Atmos worth it?

Paul11

Paul11

Paul11

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I have a very old (but still very good) amp which can do dolby digital.

Is it worth me upgrading to a modern amp that can give me Atmos ?

Was thinking of the Sony tr-dn1080 but just not sure its worth it.
 
I've got upfiring fronts on top of my floorstander fronts and I'm not sure it is that noticeable. I do have an artexed ceiling so I assume that's probably lessening the effect.
 
Depends how far you go with it. I put 4 speakers in the ceiling on top of a 5.1 setup I already had. In the correct film, it’s incredible. Truly, you can hear the planes go overhead etc. It’s really something!
 
I have the same AVR and some speakers that are mounted high pointing towards listening position and it works reasonably well. With that amp we can only have two height channels. I do find its a nice bonus (but not revolutionary) where its supported in movies and content. I also game on the same TV / AVR and those games which do have atmos also sound very nice, Gears of Wars 5 and more recently Cyberpunk 2077 which support ATMOS being an Audio / Visual feast when things go overhead more so then shows / movies. That said, I think in ceiling would be a better option and it sounds like you do not have the AVR, so I would actually look at one that can do 4 channels ATMOS off the bat so you can add channels behind and in front.
 
I couldn't sell the missus on a full Atmos setup, so after a speaker upgrade, I repurposed my old rears as a pair of front heights to be used as an Atmos setup. Although it's not a full Atmos setup, I definitely prefer how it sounds over my previous 5.1 configuration. My amp supports Neural X as well which I find works quite well on non Atmos DTS content. As above, it's not revolutionary but it is an improvement and just feels like you're slightly more involved.
 
I did actually get the ok from my Mrs to get ceiling speakers, but then I realised how much work it would be to get speaker wire in with running trunking along the ceiling (have done that for rears and its not ideal) so that's why we went upfiring. Something to think about with in ceiling. Our upstairs floor is chipboard, and massive sheets that were put down before the interior walls:rolleyes: which is why it would turn into a mammoth job. What I really want is a video that does a with and without clip (although not sure if Atmos can be disabled on an Atmos track) just to check it on my system.
 
I tried Atmos out in a very much ghetto setup and didn't do much, the only thing I notice is an Atmos track, at least the Atmos demos, the sound quality is better, the bass is thunderous too!
 
It's worth it if you invest the time to set it up properly.

You don't need amazing speakers, just the correct setup so that you're getting height.

Ideally these should be downward firing, position above your front speakers (either in ceiling or wall mounted high up).

In my (limited) experience, reflective speakers don't work quite as well, and are a little more fussy with the room setup.


Personally, I'd rather have a room corrected 5.1 system than a cheap 5.1.2 setup
 
Remember Atmos is NOT synonymous with height data from speakers.

All it is is discrete object based audio.

I'd argue you'd notice it still in a 5.1/7.1 setup especially for well recorded Atmos mixed music sound tracks.

Worth it I'd say yes but with four height channels for full effect. A lot of the time it can be subtle just expanding the sound field.

Helicopters and planes sound overhead and I quite like that.

When a film goes for it it can be amazing.
 
Paul11 said:
I have a very old (but still very good) amp which can do dolby digital.

Is it worth me upgrading to a modern amp that can give me Atmos ?

Was thinking of the Sony tr-dn1080 but just not sure its worth it.
Click to expand...

Most of the pro vs con points have been made about Atmos. What I would add relates directly to the amp. Any amp, not just the Sony.

Where you're going from a good-but-old 5.1 amp to a new 7.1 channel amp (5ch + 2 for Atmos) I think it's useful to look at the mains power consumption of each to see if it's a move up, down, or sideways. I'm not talking here about what the manufacturer claims that the speaker wattages are. They're mostly a work of fiction anyway. What I mean is the power sucked from the mains.

As long as the Laws of Physics stand, then the wattage going to the speakers can't exceed the wattage drawn from the mains. The STR-DN1080 is said to draw 240W. What does your existing amp consume at peak?
 
lucid said:
As long as the Laws of Physics stand, then the wattage going to the speakers can't exceed the wattage drawn from the mains. The STR-DN1080 is said to draw 240W. What does your existing amp consume at peak?
Click to expand...

LOL at that. My two channel amp draws upto 3 times that.
 
So going back to the point about the Sony receiver. If my amp "can" pull upto 750 watts, or 375/channel, but can only output 140, then what's the Sony going to do if trying to run 5 or 7 channels?
 
theone8181 said:
What I don't understand in specs like that, is that if it's only putting out 140w per channel, where's the other 300 going? Aren't transformers usually pretty efficient?
Click to expand...

Not really.

Some very rough figures

Class A - 25%
Class A/B - 50%
Class D - excellent (read as 'expensive') <90%. The mediocre ones might scrape by on as little as 60%
(YMMV)

Also, the power output depends very much on where abouts on the distortion curve the reading is made. Measuriii at 10% THD will give a very large wattage figure, but sound pretty dire. Measuring at 1% will give a much lower power reading but sound much sweeter. Measuring at 0.1% will lower the power reading again, but we're getting close to the best that the amp will sound. Measuring at 0.01% might not sound any different to the untrained ear, but might well be the amp's sweet spot.

@Mr_Sukebe's amp doing 140wpc is barely ticking over. It has been measured very conservatively. There's a tonne more power on tap for the asking.

Typical small Class D or switch mode amp making a claimed 1.21 gigawatts a camp (enough to send Marty back to the future in his Delorean) has everything thrown in to max out the measurement.
 
lucid said:
Not really.

Some very rough figures

Class A - 25%
Class A/B - 50%
Class D - excellent (read as 'expensive') <90%. The mediocre ones might scrape by on as little as 60%
(YMMV)

Also, the power output depends very much on where abouts on the distortion curve the reading is made. Measuriii at 10% THD will give a very large wattage figure, but sound pretty dire. Measuring at 1% will give a much lower power reading but sound much sweeter. Measuring at 0.1% will lower the power reading again, but we're getting close to the best that the amp will sound. Measuring at 0.01% might not sound any different to the untrained ear, but might well be the amp's sweet spot.

@Mr_Sukebe's amp doing 140wpc is barely ticking over. It has been measured very conservatively. There's a tonne more power on tap for the asking.

Typical small Class D or switch mode amp making a claimed 1.21 gigawatts a camp (enough to send Marty back to the future in his Delorean) has everything thrown in to max out the measurement.
Click to expand...
Fairy muff. I know my amps not got that much power (iirc the PSU has about 500w to play with), but I've only once managed to max it out and only recently when watching Netflix via sky q but the film was mega quiet which is what the problem was (had to go upto -20db volume).
 
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