Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Dolby Atmos for Home Theater

Let's see what DTS does in the coming months. Their MDA is apparently much more flexible and affordable. I believe object-based audio rendering has a future but not necessairly with Atmos

Hi Russ
To be honest, I think you are more "right" than I am in.......in that those with an Atmos processor will be able to play a 'regular' 5.1/7.1 BD and still achieve an Atmos experience, as the Processor will be able to simulate an Atmos type experience by adding height etc., to certain effects

And the "quality" of those effects will depend largely on the DSP included by the various manufacturers.........e.g. in your face by Yamaha and more nuanced and subtle from Denon & Marantz

And that is what you're saying above with current 2D Blurays being played back in "simulated 3d effect" by various players and TV's

Attached is a list of the Atmos Cinema releases in 2014 and planned for 2015

Readers can look thru that list and count the number of titles that they would buy......or more particularly install an Atmos solution in their favourite viewing environment for

For me, Cliff says it best "one of the few Atmos releases of interest to those aged 7 or above"

And full disclosure, I've mentioned on here a few occasions that Gravity was one of the very rare 3D releases that I thought ADDED to the overall experience........and I can also say that the Atmos system installed in the Cinema I saw it in added greatly to the experience......but it must be said that Gravity was designed and engineered from day 1 as being an "enveloping 3d Audio and Video experience"......not the afterthought and post-processing conversions that most releases are

So I agree totally with Cliff........but there would need to be an awful lot more releases of the calibre and design of Gravity before I'd be remotely tempted down that path

Hi Ronnie

Completely agree.

Russ

Dolby Surround Upsampler (DSU) seems to be very good according to people who have it and tell about it on avsforum.
One more week for me i think, than the preamp might be here.

I'd be interested to get your feedback on the DSU. Good luck with the installation.

I have the system setup, and saw some demos and 1 movie.
Atmos sources can sound very nice. Also they can sound very bad, as they can mix anything in the sky.

DSU seems nice indeed, i did watch one movie and some clips. Could not find faults yet.
It sounds more around you (immersive is a often used word) than the normal 5.1 or 7.1

Also did the Auro3d upgrade. It is however either 12 channels for Atmos, or 11 channels for Auro3d. Combined you can have only 5.1.4 Atmos with Auro3d 10.1
With 7.1 base system you can have Atmos 7.1.4 with auro3d 7.1, or do even use wide channels, and do Atmos 9.1.2 with Auro3d 9.1

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure a lot of the early Atmos discs will be OTT in attempt to impress. I'm glad DSU is delivering as based on current releases it will be the most used when I get around to my upgrade.

Jaco, your feedback on your new ATMOS system is not like you are over the moon, or are you? Just curious.
Cheers!

Perhaps my feedback is not that great.
I have sold my M equipment months ago, so a direct comparisation is not possible.

I think for plain 5.1 or 7.1 playback the Meridian setup was slightly better.
The cost however was 5 times as much new price, so you cannot compare it.

With Atmos or DSU the bubble in the vertical direction is many times better, but that is not strange.
This system is better for me in this phase of my life (married 2 kids) i started with M equipment many years ago and than i was single.

A set of these Genelecs G3 will cost me about �1000 if a new affordable pre processor comes along which can do 16 channels (2nd generation)

Hey Jaco what Meridian setup did you have? Also are you comparing ATMOS setup to the new Meridian or old Meridian?

Thanks.

861v6 with 3x 5200 up front (VC version) and 4 x 3100 for surround.

Also better or not is very hard for me.

Today I viewed maze runner with DSU and the sound is great with little sounds from the ceiling speakers. Dynamically the Genelec setup is also nice, all speakers are the same, so tonally the sound pans are very good.

It is simply different, and gives me what I wanted.

My dealer has a 16 channel Genelec setup with Trinnov Altitude 32. The setup is controlled via an iPad app instead of honking around a pc everytime you need to change something. Just as you expect in 2014.

The sound is pretty far from the best M DSP's but I know there are bigger versions available, but that will be costly of course to paint the whole room with big speakers.