Back in September of 2024, I took an experimental trip to the CEDIA Expo. For those unfamiliar with trade show acronyms, that’s the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association Expo.

The association’s annual trade show primarily caters to contractors in the custom-install home theater industry and with part of the solution to good home theater being the accurate rendering of a sonic environment, I thought it rather obvious there’d be some crossover between our audience and theirs.

I’m Jason Methfessel, and I typically review products for THE ABSOLUTE SOUND that we consider to be options for individuals who are just getting into the world of foreground music listening or those looking for their next upgrade.

If you are just entering this world, you may find yourself bombarded with concepts of multi-channel systems – the most boisterous contender in this market is Dolby Laboratories and their Atmos technology. The onslaught of new concepts may cause you to question what type of system you should invest in – 2-channel Stereo or Multi-channel Surround Sound.

My hope with this video is to share my insights with those in just that situation. Additionally, I think what I have to share will also help those, with a satisfying stereo setup, who are wondering if more speakers might be better.

I also feel I should insert a disclaimer now: THE ABSOLUTE SOUND focuses on reviewing equipment for dedicated foreground music listening. We are not a home theater channel. I will inject my opinion of stereo versus surround sound for cinematic listening, but this is not my forte – so take it with a grain of salt.

Therefore, if you’re primarily in the market for a home theater setup, what I have to share may not be relevant to you.

So, with many questions in mind, I did some research, developed a hypothesis, and set out for some experimentation.

OVERVIEW

My hypothesis: For the purpose of listening to music, a surround sound system – specifically Dolby Atmos – will offer an experience closer to a live performance (spatially speaking). Allowing the listener to become surrounded by music, giving the aural illusion that the performers are in the room with you.

Since the development of Quadraphonic in the 70’s, the idea of going beyond two speakers has intrigued many listeners. Yet, the concept of multi-channel surround sound hasn’t really caught on in the mainstream – aside from movies and their not-so-believable soundtracks.

A significant hurdle to overcome in this arena is developing a library of content capable of presenting recordings using one of the available surround sound encoding formats – exempli gratia, Dolby Atmos.

Then once you think you’ve found recordings available in Atmos, you realize that understanding if you’re actually listening to them in Atmos isn’t exactly transparent.

Labels and streaming services are quick to paste the Dolby Atmos logo on any content that has been licensed – justifiably, as that license isn’t free. But just because you see that logo, it doesn’t mean the Atmos version of that recording is hitting your receiver or processor.

For instance – in my case, I have a TCL Roku TV that I use for demoing equipment with an eARC connection. Peacock and Apple TV+ were the only two video streaming services with Roku apps that support Atmos playback, albeit with a compressed soundtrack – Netflix likely would as well, if I care to upgrade to their Premium subscription offering.

On the streaming service Max, Dolby badges abound yet my receiver never recognized the stream as Atmos. From what I’ve read, this is likely a shortcoming of the Roku UI, but, again on every surface of the TV’s packaging, Dolby badges were not in short supply, so why no Atmos.

Of course, with a little research, one could probably nail down the right complement of equipment and if you’re dedicated to movies, Kaleidescape offers a pretty straightforward option to ensure a full bandwidth, uncompressed Atmos signal is making it to your equipment. Keep in mind, their equipment and services don’t come cheap and offer little for music enthusiasts.

Touching on musical streaming options for Atmos, with the limited ability of the smart TV apps available to me, the sole option for streaming Atmos music was via Tidal using my receiver’s built in streamer.

In this case, an ONKYO TX-RZ30 9.2-Channel AV Receiver. After queuing up my first track, it was immediately apparent that Atmos recordings streamed via Tidal were heavily compressed, but nonetheless the experiment carried on.

In a last-ditch effort to get uncompressed files, I downloaded a couple Atmos recording MKV files and even here, was finding it difficult for the receiver to decode them as Atmos – indicated by an orange Dolby logo on the receiver display along with an Atmos readout when selecting the listening mode.

I paused my efforts short of purchasing a recording on Blu-Ray and investing in a player for the medium.

Based on my experience struggling to simply play Atmos music, I could already have written my conclusion. Alas, I persevered in the name of science.

AN AUDIOPHILES TAKE ON ATMOS FOR MOVIES

As mentioned, we’re not a home theater channel. However, as an audiophile, that is, someone who loves – and is sensitive to – sound, I think there are some rather important questions that seem to go unanswered by the home theater community.

Before delving into those unanswered questions, let me set the stage. During my listening to music and watching movies, I progressed through various speaker configurations. Focal provided a set of their entry-level Theva speakers for this experiment and I started with the Theva No. 3-D in a 2.0.2 configuration. For those unfamiliar with surround sound ciphers, the first number indicates the number of full-bandwidth speakers placed around the listening position at roughly ear height, the second number indicates the sub-woofer count, and the third number indicates the height speaker count.

The Theva No. 3-D is Focal’s Dolby Atmos enabled floorstander. On the spec sheet, it offers everything the Theva No. 3 offers plus one 5-inch full-range driver firing at roughly 45-degrees up to project sound off the ceiling and thus imitate a ceiling mounted height speaker.

I then added a center channel and did some listening in 3.0.2; then finished the progression by adding surround channels to round out the configuration at 5.0.2.

Before getting into my notes, I feel I need to go back to the aforementioned unanswered questions and establish a foundation of a couple theories or philosophies. Chief among these is that very few – if any – movies are written and shot with a first-person perspective. Nor have I ever experienced a film so compelling that, visually, I felt as if I were there with the actors, so why exactly are we trying to sonically portray this?

To me, this is just confusing. I am watching Chris Pratt in Jurassic World; Director, Colin Trevorrow may be good, but – I’m sorry – he hasn’t convinced me that I’m in Jurassic World with Pratt, so why am I hearing footfalls from a triceratops behind me?

I like to think that I’m actually pretty good at suspending disbelief, but when I watch a movie, I typically watch with a perspective of having a window into a world rather than being in the world itself.

With that philosophical foundation (rant) out of the way, there are some really nice attributes to having a more three dimensional soundspace. Sometimes there is a need to recreate sounds from a scene that are a bit more environmental, examples of this could include birds chirping, or other’s conversations in a crowded room.

This is an area where Atmos really shines. Characters centered on screen could be engaged in dialogue with that presented solidly on the screen sonically, while the balance of the conversations in a crowded room fill the space around the screen. Leaving for a completely cohesive and plausible visual/aural sum.

To this end, adding more speakers to the equation didn’t guarantee a better result. There may even be an argument for it making the situation worse.

In addition to Atmos opening the soundspace for environmental sound to fill in with airiness, I really appreciated how Atmos rendered the score while watching movies.

With the use of height channels, Atmos provided an opportunity for the score to, again, fill the space around the screen and this felt very organic and had a certain rightness about it.

HOW’D IT SOUND WITH MUSIC

So how does all this work for listening to music? The answer I’ve arrived at is, I’m not entirely sure it does. Aside from the two or three recording engineers who have found innovative ways to use Atmos when collaborating with musicians, I don’t get it.

All the while I was listening to Atmos tracks, I kept coming back to the same question. What is this doing for me that really good stereo can’t?

Listening to The Golden Renaissance: Palestrina, Atmos did present the music in such a way that it was entirely believable that I was sitting in a cavernous 19^th century church in London, but again, good 2-channel stereo has the ability to do this as well.

Then there’s Time from Dark Side Of The Moon mixed for Atmos. Yes, clocks were flying around the room; still, something good stereo can accomplish.

I continued my experimenting and increased the fervor of my search. Moanin’ by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers – remastered for Atmos in 2013. This is a recording made in the early days of stereo and to say it was mishandled in the mixing process is to be kind.

I had high hopes that, when engineered for Atmos, the painfully hard-panned performers could once again be brought together as the unitive ensemble they likely were. Nope.

As many of our regular viewers will know, I have a soft spot in my heart for electronic music. Maybe here there could be something unique? Nearly everything I found in this realm bordered on gimmicky.

So going back to my hypothesis, what sort of conclusion can we derive? Well, there’s one thing I’ve left out while sharing my experience listening to music in Atmos and that’s the cost of ‘good’ stereo.

Many of you know through experience, but ‘good’ stereo – meaning stereo that’s able to render spaciousness in a way similar to what I’ve experienced in Atmos – does not come cheap.

That said, good stereo also comes with more than just spaciousness – think vividness, clarity, dynamics, balanced frequency response, etc.

CONCLUSION

A quick note before wrapping up, in my progression from 2.0.2 through 5.0.2, I honestly felt the most enjoyable experience was 2.0.2 – with the Theva No. 3-D covering those 4 channels, you’re coming in just under $3k for speakers.

And if you already have stereo speakers, a number of manufacturers offer the upshot as a stand-alone option. Simply upgrade to a surround receiver and you’re off.

So, after documenting my observations while experimenting, I think I’m able to conclude that my hypothesis was correct albeit with a caveat.

For those without a ‘sky’s the limit’ budget, listening to music on a surround sound system – specifically Dolby Atmos – can at times offer an experience closer to a live performance (spatially speaking).

You will need to have the temperament of one who ‘enjoys the hunt’ when it comes to sourcing material for playback, and you’ll be spending a bit of time sorting out the equipment you need to ensure you’re getting the most from Atmos

But if spaciousness is what you’re after, Atmos may be the option for many of you to satisfy that itch without a home equity loan.

Thanks for being here and I really hope the time I took to experiment will help many of you make a more informed buying decision. After all, that’s what we’re here for.

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