What Does Dolby Atmos Actually Do, Is It Good For Music?

Submitted by pr0_sc0p3z_pwn_n0obz t3_10g1vfm in headphones

I was wondering what general opinions are cayse I recently found out you can enable Dolby Atmos on Android phones which will "enhance" spatial audio in whatever headphones you use.

The effect it gives is very interesting, I'm an amateur audio engineer but I can't tell what's happening.

To me, it kinda sounds like it increases stereo separation on music and makes mono vocals sound real "up close" somehow, like a surround sound effect. Surprisingly this enhances like 90% of songs I listen to, I'd even say the clarity of sound is enhanced.

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SteakTree t1_j50grbp wrote

I’ve only used it on PC. Dolby Atmos for Headphones is absolutely fantastic when watching either the Netflix or Prime Video app (use apps not the browser which only supports stereo).

It takes the multichannel signal and renders it into a binaural spatial audio track for your headphones.

Spatial audio is critical if you truly want to get imaging and soundstage that approximates what the audio was engineered for.

Consider that most music and audio is engineered for speaker listening where each of your ears hears a blend of both stereo channels as well as room reflections.

That said, at least on PC Dolby Atmos didn’t seem to be as effective on stereo music as say something like Waves NX. Not sure if on mobile they may have different settings that makes it better for stereo listening

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JustinHardyJ t1_j51guos wrote

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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Gust_on_Fire t1_j50tjqj wrote

is there a Dolby Atmos free app?

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SteakTree t1_j50x56k wrote

I believe there is a trial for PC. Also to add, oddly the Dolby Atmos for Headphones app doesn't seem to work with Atmos material on Netflix, at least last time I tried. However, it works very well for 5.1 and is very much worth it if you watch shows and movies. That combined with my SubPac gives me my own personal home theatre.

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TSAdmiral t1_j52miy5 wrote

I knew the Netflix app supported 5.1 sound, but was never able to get the Prime Video app to do the same. Are you sure about this?

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ststairz t1_j55tbz9 wrote

Do you have any general idea of how the intelligent equalizer works? For some reason I hear very little diffirence between detailed/balanced/warm preset. Music mode seems to disable many DSP effects, while Movie mode seems to add crossfeed and some reverb/hall effect. I also don't understand the Game mode, especially the Performance preset. Could you shed some light based on your knowledge of the software?

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SteakTree t1_j57ggdg wrote

Game mode will still process 5.1 / multichannel and I prefer it for movies as well. My guess is that Movie mode is somewhat consumer oriented and probably accounts for less than perfect headsets. So it will have a bit more bass boost and it’s spatial reverb will be greater / wider. But it also may match better with some high end headphones and IEMs. So use to taste.

And yeah the music mode doesn’t seem to be that dramatic but perhaps that’s a good thing for those that want less processing.

I really only use Dolby for shows and movies. For music I have separate apps (nPlayer Pro using DTS-X on iOS hood for flacs and easy file transfer, Waves NX on iOS which is better but has some quirks and limitations and Waves Abbey Road Studio on Mac/PC but requires some technical know how to setup as it requires VST or AudioUnit host). Also been enjoying using my PS5 and still experimenting with media on it - certain games are incredible on it with my 660S.

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szakee t1_j502m67 wrote

Here, I googled "What Does Dolby Atmos Actually Do" for you:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/dolby-atmos-what-it-is-and-how-to-get-it
https://thehometheaterdiy.com/dolby-atmos-music-explained/

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pr0_sc0p3z_pwn_n0obz OP t1_j507tef wrote

Every question on Reddit can be googled, I asked because every article I read and both those links you gave just describe how it works on surround sound speakers, I'm specifically asking how this surround sound effect is achieved in headphones. I understand it's a "3d audio landscape" but how can you achieve 3d audio on headphones?

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TheHelpfulDad t1_j50mtge wrote

This is just the atmos marketing gobbledygook. It’s digital signal processing to fool you into hearing things in space. I don’t think it’s good for existing stereo sources and, for new releases, it’s just like surround sound.

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kazuviking t1_j50ewsy wrote

It adds crossfeed and other stuff.

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noob-phile t1_j50yngb wrote

I have an s10 first phone I bought that has that chip set. Works wonders

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gonomon t1_j519ddn wrote

What it does is, it filters the audio signals in a way that you will feel the sound is coming from everywhere even if you have 2 speakers or headphones. This can be good or bad for music depending on your preference but it is a deviated version of source so your music will not be how artist wanted it should be. Also in some cases artists themselves can release their songs with dolby atmos in mind so in that way you will hear their sound in their intended spatial way as opposed to their intended normal way.

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Silver-Ad8136 t1_j527dbh wrote

It doesn't match up well with how most music is performed or recorded.

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rocknrun72 t1_j504c2n wrote

It's ok but not outstanding on my galaxy s22 ultra , I guess if you can play it on a better sound system you can have a little more fun but it's not a game changer considering there's not much DS recorded music you can play , I can only see some on Tidal

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Individual-Ride-2496 t1_j50sojd wrote

If you enjoy it then use it if not don't. I don't really like it because how fake the music can sound also it doesn't like my EQ app so I just turned it off. I'm not an expert in it, from what I experienced it can be described as: tries to increase the perception of the soundstage and separation also the vocals feel more intimate but it depends on the music

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eoz t1_j5bq88d wrote

I’m not sure if you’re asking what’s going on technically but as I understand it, instead of delivering you two glorious channels of PCM sound Atmos instead sends you every channel that would have fed into the master mix along with some information about gain and, crucially, 3D position. This means that the final mix happens in the room you’re listening in, with the information about where the speakers you’re listening with are. Headphones are a special, easy case.

Also! They can do the up/down with something called the Head-related Transfer Function. This is a bit of numerical magic: turns out we figure out where things are in 3D space using subtle phasing and tone differences. I’m not sure how individual they are to each person, but I bet they can run a quick training phase. I think some of the fancier apple headphones use accelerometers to keep the sounds in the same position relative to the space you’re in rather than you’re head, even.

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