dolby atmos

[sczze]

hi,

just wondering

how does dolby atmos achieve surround sound with just two front-facing speakers?

Thanks.

[xdeathshot20]

2 minutes ago, sczze said:

hi,

just wondering

how does dolby atmos achieve surround sound with just two front-facing speakers?

Thanks.

there not technically front facing speakers.  Dolby atmos speakers are generally angled toward the celing that way the sound bounces off and goes behind you or in front of you if the speakers were in the back

[an actual squirrel]

Dolby atmos is a way to store 3d audio data digitally. It is done in a way so it can scale to a number of different speaker layouts.

 

It is like the text on this website. If you have a higher resolution monitor, then you get sharper text. But you aren't going to get the quality of a 4k display on a 1080p monitor, even if both displays are viewing the same website. Similarly, you don't get the spatial quality of a 7.1.2 system with just two speakers natively, even if both are playing the same atmos audio.

 

The speakers may have some processing that allows them to give more spatial information, but that is separate from what dolby atmos is.

[tikker]

2 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

Dolby atmos is a way to store 3d audio data digitally. It is done in a way so it can scale to a number of different speaker layouts.

This. There are multiple ways to do surround sound. One is to explicitely mix tracks for speakers, e.g. for a 7.1.2 mix you can have 8 audio tracks: 1 for each speaker plus one for the subwoofer. Dolby Atmos isn't surround sound by itself, but metadata accompanying the audio. Instead of explicitely telling the receiver "this track comes from the left surround speaker", the sources producing sound are treated as objects at a certain position in a space. A Dolby Atmos capable receiver then uses this information to determine what speakers should produce sound in order to accurately convey the position of the sound.

 

It is aimed at surround sound and accurate placement however, which is why receivers sometimes won't even allow you to enable it without more than 5 speakers, as there is no to very little point in doing so. It can also scale to dozens of speakers.

 

Then there are so-called Dolby Atmos enabled speakers, which aim to mimic the effect of in ceiling speakers by bouncing sound off of the ceiling. They work (I have them myself) if set up well, but are by no means a replacement for actual top channels. I feel they round out the sound, but aren't really mindblowing.