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JustinHardyJ t1_j51guos wrote

Reply to comment by SteakTree in What Does Dolby Atmos Actually Do, Is It Good For Music? by pr0_sc0p3z_pwn_n0obz

As a cinephile I was very curious to try Dolby Atmos for headphones. While I certainly recommend everyone try for themselves to see how they like, I personally found it to be less good than just listening in stereo.

I tested lots of films, but one of my favorites references is the IMAX preshow trailer "Infinite Worlds". If you watch it, there's a part where a tiger growls in your right ear. Without Dolby Atmos for headphones this comes across with an excellent sense of texture in the growl, whereas with Atmos enabled I felt a huge loss of texture (and therefore also a little timbre).

I know this is just one example, but it's why I'm personally not a fan. But there is a free trial so I recommend everyone give it a shot and figure out for yourselves if it works for you!

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SteakTree t1_j51iedr wrote

I understand what you are hearing. Absolutely, without DSP the discreet channel will be clearer. However, these discreet channels are meant to be heard with a bit of natural reverb, with room reflections that will naturally soften the sound. The audio engineer accounts for this, and the mix, positioning of instruments are created with this in mind.

A trick with any type of listening is that your brain acclimating to the sound. After listening to spatial DSP for a while it beings to sound more natural, and then switching back to regular stereo will sound incorrect.(hard-panned, no center channel, less depth, etc).

Furthermore, with multi-channel sources, if you are listening without DSP, there can be issues with the mix-down. In some cases the center channel isn't blended with the right volume etc.

I've tested Dolby Atmos for Headphones quite a bit using Focal Utopia for reference. The only thing that beat Dolby was Waves Abbey Road Studio. But this is a pro studio plugin and tricky to setup. It had very little artifact in its sound. That said, I'd put Dolby Atmos for Headphones up there. If you do try it again, check the settings. I believe the Gaming mode is actually clearer than the cinema settings with less overall reverb. it gives you a tighter spatial soundstage, with less spectral delay. It is more akin to listening to studio monitors.

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JustinHardyJ t1_j51kul4 wrote

Aha the Utopias, very good headphones, I use the Hifiman Aryas so obviously pretty different technology going into this.

But yeah I fully agree that I can for sure see myself listening to and enjoying Dolby Atmos for headphones were I to acclimate my ears to that sort of sound. Unfortunately I use the Nvidia Shield TV Pro as my media player so even if I did want to use Atmos for headphones, I wouldn't be able to do so and I have yet to discover an external device that process Dolby Atmos for headphones—so maybe I had a bit of a subconscious bias against Atmos for headphones when I was testing it on my laptop as stereo listening is pretty much my only option when using my proper movie setup.

But I still tried to be as objective as possible and even if there are flaws with downmixing audio, I think there are also bound to be flaws with sound virtualisers as they try to convey something that wasn't intentionally engineered by a group of sound mixers. Still, the technology is very impressive but I believe that you can be just as content with simple stereo content—especially if you throw some bass shakers on your furniture to convey that tactile bass of films.

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SteakTree t1_j51lkp2 wrote

Agreed! I no longer have the Utopia but I'm quite familiar with some of Hifiman's setup, excellent headphones!

If I didn't have a SubPac, I probably would have got bass shakers. Having true sub bass as well as tactile mid bass, makes a world of difference!

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JustinHardyJ t1_j51lz71 wrote

Yeees, any bass shaking option is a MUST imo if you want a proper movie headphones setup :)

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