Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Dolby Atmos: Will it get traction??

I'm excited because it should translate to more precise placement of sounds thanks to each sound having an x, y, and z coordinate. Assuming proper encoding and a decent auto-setup in the AVR, I'm thinking there's real potential. I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to encode sound this way. But I'm no expert, so maybe they were already achieving 90% of this with the way they've been doing it until now.

And with Pioneer about to announce home theater Ddolby Atmos products tomorrow, they also just announced this afternoon that they are selling off a majority of their home electronics division.

51% to Baring Private Equity Asia, and it will also sell a smaller share to Onkyo.

Onkyo is also dropping Audyssey. Interesting times.

Maybe my next receiver will be a Denon. LOL (Was a Pioneer Elite user for years, and went to Onkyo to get Audyssey.)

I'm curious to see how/if they limit the number of speakers/outputs to 5/7/9/11 still.

Where does the madness end?

One proposed method for getting Atmos sound in a theater:




Using Pioneer's new speakers that reflect sound off of the ceiling (as I suspected yesterday):




And here is a better design if you can do it:



Notice that all of the examples show what I would call a room with pretty tall ceilings.

I think wireless/powered monitor for the overhead speakers. Then just feed power to them through the ceiling. Im in a rental so that's a no go, plus I cant imagine what 4 of those reflecting speakers would cost plus all the extra wire and a receiver, im good I like what I have . I really believe this will be a niche type of thing, and a small one at that.

Nick, I think the best part of this is when you tell the wife what your thinking. Cant beat that. LOL

Yup.

Oh, and for those people thinking that the "reflection" model would be an easy way to not cut holes in your ceiling, it doesn't work with non-flat ceilings (no vaulted ceilings) and there is going to be some sort of low and high height limit. Plus you are talking about sound waves going up, and then bouncing down. That makes for pretty diffused sound, not something that Dolby Atmos wants to really portray to be accurate.

I say that 4 IN/ON the ceiling is the only way to do it right. Then again, I would have to toss a few grand at this with a minimum $1500 or so going to a receiver to get the Atmos processing, and the rest into speakers. ($880 for four M2 on-walls, or $996 for M3 on-walls)

Andrew Jones Dolby Atmos speakers have peaked my interest. I am very intrigued to hear those. Great concept. They are speakers I would consider buying actually.

So when you turn off Dolby Atmos in the receiver does the top driver still fire?

FWIW, I personally would not use reflecting type speakers like Pioneer has employed. Ceiling height and construction material would alter its effectiveness, plus the delay. I don't think the overhead speakers would need to be all that robust given the type of information that would be coming from them. It shouldn't be to difficult to implement them in a typical home with an attic. Wireless self powered I would think.

The Pioneers by AJ are FUGLY just like the last set he designed. Axioms may not be real wood but they look a hell of a lot better than black ash. I have a set of HPM 900's with vinyl and you have to look twice to tell they aren't real wood veneer and they did that 30yrs ago. Also 85db sensitivity, and 4 ohm that's going to require a pretty expensive receiver.

Richard

For those that missed it on AVS

http://blog.dolby.com/2014/06/dolby-atmos-home-theaters-questions-answered/