Spatial audio?

[AndrewF]

WHF seems all excited about spatial audio, mostly coming out of little smart speakers. Am I the only one who doesn't really care? Does this make me an old fashioned, 2-channel audio stick in the mud?

 

[Al ears]

WHF seems all excited about spatial audio, mostly coming out of little smart speakers. Am I the only one who doesn't really care? Does this make me an old fashioned, 2-channel audio stick in the mud?

By spatial audio do you mean home theatre systems?

 

[AndrewF]

By spatial audio do you mean home theatre systems?

Dolby Atmos, I guess? Apple is all fired up about it. I tried it on my workout earphones (Beats) and turned it off. When you move your head, the music moves around your head. Very exciting, I'm sure. I'm not sure what it adds to a nice system with a great soundstage and localization. But maybe I am just old and boring.

 

[Al ears]

Dolby Atmos, I guess? Apple is all fired up about it. I tried it on my workout earphones (Beats) and turned it off. When you move your head, the music moves around your head. Very exciting, I'm sure. I'm not sure what it adds to a nice system with a great soundstage and localization. But maybe I am just old and boring.

I know nothing about Atmos apart from its use in home cinema and don't own any Apple products so perhaps I am old and boring also....

 

[Gray]

Am I the only one who doesn't really care?

No.

 

[vinod_david]

IMO this is all gimmick. I'll stick to good old stereo till death do us apart.

 

[Deliriumbassist]

Spatial audio COULD be great. There will be the gimmicky phase (such as with early stereo when engineers were introduced to the pan knob and hard panned EVERYTHING), but I do hope that engineers and producers find a way to truly capture ambience in a room when instruments are played. That would be where the immersion really kicks in.

What does suck is trying to claim spatial audio through two channel. It's pseudo-surround sound in all but name, really. I blame Dolby for slapping Atmos on every sounder and its dog - you simply cannot achieve a true Atmos experience without multiple discreet speakers. After all, the idea is to use speakers on the x, y and z axis to essentially plot audio co-ordinates.

 

[manicm]

Spatial audio is not a gimmick when music is mixed as much. There is music on Tidal etc that has Dolby Atmos mixes of the standard tracks. On the hardware side Sonos' new Era 300 has upward firing drivers to support this.

Spatial audio isn't new as such. In the 70s there were Quadrophonic mixes, in the 90s there was multichannel music - especially on SACD. Just to remind you, SACD had multichannel capability from the off. There was even a Pink Floyd multichannel SACD released - and it's not hard to find used.

As some were interested in SACD and DVD Audio now and in the past, some today will be interested in music mixed in Dolby Atmos. It's valid within hifi, and to dismiss it is no more than pompous.

You may laugh at it, but some are laughing at the vinyl revival as well.

 

[Al ears]

You'll not be interested in the new Sonos Era speakers then....

 

[Sixtyten]

I've a few Atmos audio bluray discs and, bluntly, they are amongst the best sounding things I've ever heard. The Booka Shade album "Dear Future Self", and Yello's "Point" are utterly astonishing sounding discs. But it's not just Atmos releases. The recent Doobie Brothers Quadio re-issues of the original quad albums from the 1970s on bluray, well my gob was smacked. Indeed lots of the recent quad re-issues on bluray or SACD finally, some 50 years on from their original recording, demonstrate just how good quadraphonic recordings were - see for example the Dutton Vocalion releases of Art Garfunkel's "Breakaway" or the Isao Tomita albums, which blow away the stereo versions. But it's also things like the Steven Wilson remixes of the XTC and Yes albums as well. Look, I doubt I'll convince anyone of how good they are. And my days of evangelising about how good music mixed with surround in mind sounds are long, long over. If it's not for you, it's not for you.

 

[AndrewF]

I've a few Atmos audio bluray discs and, bluntly, they are amongst the best sounding things I've ever heard. The Booka Shade album "Dear Future Self", and Yello's "Point" are utterly astonishing sounding discs. But it's not just Atmos releases. The recent Doobie Brothers Quadio re-issues of the original quad albums from the 1970s on bluray, well my gob was smacked. Indeed lots of the recent quad re-issues on bluray or SACD finally, some 50 years on from their original recording, demonstrate just how good quadraphonic recordings were - see for example the Dutton Vocalion releases of Art Garfunkel's "Breakaway" or the Isao Tomita albums, which blow away the stereo versions. But it's also things like the Steven Wilson remixes of the XTC and Yes albums as well. Look, I doubt I'll convince anyone of how good they are. And my days of evangelising about how good music mixed with surround in mind sounds are long, long over. If it's not for you, it's not for you.

I guess my issue isn't so much surround sound or quad or Atmos or whatever, as much as "how excited should I be getting about this technology if it seems to be designed for cute little smart speakers, rather than proper hi-fi systems?" It just seems like the focus is out of place.

 

[Al ears]

I guess my issue isn't so much surround sound or quad or Atmos or whatever, as much as "how excited should I be getting about this technology if it seems to be designed for cute little smart speakers, rather than proper hi-fi systems?" It just seems like the focus is out of place.

You are right in that the bog standard stereo system of old is not of interest to many of today's youth. If it doesn't stream or have an integrated dac along with Bluetooth connectivity etc it isn't worth buying..... Well to them anyway.

 

[hifi]

These silly little speakers will never be the sound i want i know that . O r the music i realy want too listen too without the Adverts and so on .

 

[Al ears]

These silly little speakers will never me the sound i want i know that . O r the music i realy want too listen too without the Adverts and so on .

what??