Poll: Atmos Music: Are You Going to Listen at Home?

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Atmos Music: Are You Going to Listen?


  • Total voters
    184
I can adjust the individual speaker level output but thats about it. I can't "push" or hide anything from any speaker (short of not having a speaker to use). I have not seen anything that lets you do anything other than this.
 
What I meant is that despite the fact that they have sounds specifically targetted to them, they aren't a full size speaker, or even a bookshelf speaker (in most cases). Therefore the sound produced will not be the same as those type speakers, even though the speaker level may be the same or similar, the quality of sound is not going to be what a bigger speaker can produce. Don't expect that. Expect to hear sound from the area in which they are placed (or angled to reflect) and that is the extent of it at this point. That may get better in the future if this takes off and the mixes become more immersive though. And sorry if I say this incorrectly, but I hope you get the jist of it--the Atmos mix is done independent of the surround mix. Meaning sounds are specifically meant for those channels only, not any other speaker or part of that mix. Because of that, the speakers dont necessarily have to be any bigger than what they are marketing now. It is more for effect and depth of sound than it is sound quality, imo. I hope this clarifies what I meant, and what I have researched and observed. After all that, I still stand by the fact that money should really be the only reason not to add this.

^This

I've read that the upfiring speakers and essentially all ceiling mounted atmos speakers actually have a much higher crossover frequency built in so essentially no sound lower than 130mHz will be reflected off the ceiling. Basically atmos ceiling and upfiring speakers are designed to reproduce midrange and high range frequencies only specifically as to avoid the muddy reverb from lower frequency sounds.

Also it's all mixed with computer precision and your avr uses measurements such as distance to the ceiling and distance from the ceiling to correct phase, etc so upfiring speakers are mathematically close to ceiling mounted.

The key I've heard is having the right kind of ceiling surface, ie popcorn ceilings are a no no.
 
^This

I've read that the upfiring speakers and essentially all ceiling mounted atmos speakers actually have a much higher crossover frequency built in so essentially no sound lower than 130mHz will be reflected off the ceiling. Basically atmos ceiling and upfiring speakers are designed to reproduce midrange and high range frequencies only specifically as to avoid the muddy reverb from lower frequency sounds.

Also it's all mixed with computer precision and your avr uses measurements such as distance to the ceiling and distance from the ceiling to correct phase, etc so upfiring speakers are mathematically close to ceiling mounted.

The key I've heard is having the right kind of ceiling surface, ie popcorn ceilings are a no no.
Thanks, that was my next question :)
 
^This

I've read that the upfiring speakers and essentially all ceiling mounted atmos speakers actually have a much higher crossover frequency built in so essentially no sound lower than 130mHz will be reflected off the ceiling. Basically atmos ceiling and upfiring speakers are designed to reproduce midrange and high range frequencies only specifically as to avoid the muddy reverb from lower frequency sounds.

Also it's all mixed with computer precision and your avr uses measurements such as distance to the ceiling and distance from the ceiling to correct phase, etc so upfiring speakers are mathematically close to ceiling mounted.

The key I've heard is having the right kind of ceiling surface, ie popcorn ceilings are a no no.
Exactly. Though, I’ve heard it was around 150 Hz. That’s why, unless one has a huge room, you can get away with very small speakers. I use very small satellite speakers up high that have a wide dispersion pattern. I could probably get away with using just one pair in my size room.
 
Jim, I'm not sure TTN will win you over. The music is mainly front-centric. There are theatrical moments that are very Atmosy. This video might help you with your question, though my hunch is nothing exists in Atmos, right now, that is quite what you're looking for. I could be wrong!

Music in Atmos - Worst to Best



Albums discussed:
Sgt Pepper's - The Beatles
Live in Madrid - Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock
The Dolby Atmos Experience - Luca Turilli's Rhapsody
RPWL - A New Dawn
Hans Zimmer - Live in Prague
Roger Waters - The Wall Live
Metallica - Through the Never
Booka Shade - Galvany Street
INXS - Kick 30th Anniversary
Kraftwerk - Numbers (The Catalogue)
R.E.M. Automatic for the People (AFtP)

More info, including links to Atmos music lists, in video description.

Love your t-shirt. And the video's not bad either. :)
 
Jim, I'm not sure TTN will win you over. The music is mainly front-centric. There are theatrical moments that are very Atmosy. This video might help you with your question, though my hunch is nothing exists in Atmos, right now, that is quite what you're looking for. I could be wrong!

Music in Atmos - Worst to Best



Albums discussed:
Sgt Pepper's - The Beatles
Live in Madrid - Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock
The Dolby Atmos Experience - Luca Turilli's Rhapsody
RPWL - A New Dawn
Hans Zimmer - Live in Prague
Roger Waters - The Wall Live
Metallica - Through the Never
Booka Shade - Galvany Street
INXS - Kick 30th Anniversary
Kraftwerk - Numbers (The Catalogue)
R.E.M. Automatic for the People (AFtP)

More info, including links to Atmos music lists, in video description.

I don't want to be that guy I yelled about earlier, but it's hard for me to get excited about Atmos mixes of live albums. I want to hear new mixes of great multitrack recordings.
 
Great video Mike. Lovin your back catalog of vids on youtube. Just picked up AIC Greatest Hits on SACD for cheap as I was on the fence until your review becuase I'm a way bigger AIC fan than you or most here.
Thanks, that's great! The AiC is plenty good enough for these ears. Sounds awesome. Just wish we could get more of their catalog mixed like that.
 
re: the height channels

They're just speakers folks!

Yes, traditionally they would be smaller speakers that don't reproduce bass range.
Yes, this is probably 99.9% how these channels will ever be used. (No bass content, that is.)
Not only that, but there will be just ambient content in most mixes likely. Certainly in movie soundtrack mixes!

So... you can get crude as f with the shitbar gimmick with up firing speakers and... still get some mileage out of it.
I'm not suggesting that's so messed up you'd think you're listening to a whole different mix or something. Make Barbra Streisand sound like Kanye West. (I AM still suggesting shitbars are bad and worthless though!)
My point was that this isn't some mystery and that the up firing thing IS a kind of ghetto compromise. Turns out you can get away with it more than some compromises but it still is what it is. But what I was going for was to not be bamboozled by the brochures and end up falling for gimmicks. And if you ARE going to entertain up firing speakers, you're gonna want to time align that system!

They're just normal speakers. Smaller because they are traditionally used for only high frequency range. (Saying "traditional" sounds funny with something this new...)

And we're certainly not feeding them any signal in the MHz range! :D (But that was surely a typo.)


Maybe what I should say is that I would want to use a system like this non-traditionally! Or at least have a few mixes that did so. (Flaming Lips kind of attitude.)


Heh, the Motley Crew idea. Someone should run with that! :D
 
Last edited:
And if you ARE going to entertain up firing speakers, you're gonna want to time align that system!

Wouldn't you want to time align the height speakers regardless if they are at the ceiling or firing up to it?

Wouldn't the time alignment adjustment be part of the initial AVR setup... in the same way they time align the main channels?
 
Wouldn't you want to time align the height speakers regardless if they are at the ceiling or firing up to it?

Wouldn't the time alignment adjustment be part of the initial AVR setup... in the same way they time align the main channels?
Yes. Cross-over is also suggested during auto-configuration too and it is rather high (at least on my system). So, smaller speakers can suffice.

That isn't to say that it's only ambient stuff up there. That isn't true. I have plenty of Atmos and Auro sources that have important information discretely or predominantly in the heights (music and movies).
 
Yes. Cross-over is also suggested during auto-configuration too and it is rather high (at least on my system). So, smaller speakers can suffice.

That isn't to say that it's only ambient stuff up there. That isn't true. I have plenty of Atmos and Auro sources that have important information discretely or predominantly in the heights (music and movies).
Mike, I don't recall what your Atmos speaker setup is; is it a 7.2.4 with overheads?
 
Couldn't you just use the receiver to upmix to Atmos ?
surely the Yamaha can also extrapolate to atmos. Both are capable of doing so.
The Yamaha only one step:
Stereo on 5.1
5.1 on Atmos
Dolby Atmos on the PC can also extrapolate from stereo the Atmos playback.
In addition, I like the conversion through the calculator so Dolby software sound better.
 
Back
Top