. Perhaps if one were to build a 7.2.4 for example, most of the budget really needs to be on the L/R/C and subs and the 4 surrounds and 4 atmos can (possibly?) be rather budget oriented speakers I imagine, within reason of course. Not talking $25 a piece, but maybe closer to $50 a piece as a bottom budget starting point? Or does it make enough of a difference to put more into those 8 speakers at the $100/each level or more? Again, bookshelf mounted on ceiling, not in-ceiling.

Very best,

 

[panteragstk]

Any advice on the following (especially experience):

How important is the quality of the atmos purposed speaker, if it's mounted (suspended) on the ceiling and aimed at the listening position area? Think bookshelf speakers mounted on the roof and able to aim position towards listening area.

I'm curious how much high quality information is actually being sent to these speakers and how much difference it would make to have $50/each bookshelf quality for atmos purpose, versus $100/each bookshelf quality, or more...

Just thinking about it, if I were to re-build right now, I wouldn't put nearly as much into my surrounds as I did and instead would put nearly everything into the L/R/C & subs and the surrounds would be small and not very expensive because I've just never noticed much information that was really quality driven coming from them in surround formats in movies over the years. So I'm curious how Atmos would play into that in similar fashion. Perhaps if one were to build a 7.2.4 for example, most of the budget really needs to be on the L/R/C and subs and the 4 surrounds and 4 atmos can (possibly?) be rather budget oriented speakers I imagine, within reason of course. Not talking $25 a piece, but maybe closer to $50 a piece as a bottom budget starting point? Or does it make enough of a difference to put more into those 8 speakers at the $100/each level or more? Again, bookshelf mounted on ceiling, not in-ceiling.

Very best,

Realistically, as long as all the speakers meld well together you'll probably have a good experience. Speaker placement will also be important so as long as you keep those things in mind you'll probably be good to go.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Any advice on the following (especially experience):

How important is the quality of the atmos purposed speaker, if it's mounted (suspended) on the ceiling and aimed at the listening position area? Think bookshelf speakers mounted on the roof and able to aim position towards listening area.

I'm curious how much high quality information is actually being sent to these speakers and how much difference it would make to have $50/each bookshelf quality for atmos purpose, versus $100/each bookshelf quality, or more...

Just thinking about it, if I were to re-build right now, I wouldn't put nearly as much into my surrounds as I did and instead would put nearly everything into the L/R/C & subs and the surrounds would be small and not very expensive because I've just never noticed much information that was really quality driven coming from them in surround formats in movies over the years. So I'm curious how Atmos would play into that in similar fashion. Perhaps if one were to build a 7.2.4 for example, most of the budget really needs to be on the L/R/C and subs and the 4 surrounds and 4 atmos can (possibly?) be rather budget oriented speakers I imagine, within reason of course. Not talking $25 a piece, but maybe closer to $50 a piece as a bottom budget starting point? Or does it make enough of a difference to put more into those 8 speakers at the $100/each level or more? Again, bookshelf mounted on ceiling, not in-ceiling.

Very best,

Yeah I agree that you can still get great Atmos experience even if your ceiling Atmos speakers are $50 each. The key is that they are working perfectly and not distorting or something.

 

[MalVeauX]

Yeah I agree that you can still get great Atmos experience even if your ceiling Atmos speakers are $50 each. The key is that they are working perfectly and not distorting or something.

Was looking to flesh them out, with 4 atmos speakers, with something inexpensive since it's really not holding a candle to the mains & subs for importance and all. But just thinking about it, not being picky.

Examples:

Amazon.com: Moukey Passive Bookshelf Speakers Pair, 100 Watts Peak Power Home Theater Speakers - 2.0 Near Field Audio Speakers, 5-Inch Wooden Enclosure Stereo Speakers | Wall-Mountable|, Black - M20-1: Electronics

Amazon.com: Moukey Passive Bookshelf Speakers Pair, 100 Watts Peak Power Home Theater Speakers - 2.0 Near Field Audio Speakers, 5-Inch Wooden Enclosure Stereo Speakers | Wall-Mountable|, Black - M20-1: Electronics

www.amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RJLHB8/ref=

JBL Stage A120

Bookshelf speakers

www.crutchfield.com

JBL Stage A130

Bookshelf speakers

www.crutchfield.com

Polk Audio TSi100 (Black)

Bookshelf speakers

www.crutchfield.com

Unfortunately I can't audition them, in atmos, to know if it real-world-matters if the atmos configuration was done with the first two options (cheap) versus going slightly higher up in quality for an entry bookshelf to suspend on the ceiling, such as the JBLs 120's or 130's or Polk TSI100's. Of course I would expect that later two to perform better, have a better crossover, better handling. But, I'm just not sure if it matters for atmos as I'm not sure what information is really going to be sent there and if it would need all that.

Do atmos speakers really need to be better quality than what most people use for heights and stuff? Those are usually just barely tweeters and tiny woofers and can't be all that great as speakers on their own (heights and stuff). So I'm curious if a low end bookshelf would basically be more competent for the job.

Very best,

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Do atmos speakers really need to be better quality than what most people use for heights?

My answer is "NO".

I would group ALL SURROUND speakers into one "tax bracket".

If you have the budget, I would get the best for EVERYTHING, especially for In-Ceilings and In-Walls since they are more "permanent".

But if you do NOT have the budget, all of those bookshelf speakers can give you a great Atmos experience.

What are the rest of your speakers (Fronts and Subs)?

 

[Tachead7075]

I disagree guys. I can't speak about Atmos in particular(havent installed mine yet) but, systems with matching surrounds always sound better and have much smoother transitions, pans, and better immersion overall. I have tried several examples of both and would never go back to cheap or mismatched surrounds personally. Movies are one thing too but, with gaming and 3D or SS music there is a huge difference as those channels see even more information.

Another thing to keep in mind is that both the surrounds and Atmos receive full range signals(and get them quite a bit with modern content) so they need to be capable of reaching about 15hz lower then your XO point or LF information will be diverted to the subs. This will ruin the 3D affect by making sounds come from the subs instead of the heights or surrounds like the sound engineer intended.

I should also point out that the further the mismatched surrounds or Atmos are from the mains sound signature, dispersion characteristics, etc. the worse the degradation to your sound you will see by going with mismatched.

 

[snakeeyes]

The cheap speakers would only lead you to upgrade to more expensive speakers. That’s usually how this game plays out... LOL