Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio) Music: My Opinion

That seems like a lost opportunity of expanding the listening sweet spot for stereo audio; a small part of the listening space being so is an ongoing drawback of stereo music for decades now.

Era then is definitely not for me, even if the S1/S2 thing wasn’t there; most of my favourite performers from the jazz/blues genre are dead, and stereo mastering is all that will be available of their performances and I would always pick a system that did not compromise on delivery of those recordings in trying go spatial.

Good insights; thanks!

In any enclosed venue you have reflected sound coming from every surface with varying volumes and delays unique to each setting.

My favorite for listening to this type of thing is Cathedral organ music. Engineers have recorded similar music both close miked, where you mainly hear the organ’s pipes and with more distant or multiple mikes where the reflected sound is a much larger component. Both sound good but properly done the distant mikes give you a sound much closer to what you would have heard live in person.

Second would be classic piano, the close miked stuff is fantastic and the music takes center stage but with more distant mikes you get a lot more coloration of the sound from the venue. Listening to a close miked piece and multiple more distant miked ones at various venues sounds very different.

Some fans of the “recreate the venue’s sound” spend a lot of effort on perfect speaker and listener placement along with a lot of reflection suppressing room treatments. Some of the listening rooms I have been in sound very dull and everything seems quiet, not just music. You really need loud speakers to fill the room compared to a more normal or a Live” room.

You could probably play with this a bit by taking a pair of Fives to your deadest room and then out to an empty garage with bare walls. The amount of reflected sound will make both rooms sound very different.

Interesting reading and you can find far less expensive ways to improve your room but with a bit more effort. Here we went with carpet and drapes as the primary, along with a couple bookshelves to diffuse the sound from one wall with an absorption panel between them. Adjoining rooms with large doorways got carpet to deaden the sound coming back from them. Not a lot in interests of keeping the spouse happy but it sounds better than where I started.

https://www.ekustik.eu/tips-and-tricks-blog/how-to-treat-home-listening-room

https://www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/getting-the-right-acoustics-for-your-listening-room

https://www.acousticfields.com/room-treatment-acoustics-explained/

Dolby Atmos versus Spatial Audio

Dolby Atmos has reinvented how entertainment is created and experienced, allowing creatives everywhere to place each sound exactly where they want it to go, for a more realistic and immersive audio experience.

https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/

Apple spatial audio takes 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos signals and applies directional audio filters, adjusting the frequencies that each ear hears so that sounds can be placed virtually anywhere in 3D space. Sounds will appear to be coming from in front of you, from the sides, the rear and even above. The idea is to recreate the audio experience of a cinema.

A good look at both.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/05/18/apples-spatial-audio-and-dolby-atmos-explained

Is that true?  The front driver only activates for Atmos content???  So in normal stereo use it is deactivated?  I thought there was an ‘issue’ with the driver being deactivated when used as a surround - but didn’t know it was switched off in stereo.  Is there somewhere discussing this?  I totally get the Eras are Atmos capable speakers but I’m not sure about expecting people to have two sets of speakers, one for Atmos use and another for stereo use.

That does sound strange because IMO surround tech should enhance existing functionality of a home audio stereo speaker, not replace a part of it. 

I don’t think that is true. I have two Era 300s set up as a stereo pair and if I play non-Atmos content I still hear music coming out the front of both speakers.

Correction: The front drivers on the Era 300 do activate when used as a stereo pair. They are silent when used in a Home Theater’s application with stereo only content but will activate when receiving Dolby Atmos.

Old age is messing with my mind. I have corrected this in my original post as well. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm still confused tbh

You said “The Era 300’s do not perform as well with stereo because the front facing driver only activates when it senses Dolby Atmos content.”. Although you have changed something, if this isn't true (it still says this BTW), and they are active, what is the reasoning for them not performing as well?  Had you thought it was because the centre driver wasn't active but more likely it's just a lower cost speaker that just doesn't sound as good as its bigger brother?

When you setup a pair of Era 300s as it’s own room, not bonded to an Arc or Beam to cover rear speaker duty, the front/center driver are always active, regardless of the source material.

Mono?  Front driver active.

Stereo? Front driver active.

Atmos? Front driver active.

When the Era 300s are setup as rear speakers, my understanding (I don’t have this setup) is that the front/center driver is never active. There are a lot more situations to consider here as you could be listening to music/streaming source vs TV, you could have the ‘full stereo’ option turned on or off, and the source could be mono, stereo, 5.1 surround, or atmos.  But I believe the front driver is off in all situations currently. 

I find the whole “recreate the venue” ideal to be rather interesting. On one hand, I understand that it’s familiar and may bring back memories etc.  And logistically/practically, a front stage is the most logical way to experience a music performance live.  However, there isn’t a reason for playback of recorded music needs to follow the same standards, or that it is objectively better when it does follow the standard. 

While you certainly can get recordings of ‘live music’, it’s generally not as desired as recordings from a studio, since you won’t have imperfections in the recording, or the audience singing (badly sometimes) along, etc.  I mean, no one is trying to recreate standing with a solo cup of cheap beer in your hand with some stranger bumping into you. 

  Also, if you go to a public location (lots of people) where recorded music is playing, you’re rarely going to have a front stage for the music.  That certainly so that you can get move even volume control in the space, but is that music now inferior somehow?  It’s been years since I’ve been to a club setting, but they don’t try and recreate a front stage, do they?

I don’t know, the whole thing is just weird to me.  Sure you want your music to sound natural in a way, but music is pretty much organization and structure out of chaos.  I mean, an electric guitar or keyboard are not natural.  Amplification is not natural.

I like spatial audio in general in two cases, if I had to sum it up.  Some music really is designed to be surrounding you entirely and take you away from wherever you are.  The word ‘epic’ comes to mind.  It’s no different than certain movies/shows that are supposed to take you into a different world than just a slight distraction from where you are now.  The other is just a slight change to something already familiar.  Hearing an old song in spatial (done well) is sort of like hearing a remake of an old song.