Dolby Atmos - is it for Audiophiles?

As a stereo mastering specialist, using MM3+Exact, Allnic Audio A-6000 monos and Bricasti M1 SE DA, I am turned off by the corporate push for complexity that will lead to a $600 soundbar or headphones for most.
99.999% of the world has never heard great stereo. Stereo is not old, it’s an undiscovered country. 2 speakers in front of 2 ears makes sense on many levels.

@mikelavigne it’s interesting to read your perspective, as you have one of the best 2 Ch and likely best Atmos set ups in the world
I mean what makes anyone think the normal music enjoying person wants to add more and more speakers? Will there be more Atmos users than 2 CH audiophiles? This is creating a need for $, corporate BS 101

Dolby is actually telling professional mixers, just get the headphones and mix for those. Proving it’s all about the money. Some major labels are saying "50% more for an Atmos mix" ... not much money, they just want content. Other labels are hiring mixers to do everything of note in their back catalog, for legit money, so it’s a big moment for mixers, but the quality will be all over the place. The commitment has been made however.

@brianlucey

it’s interesting to read your perspective, as you have one of the best 2 Ch and likely best Atmos set ups in the worldI mean what makes anyone think the normal music enjoying person wants to add more and more speakers? Will there be more Atmos users than 2 CHaudiophiles? This is creating a need for $, corporate BS 101

thanks Brian.

i have always had a ’pretty good’ separate Home Theater system for "movies only" in my house. my over-the-top 2 channel system is in my barn. this Home Theater has a top level front projector but the sound there was always just an "ok" surround system. recently with the advances in surround sound to the object based dsp (Dolby Atmos) approach i decided to take the plunge to see how far i could go with it. my agenda was optimizing movies. the music benefit was a bonus. and i’m just starting to discover how music ’only’ can benefit with 15 surround channels and 3 subwoofers. i’m in the discovery phase of those investigations.

without the attraction of a better home movie experience i’m not sure i would have ventured down this road for music only. i have been a signal path and 2 channel purist in the past. 15 years ago i did install a 5.1 discrete surround sound set-up in my 2 channel room for 18 months to see where that might go but found that my 2 channel was more involving. i do think Dolby Atmos object based with high speaker count has much more music only potential. we will see how that goes.

I have a 11.2 HT set up built around seven Snell speakers and a Marantz 8012 two Snell Basis 300 powered subs. My room is well treated with acoustic panels and bass traps. My 2 channel is digital played through classic Snell AIII's with Perfect Wave DAC, Mcintosh C2300 preamp and B&K 200.1 Class A Reference monoblocks.  Today I listened to Apple Dolby Atmos (Apple TV via HDMI) through the bonafide Atmos Marantz/Snell set up and with those conditions...it was a lot of fun and great definition on every level. With sounders and headphones maybe a gimmick. In a real listening room with real rig...hmmm?

Thanks for an interesting discussion. I have been working with surround for many years, in large venues with live orchestra and 20+ channels surround systems, but for me the Dolby Atmos was a real game changer. Until that point music playback was a sound source playing in a room, regardless if it’s mono, stereo or multichannel. The room had to be taken into consideration, and the acoustics captured in the recording would be colored by the room you’re sitting in. Having spend my last year on Dolby Atmos tuning I really see the potential in the format for music production. In a acoustically treated room with proper tuning software (sorry, not aware of any off the shelf products) the result is astonishing. The possibility to actually create an environment where the music lives, not constrained by the listening environment, was for me is a totally new experience. Now the room captured in the recording is the you’re sitting in.

I agree that there is a lot of inconsistency regarding source material, and not everyone will have access to a properly tuned room/sound system, but I definitely believe there is potential in spartial music.