I own 2 atmos avrs and find both disappointing. IMO, height sounds such as aircraft, birds, thunder, rain, wind, spacecraft, rocket and other height sounds should only come through height speakers. Atmos is overhyped and basically snake-oil. There's no unique content in the heights. It's just a replication of the bed layer channels. Manufacturers are no longer making bluray players, because physical media is dead. Everyone is streaming. But streaming has a bandwidth problem. You can have quality 5.1, or compressed & lossy atmos. Since the heights are just the same data repeated, it makes sense to save the bandwidth and do the replication in the avrs instead.
I also want to boost the bass only for gunshots, thunder and explosions, and not music. And have automatic attenuation.
These are my goals...
I also want to boost the bass only for gunshots, thunder and explosions, and not music. And have automatic attenuation.
These are my goals...
Atmos doesn't suck per sé. However, almost all Atmos material and (almost) all domestic Atmos setups very much suck a lot.
Building an Atmos-compatible mixing/mastering suite is complex. Learning how to properly mix and master Atmos material is complex, time-consuming and therefore costly. Properly reproducing Atmos in a domestic setting is even more complex, unless you can dedicate a fairly large room to a home entertainment room and enlist help from some people who understand the technologies involved (oh, and you have quite a bit of cash to spend).
I know a bunch of people who have done (over the pas 30 years) the whole experience, dolby pro logic, dolby digital, some wen the thx certification route, CRT projectors (back when that was a thing) with scalers and line doublers etc. In all cases, dedicated rooms, calibrated setups and the right source material and the experience was properly good. Lacking all that and the experience was properly meh.
Building an Atmos-compatible mixing/mastering suite is complex. Learning how to properly mix and master Atmos material is complex, time-consuming and therefore costly. Properly reproducing Atmos in a domestic setting is even more complex, unless you can dedicate a fairly large room to a home entertainment room and enlist help from some people who understand the technologies involved (oh, and you have quite a bit of cash to spend).
I know a bunch of people who have done (over the pas 30 years) the whole experience, dolby pro logic, dolby digital, some wen the thx certification route, CRT projectors (back when that was a thing) with scalers and line doublers etc. In all cases, dedicated rooms, calibrated setups and the right source material and the experience was properly good. Lacking all that and the experience was properly meh.