Why is everyone so jazzed about ATMOS?

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You can’t pan above the 2D plane without speakers above the listening positon.. Whether you need 13 is debatable but 4 is not enough. I’d say another 4 heights at a minimum (8 in total) plus a sub if your speakers are small. Assuming you have spacial mixes or spacial upmixes as your source.

Actually, I HAVE done height with 4 speakers.
- I used left front, right front, back zenith, and back nadir.
- The decoder was a Metrotec set to SQ.
- The LB speaker is BN and the RB speaker is BZ.
- I have two DVDs and two records encoded with a little known 3-D version of Dolby Surround.
- - The Wiz
- - Thank God it's Friday
It worked, but the listening area was extremely small.

Six speakers worked better:
- Four speakers for Dolby Surround (LF, RF. LS, RS) and two height (Z and N).
- The decoders are Dolby Surround and the back channels of the Metrotec set to SQ.

I also used it to test my SURROUND FIELDS Spheround mic design.
 
Yup mono, dedicate a pathway
Bernie McGann 1966.JPG
 
To take it to the extreme, I’ve listened to Talking Heads 5.1 mixes with surround channels only. This was fun because I know those albums so well, I wanted just the backing parts to hear. It was fabulous. Kinda odd, but wonderfully odd.
I don’t think that David Byrne would take issue with that.
 
You are stating better fidelity in a 4 or 8 track recording when done in Atmos? Incredibly immersive? Ok.

I need to look up the number of tracks used to record this album. I do recall it is limited.
It should be 8 tracks, but I am not sure.
They definitely used an 8-track recorder, but - similar to The Beatles' process with Sgt. Pepper - they'd fill up all eight tracks, the mix down to two or four tracks and bounce that to another 8-track machine to make room for more overdubs. SW was given access to all the first generation recordings for his remixes, so there'd likely be far more than eight separate elements to work with in surround.

"I Talk To The Wind" sounded amazing in 5.1 on the 40th DVD-A and he somehow managed to better it on the 50th Blu-Ray, so I can only imagine how good the Atmos is.
 
Sooooo. Now here it is 2022. Any of the naysayers from 2019 changed their minds?

Looking back at early posts, I think it's funny now the comments about "adding more equipment, more money". While this could certainly be true for some, it was not for me.

Before I had an inkling what "Atmos" was I already had an AVR that would decode it, and being 7.2 capable there was already room for the 5.1 + 2 height speakers + 2 subs.
So how much did it cost me to "upgrade to Atmos"? Two bookshelf speakers (not those tiny little things) + some speaker wire, low cost mounts. Since I already had the speakers and the mounts then just call the cost speaker wire and a little sweat equity. Since then the only thing I've upgraded were the height speaker mounts....about $12/pair monoprice mounts...and recently bought new speaker wire and a "cable concealer" kit to hide all those 12 & 14 gauge wires running along/up the walls. So call my total investment (not including what I already owned) about $100.

New formats don't faze me. I was an early adopter of Quad, probably when a lot of you were kids or not even born. The only thing that limits me in my musical pursuits is lack of folding money. I bought into Quad as soon as I saw it, before I ever heard it, it just seemed intuitive (to me) that it would be better than stereo. That even my close friends saw no benefit in it did not deter me one bit. It's a fact that stereo is just plain good enough for some folks (or even listening to music on a phone only), and I got no problem with that.

Even now I would certainly like to see more good Atmos mixes, but I've heard enough to convince me the height speakers can certainly add to the listening experience. If you don't like it, and your only experience is with Tidal/Apple etc (*note I don't have either service, however) then I suggest you listen to a good BluRay that's Atmos encoded. If still not convinced, fair enough. Plenty of people think 2 speakers is enough and I say, if you enjoy what you like then that's absolutely great! No sense beating a dead horse, as they say. But I'm in!
 
I think the speaker installs probably put a lot of people off.
I could speculate that for some with high end systems that won't settle for much better components than I have, it could be the investment before seeing the benefit. I get that too.
Nothing I have is especially high end or expensive, I freely admit. But what I have is working for me.
Believe me, climbing ladders is getting a little scary! My balance is not good and I can't seem to hold onto things very well. It's like working on cars, in a way, I used to do pretty much everything; rebuild engines.
fix dead cars on the side of the road, and so on.
Those days, if not over completely, are coming rapidly to a close. I just try to enjoy life while my ass is still above the grass.
 
Downside of ceiling speakers for my basement man-cave:
  • Low ceiling
  • Master bedroom above
Already skating on thin ice with floor speakers, not about to push it now that wife accepts current setup.

Sennheiser 414 headphones for individual TV viewing in first floor living room saved our marriage (from both sides).
Don't poke the bear.

If she's the first to go into care, all bets are off, but chances are I'll be past caring by then. 😵
 
Ha ha, I understand. The TV is my wife's domain except about an hour in the evening I pick whatever I want to. But it's almost always what she want's to watch as well.
My wife, early in our marriage bought me some of those RCA wireless headphones. I finally wore them out and trashed them. lol.
How low is your ceiling? The bottom of my height speakers are barely a foot above my height (I'm about 5'11).
 
7'6" to drywall over floor joists.

I'm 5'8"and shrinking, but have a 6'10" nephew.
Wonder what he would hear differently from you & me? 🤔
Split the difference with the setup mike? IDK. I wonder if he would hear it differently but then everyone does, don't they? The good thing is it's yours and you can set it up however it pleases you. ;)

EDIT: I meant to add that moving my audio gear to a bedroom from a larger room had some challenges but I worked through them. I know that's not always easy but I got lucky, I guess.
(The ceilings are the same height, but mine are slanted which sort of brings other challenges.)
 
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