Atmos Downmixing

[kinda]

Hello,

Hope someone with Atmos experience may be able to help please.

I'm thinking of maybe getting the Denon x4400h and trying out Atmos which recommends ear height 5.1 or 7.1 and 2 or 4 ceiling speakers.

However I have the rears of my current 5.1 setup high (near ceiling) for a more diffuse sound and they can't really move down. Also my other speakers aren't at ear height either being higher and again not easy to move.

It seems Atmos wouldn't be optimal even adding ceiling speakers so I thought maybe just using the current 5.1 and letting the receiver do it's best might be a better option.

However it seems from the manual the amp won't attempt Atmos with 5.1 or less and I'll just get standard true hd (which I can get now).

Am I right and if so why given that there are sound bars and TVs that try to simulate Atmos with much less '3d' speaker arrays?

Please if anyone has insight that would be much appreciated.

Ian.

 

[newlash09]

Can you add new speakers at ear height and rewire the existing speakers into the atmos posts of your amp.

 

[newlash09]

If the AVR doesn't detect speakers connected to the overhead speaker terminals, it will not attempt to play or extrapolate to atmos effect.

 

[kinda]

Thanks. I can't really as there are sliding doors across the back and also basically the surround speaker would be almost in my ear at one side.

Plus it's not a massive room so I'd be moving surround speakers away from the ceiling to put others in the ceiling about 4 feet away. If I leave them where they are I worry the speakers will clash and not work well with the ceiling ones.

I think it's daft though. Why can't 5.1 benefit from object based sound without the height speakers and / or the amp use the Atmos cues to enhance 5.1? The soundbars and TVs don't have ceiling speakers.

I often watch alone these days late on so thinking I may just get some good open back headphones and use Dolby Atmos headphone from the Xbox one X via the existing amp. Would save me quite a bit and with closed back headphones has sounded pretty good.

I'll still have the existing Denon amp which sounds good, though without Atmos, if there are more people watching.

Thanks again, Ian.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Another "why won't my black and white telly show colour from colour movies" question, perhaps, but....

Object based audio uses instructions, which in human form, would read "the Starship Enterprises rumbles slowly from front left to back right passing over the head of the listener" and the Atmos processor extrapolated that to however many speakers (up to 24 I think) it knows are there.

Perhaps if you have a 5.1 (or 7.1 or 7.2, 9.1 or 9.2) "2D" setup the Atmos processing would process an Atmos sound track, but would simply extrapolate this by ignoring the "passing over the head of the listener" part of the above. Or maybe the AVR doesn't even attempt to process the Atmos sound file and defaults to one of the lesser codecs. I don't know. It will be hidden in the coding on the AVR's chipset.

You can still enjoy the best possible audio for your speaker setup by using the "old fashioned" 7.1 mix up- (or down-) processed, better still using any Dolby Digital (not Atmos) or DTS:X audio tracks on the disc in question.

 

[bigboss]

The Atmos soundbars have speakers which direct sound towards the ceiling to bounce back for Atmos effect. You need a height gradient to really discern the Atmos effect. If they're all at the same level, you won't hear it effectively.