The Official Atmos "Is it worth it for a ComputerAudiophile" thread....

[wappinghigh]

Well???

 

 

 

Is it?

 

 

[rn701]

No.

[wappinghigh]

LOL Thankyou

[Audio_ELF]

Unless you have a perfect room, then I would say give it a try.

[completeluxury]

If you are setting up a new theatre then go ahead and set atmos up. its not that much more expensive for a few extra speakers and atmos ready amp. more and more DVD's are coming out in atmos and its really awesome when done properly

[Audio_ELF]

Unless you have a perfect room, then I would say give it a try.

Erm ... I think I misread ... I read you were asking if Dirac was worth it.

[Audio_ELF]

If you are setting up a new theatre then go ahead and set atmos up. its not that much more expensive for a few extra speakers and atmos ready amp. more and more DVD's are coming out in atmos and its really awesome when done properly

I'm not sure that "done properly" is part of "not much more expensive".

 

Sure the Atmos ready amps are no more expensive than non-Atmos were a few years back, but you're going to want some reasonable speakers up there if you have good speakers for the other 7.

[completeluxury]

I suppose then it depends on what you consider expensive.

 

2 decent pairs of 6 inch in ceilings such as the sonance vp 66r can be had for something like $1000 and are more than enough for a decent system.

[rn701]

The question was, worth it for audiophiles. The answer is "no."

 

For home theater, maybe, as more Atmos encoded content becomes available. The concept of object based audio in 3D space for movies is cool and everything for effects spinning around the room and bouncing off walls and ceilings.

 

Not sure what it adds to music. I suppose a pristine, expert engineered recording of a acoustically perfect concert space, especially maybe for symphony music, might be interesting, if your Atmos setup is tuned and room corrected perfectly to reproduce it.

 

But who in the music industry is producing such recordings? Even if they had the equipment and technology, which they don't, they would find a way to ruin it with compression and whatnot. And what acoustic space would they be trying to recreate? A booth in a recording studio? An arena? Ugh.

[wgscott]

Erm ... I think I misread ... I read you were asking if Dirac was worth it.

 

Neither of those makes sense.

[dallasjustice]

I heard some really nice classical music in atmos at the CEDIA Harman demo room here in Dallas last Friday. It was really nice. It didn't sound artificial at all. Almost all of the music was coming from the front, just like in real life and there was a very good soundstage as well. I would say that it's foolish to make an "audiophile" distinction without a difference here. I'm not a bluray MCH user, but I don't see why audiophiles shouldn't be interested in those formats as well. It seemed very natural when I heard it.

[flak]

It may be interesting to know that Arcam has presented its new Dirac&Atmos units that are going to be available next month:

Arcam Introduces new AVR with Dolby Atmos and Dirac Live

 

Ciao, Flavio

[Fitzcaraldo215]

I have not heard Atmos yet. The closest theater with it is still 50+ miles away.

 

I am much more concerned about realistic music reproduction, though. My read of the literature so far favors the competing Auro 3d technology for music. It is complicated, but in simple terms Dolby and Atmos have roots in the movie business. Auro 3d was developed by folks at one of the largest music recording studios in Europe, although it has its movie applications, too. I know nothing about the new DTS entry into 3d sound, but that is movie oriented as well.

 

As with conventional multichannel audio, movies and home theater are where new sound formats have to succeed. Only after they have done so can there possibly be extension of that to recorded music, including the release of albums using the formats. (A handful are out in Auro.)

 

I cannot predict where all this will lead, which formats survive the competition, etc. At best, it will take a long time before there is much 3d audio music available, and it might not even get off the ground. It might just become a temporary blip like 3d video, virtually disappearing after the initial excitement wears off. Time will tell.

 

So, I am not investing in any of this for now.

[Audio_ELF]

The question was, worth it for audiophiles. The answer is "no."

The first BluRay Audio disc with Atmos has actually been announced...

Dolby reveals first Blu-ray Audio disc with Atmos | What Hi-Fi?

[Paul R]

Short answer - yes. It can make some very good systems sound exceptional. Bad news is, you have to setup the system right to reap the benefit.

 

-Paul