Contributor I

Sonos Arc, My Fav Height Movie Demos (yes they work!)

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Sonos Arc Height effects…

After 4 months of intense movie watching on my Sonos Arc, table mounted, 2.5m flat roof, sat 6feet away, here are the movie scenes I found to be most impressive. Please add yours in the comments so I can watch them too 😀

These are in order of ‘best to worst’ in my opinion (based on height, not overall atmos’

1. The Force Awakens - the scene where Finn meets Rey for the first time, and the Thai fighters are flying over them and shooting down.

THEN MY FAV…

About 2/3 way through the movie, the storm troopers have surrounded Han Solo and chewy, then the X wings fly in for about 5 mins. I can literally feel the air from Poes X-Wing fly over my head.

2. Ready Player One - Final battle, LOADS going on

3. Everest - around 1hr 10 onwards the storm roaring overhead is terrifying in the room above me

4. Nobody - this one is interesting, in the final battle scene, You’ll never walk alone floats like clouds in the room, whilst the gun fire happens at ear level

5. War of the worlds - around 10 minutes in, everyone goes outside to hear the thunder in the sky. You can literally look up and try and find it in the ceiling for a minute or so. There are many more scenes in this move similar.

6. The Matrix - sprinklers soaking the agents when they capture Morpheus. And then the helicopter flying overhead while neo has trinity on a rope.

7. Jumanji - Beep noise when characters die for a second on the ceiling. Very short but noticeable. Then the helicopter ride towards the end of the movie.

8. Lord of the rings return of the king - when the dragons fly over the castle in the battle about 2/3 of the way through. I could hear them fly across the room over my head

9. A quiet place part 2 - 10 minutes into the movie there is an aeroplane or something in the sky on fire and you can hear it above for around a minute.
10. Saving Private Ryan - NOT what you expect, but at the start before the beach scene, the old man is walking, and you can hear lots of birds in the trees all around the room for around a minute.

Extras: Lots of movies with storms and helicopters coming to mind so I will list a few: Mamma Mia 2 - storm crashing when Donna is with horse in stable 1/3 way though. Belfast - can hear helicopters overhead without seeing them on screen several times in movie. The expendables - helicopters early in movie. San Andreas opening scene. Etc

So what am I missing? Please feel free to contribute!!!

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G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

Films:

Unbroken - The audio from the bombing sequence at the beginning of the film is incredibly immersive and realistic.

Roma - Subtle but brilliant and surprisingly immersive. A great example of how a non-action film can have a very effective Dolby Atmos audio track. There’s a scene when they are putting out a forest fire and you can clearly hear trees burning/crackling above you.

Kong: Skull Island - The scene when they first encounter King Kong in their helicopters has a lot going on in the height channels.

American Psycho - Patrick Bateman’s voice narration throughout the film is played through the height channels.

Doctor Sleep - Very atmospheric. The most effective use of Dolby Atmos audio I’ve heard in a horror film.

Blade Runner 2049 - Height channels are used extensively throughout the film. Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score sounds incredible in Dolby Atmos.

Best Dolby Atmos demo:

”Santeria” - There is a TON of height channel effects on this demo. This has the most discrete and clear height audio I have ever heard from the Arc. Unfortunately, this is only available on a Dolby Atmos demo Blu-ray disc.

Favorite albums in Dolby Atmos with great use of the height channels:

Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point

Kraftwerk - 3-D The Catalogue

Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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markdonnelly1Author

Contributor I

I love this reply Rashi! Yes Roma is excellent for just sitting quietly and appreciating that they have put you in the centre of the normal world in the movie.

the sound director for Roma (Alfonso Cuaran)has done another highly rated sound track. Can’t remember what it is?

SarahN

Local Superstar

This thread is useful for us Beam Gen 2 owners now, seeing as we can now change the volume of our height channels.

I have saved Roma in my Netflix watchlist to watch later, to test it out 😊

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

This thread is useful for us Beam Gen 2 owners now, seeing as we can now change the volume of our height channels.

I have saved Roma in my Netflix watchlist to watch later, to test it out

The forest fire scene from Roma is around the 1:03:25 mark. For a few minutes you should hear the trees burning/crackling above you. While watching the scene, start with the Height Audio Level at 0 and turn it all the way up to +10. You should hear a difference. Then adjust the level so the height audio sounds clear but doesn’t overpower the other drivers on the Beam.

If you can’t hear any height audio, experiment with different listening positions to find that sweet spot. You could be too close or too far away from the Beam.

Also, make sure you have a premium Netflix subscription so you can get Dolby Atmos audio.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

S

Simmz

Prodigy I

Adam project. Not the best movie but has some good test scenes.

Ratatouille - start where the mice all run away is a good one.

Toy story 4 - opening storm scene.

Morbius while the worst film ever... when it comes out, the bat scene will probably be one of the best test scenes to use. Sounded absolutely incredible in the cinema.

The king however is still 'Gravity' if you can find the disk version with Dolby Atmos. One of, if not the best for testing, it's absolutely incredible!

My go to movie however for testing any system is always the opening scene in Baby driver. Pretty much has everything you want in a scene.