Enjoying my new Sonos 5.1 setup playing music remastered with Spatial (7.1) mix. The Atmos overhead channels are missing but what surround goodness that's decoded is interesting. The sound stage is either a 70's 'Quadrophonic' thing with lots of swirling motion and panning. Or with classical, it drops you inside the orchestra (as a member) with the violin section behind you and low brass in front. Very different from 'I'm sitting in the audience' staging.
I like the depth and effect for movies so why not music? Well, it still is kinda weird to me. Almost distracting hearing the stuff they remastered into a mix that never was mixed for 7.1. Like remixing makes what was intended more better by blowing it out in some sorta spatial dimension. I confess some new stuff mastered first as 7.1 and yeah, Pink Floyd tunes sound pretty cool. Will there be a transition for most music out there to be remastered? I dunno, but Dolly and Johnny should be left in two-dimensional space! :)
Is 'Spatial' audio a good thing or just a passing fad?
Considering how far back (1960s or a bit earlier) multi-channel sound goes, and how many people were willing to pay for it, I’d say not passing. The problem back then was complexity, competing systems, and bang for the buck, the last was the worst issue.
In the late 60s I had a four-channel reel to reel deck and four channels of amplification and speakers, a cobbled together mess of stereo components but when tweaked properly is taw awesome. Almost nothing available and the tapes didn’t last long. After they became available I had several of the early vinyl based Quad systems, CD-4, SQ and QS. While more material was available it was a tiny fraction of the current releases. So many formats and so few universal decoders that folks couldn’t see what to buy and didn’t. Jumped on SACDs and bought every one I found listenable. Again, only a tiny fraction of what was being released was in the format.
The 5.1 revolution is the first one to gain a solid footing and have enough material in the format to sell to a wider audience. Spatial, particularly Atmos is expanding on that and provides an experience that is good enough to get folks to pay the small premium to upgrade to it.
+9Talking about music I think the difference is big, and I love listening music in Dolby Atmos. You feel instruments coming from different directions in different heights and I think it improves a lot the experience.
About films, I don’t think the difference is so wide, because a 5.1 is already quite good, but perhaps I have not I listen enough films. Watching “Last of us” I switched 5.1 and Atmos and I couldn’t find a big difference.
Hard to tell. It might be like 3D video…
Considering that every movie theater has Dolby Atmos sound as well as premium movie streaming services I’d say Spatial Audio is here to stay. As far as music is concerned it really depends on two things:
- Quality of the recording as with stereo there are good and not so good
- Do you prefer traditional 2-channel audio (stereo) coming from the front or enjoy instruments seemly positioned front, rear, left, right and overhead.
As far as Sonos is concerned they still offer tradiotnal stereo speakers like the Five and Era 100 or you can opt for Era 300’s which produce Spatial Audio as well as tradiotnal stereo.
For movies Sonos offers the Arc Ultra and Beam2 for Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio) as well as Stereo reproduction. Although I’d never purchase the aforementioned for traditional stereo listening because IMO they add additional color that wasn’t in the original stereo recording. JMO.
- Quality of the recording as with stereo there are good and not so good
- Do you prefer traditional 2-channel audio (stereo) coming from the front or enjoy instruments seemly positioned front, rear, left, right and overhead.
Thinking how the competitive music market may be driven to add spatial content as a more premium product. Looked over Amazon and Apple’s libraries of current 3D content. Not many albums or playlists are to be had today. But they both tout and advertise more 3D goodness is coming. I think having the capability of 3D will be the seller. They encode 7.1 as the standard offering options to listen on the user end.
Purists or 2-channel fans will retain stereo when downmixed. The spatial crowd can unleash the ‘dome of sound’ doing nothing on their theater system. 7.1, 5.1, 2.0 all available on ‘the wire’. That may be cool but it’s kinda tricky when all content is slapped, dashed, and remastered to become spacy. Good point that with any mass remixing, we hope they go for tasty quality not spacy fakery.
Spatial headphones evolved from 7.1 gaming world. Definitely groovy for Atmos movies, but think of remastered music becoming popular due to these tech toys. They will get cheaper and cheaper. Pretty sure 3D headphones and EarPods are the trigger that will make it happen. Youth influencers, marketing, and demand will drive the bus here.
Did a couple Spatial demos for my Wife and a few friends. They were impressed mentioning it’s similar to movie soundtracks they’re used to in a 5.1 setup. They don’t really miss the ‘stage’ effect from 2.0. They actually preferred the more open room thing. I’m now in agreement that depending on the music, mix, and compression, yeah, Atmos music is here to stay.
Disclaimer: I am an unqualified (read ninny) poster so please don’t invest in a vast 3D collection from said predictions. :)
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