As with DTS: X encoded material, sounds mixed into the rear channels, played back over 5 bed channels, are mixed as a phantom image between the surrounds. Some Atmos can be a bit underwhelming tbh but I think thats down to the film and not the format. In 1996, DTS began cropping up in consumer hardware. Based on the specs alone, DTS beats its rival with higher bit-rates that promise a more realistic movie experience. A second demo was done with The Dark Knight Rises. The Force Awakens is a DTS HD-MA mix, and The Dark Knight Rises is a DTS HD-MA 5.1 mix. Curious to see how I could get a sound to come from the heights independent from the surrounds, I created a 440hz tone, 180 degrees out of phase, overlayed with 500hz high passed (48dB) pink noise, 180 degrees out of phase with an added 10ms delay between the l/r channels. For those who prefer the image be spread out more, most receivers have a center spread option. With Neural X, I had similar issues as I had with movies, I also noticed a huge loss of bass. Maybe it's just me, but I feel it effectively sends rain and aircraft sounds to the height speakers. The only minor difference being that some sounds originally mixed into the front left and right found their way into the surrounds, most of these being blaster shots or lightsaber noises. I don't think you will find a large number of people on this site that use 1 let along both formats. Leave a comment below to explain which and why. The company might not be as well known as its main rival, but many purists believe that DTS offers better sound quality because it encodes audio at higher bit-rates. Dolby Atmos or DTS:X? at the bottom of the OSD it says: quote: "set to "off" to disable the mode which switches to the optimum processing automatically for input DTS signal and speaker setting". So long as a sound lied within a different band, it could be steered independently from other sounds. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. The downside? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. :). You will receive a verification email shortly. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); I started this blog as a sort of dumping ground for my thoughts, opinions, ideas etc. Phase and timing manipulation has no effect on Neural X when using multichannel tracks, however with stereo content, out of phase information is directed to the surround or rears, and from there directed into the heights as is done with multichannel content. Change). Want the best? DSU flawlessly reproduced the imaging of a large auditorium. Do you have a pc/laptop that you can attach to your amp if you do then get the atmos test from the windows store and run that, it should give what you're expecting. As the ship takes off, sounds are so accurately placed into the heights, its as if it was actually encoded with height data. Which do you prefer? As home cinema has improved, new surround sound formats have sprung up, bringing more detail and realism to movie nights. Europe's busiest forums, with independent news and expert reviews, for TVs, Home Cinema, Hi-Fi, Movies, Gaming, Tech and more. You'll find DTS and Dolby Digital supported Blu-ray players, home cinema systems, games consoles, computers, set-top boxes and even smartphones. I have not been able to test the difference with DTS:X content yet. Testing it with music, I started out with classical. So whats different about Dolby Surround and Neural:X? First HT, 5.1.2 or 5.1.4? There is also DTS:X, which competes with Dolby's Atmos. Unlike PLIIz, Neo:X had the ability to decode up to 11 channels, either two pairs of height channels mounted on the front and rear wall, or front height and front width channels. From my listening tests, it does a pretty good job sorting it all out, but how does it do this? Atmos titles can be hit or miss and it all depends on how the mix is produced. Ive always kept it in the family Dolby upmixer for the TrueHD mixes, and Neural X for the DTS-HD ones. Is the DTS vs Dolby war effectively over? If one sits in the sweet spot, vocals come from the center anyways. The No. While Dolby Surround does a good job at extracting height information, its not quite the same as an actual object based experience, nevertheless, both decoders have strengths and weaknesses, and its tough to say either one is better as a generalization, both DSU and Neural Xexcel at certain things, while falling short in others, I can certainly say DSU is the clear winner with 2ch content due to the issues with Neural X described above. The way the Neural X handles a 5.1 mix vs a7.1 mix is important, and will be explained further on down. For my testing I used a Yamaha RXA1050, next week I'll have more testing on a 3060. Thor: Love & Thunder and Netflixs Sea Beast Reviews and the latest 4K + Movie/TV News. Agree. I have a yamaha 3060 so it is very easy to switch configurations without losing the EQ. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence. Dolby surround first takeseach pair of channels (front, surround, and rear) and processes them separately. For movies, I pulled the blurays off into an MKV, pulled the audio tracks out, opened them up in Reaper, created a regular stereo downmix, and then muxed the 2ch PCM file into the mkv. Neural X on the other hand does such a good job of remapping pinpoint sounds that it sounds almost as good as discrete Atmos. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Like Dolby Digital, DTS has since released a plethora of more advanced surround sound formats including DTS-HD High Resolution, which supports up to 7.1 speaker channels. By default, all sounds coming from the center such as vocals are hard mixed into the center. Adding a 10ms shift between the front and surround doesnt seem to stir up the decoder, since it processes channels in pairs separately. Both have their places. 15ms vs 10 ms) slightly changes the overall effect. Ultimately, you can expect a fine home cinema experience from both, and often your choice of soundtrack will come down to whichever is supported by your source material. (in Atmos/X). But if I look at what Id class as reference quality tracks, the majority would be Atmos, mainly due to the amount of Atmos released versus DTSX. Wind, rain, birds, and pretty much anything that could possibly be over head was pushed up into the heights. It would actually be far more realistic coming out of the non-Atmos channels. Obviously, the movie has lots of spaceship flyovers, and the soundtrack is modern enough to really let the decoders take advantage of the spatial cues. For some reason I am drawing a brain fart on this. This increased the channel separation achievable by about 30dB. Yay. With standards constantly evolving, the best way to upgrade your movie night is to ensure you have good-quality components, set up properly and fed the highest possible source material. Dolby Digital Plus supports up to 1.7Mbps, while DTS-HD High Resolution supports up to 6Mb/s. Thanks for the clarity. I just finished WOW what an immersive experience! Live with it for a while and then turn off the Atmos speakers. AVForums.com is owned and operated by M2N Limited, I'm watching "The Meg". The multichannel musical score was pushed upwards, giving the full image of a large concert hall. This website uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb. The info suggests that with DTS:X the height speakers are located at 45 degrees front and back of the mlp in the same physical location that Atmos top speakers are located. DSU does a much better job with environmental sounds, such as birds chirping, and rain and wind. Some folks might not like this, but I personally feel like this is more natural. In the early 2000s, PLII was introduced as an improved version of the original PL. The Dolby Atmos on this movie is more than just a reference disc! Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, The first demo was done using a 5.1.2 top middle configuration, and then done using a front height configuration later on. Not as much. The sound is everything that atmos is about.

DTS nx seems to wait for something it thinks should come from above then pushes it up, while DSU seems to expand the entire sound stage vertically. Dolby TrueHD is a lossless format that promises to be identical to the movie studio's master recording. Do you agree with this and would it apply to both DTS:X and the Neural:X upmixer? The devil is in the detail. Im beginning to wonder if DTS:X was rushed and released incomplete, because there have been a lot of people noticing many of the issues I addressed in this post, and even more. The first demo was done using a Top Middle Configuration. For the most part the heights are relatively toned down. It was a bit more difficult to tell what was coming from overhead during action scenes with the orchestra blaring, adding the score to the heights made the music a bit louder than what it would have been without the heights. It's my default setting for non-atmos audio. Overall, it made the sound stage feel massive, though sometimes I did feel like it was too much, especially with the musical score. Switching over to Neural X, the first thing that I noticed was a ton of comb filtering and an incoherent sound field. JavaScript is disabled. The output quality should equal the input quality. Case closed, then? With Dolby Surround, I noticed a lot more coming from the heights. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Either way, DSU did a fantastic job of upmixing the original stereo recording. The channel separation was so good it might as well have been a discrete mix. My hope is that someone will find it useful, or at least amusing. The compression gap widens when you step up to the competing HD formats. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London and Bath. Changing the speakers to a front height configuration changed where the upmixer pulled sounds from, with less of a focus on directly overhead sounds, placing height sounds instead from the front L/R into the height channels. Studio recordings are generally recorded in an acoustically treated room, so any reverberation is added during the mixing process. The best Dolby Atmos movie scenes to test your speakers, The Best AV receivers, best speaker packages and best soundbars you can buy.

Audyssey also provided front height and width channels via Dynamic Surround Expansion (DSX), however, unlike Neo:X and PLIIz, no steering logic was involved. Yamaha Surround Modes and DSP's - after a better understanding of what's going on and what to select?? a typical home cinema system with five speakers and one subwoofer). Naturally, I chose the force awakens once again.

Around the same time, DTS released their own upmixing solution called Neo:6. I have a question for you. In the top configuration, Neural X appears more discrete and limited to sounds the upmixer thinks should be directly above. (LogOut/ For one, direct sounds, such as the rocks falling on the Millenium Falcon, werent quite as loud with DSU, despite the fact the overall loudness of the height channels was greater due to more sounds being routed to them, nor were they as focused. That is what i have used during the few native DTS:X movies I have watched. Its upmix from stereo is just amazing, and even better for 5.1 and True HD soundtracks. Changing the configuration from top middle to front height, rear height, and then 5.1.2 to 5.1, 7.1, and even 4.1 produced the same results.

Technically Kef ci160QRs aren't ATMOS speakers. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Dolby Surround or Neural X? For DVD discs, it supports up to 768 kbits/s. What Hi-Fi? Btw, my DVD player is plugged into the DVD HDMI on AV, or should it be in the Blue Ray DVD? Looks like thats exactly what it is. For 2.0, I think it smartly moves dialog to the center channel and raises the soundstage by utilizing the front heights. Powered by Xenforo, Hosted by Nimbus Hosting, Original design Critical Media Ltd. "Let our rigorous testing and reviews be your guidelines to A/V equipment not marketing slogans", Get our latest product reviews and AV stories emailed to you weekly. Dolby Digital or DTS? Im not entirely sure why or whats going on here, and I intend to do some further testing, but at this point, I would strongly recommend against the use of Neural X for 2ch content. Not so in DSU. For DVD discs, it supports a slightly lower bit-rate: up to 448 kbits/s.

Neural X offers fantastic channel separation, but unlike DSU, sounds remapped into the heights are entirely removed from their original channels. Others argue that Dolby Digital's technology is more advanced and produces better sound quality at a lower bit rate. This offered increase channel separation and improved accuracy. Tend to stick with DD+DSur. In theory, less compression during encoding equals more detailed audio that delivers a soundtrack closer to what was originally intended. is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The sum of the left and right channels was mixed into the center, and the spatial timing differences were routed into the surrounds. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, 2016 Vizio P65, 5.0.2 Elac Debut F5+C5+B4+A4, Denon X2200, 65 CX, Yamaha A3060, B&W 600 series 7.2.4. These top-of-the-line, cutting-edge home cinema audio technologies from Dolby and DTS are a step up from traditional surround sound. During my testing, I managed to get pink noise to play only from the top middle channels by equally spreading the pink noise across the front and surround/rear channels, how it handled this was significantly different with a 7.1 mix vs a 5.1 mix, with a 7.1 mix allowing far greater accuracy. Its hard to say which one I prefer better, since they both have their strengths and weaknesses. This would explain why I find it less discrete sounding than Neural X. With PLII, things like dialogue, which was matrixed to the center, could be faintly heard in the left and right channels, especially when lots was going on. Why were the rears chosen instead of surrounds? Back in the early days of surround sound, before discrete digital surround sound, Dolby came up with Dolby Surround (the original version, confused yet?). IMO, Neural X behaves quite differently depending on whether the speakers are configured as tops or heights. I'll give it a shot, haven't tried it on my NAD, I typically use the Dolby Surround upmixer. Unlike Neural:X, sounds from above were less focused, while pretty much everything Neural X pushed to the heights was similarly pushed with DSU, the difference was how discrete it sounded. DTS Neural X is simply upmixing what you feed it. Its also difficult to truly judge how well DTS:X will perform with regular 5.1.2 configurations because the few blurays encoded with DTS:X have been poor sources of demo material (heavily dialogue based, not a lot of action with stuff flying around the room etc.). Sounds such as Batman swooping down from above, and the Bat aircraft flying overhead were moved into the height channels. As with movies, channel separation was exceptional. I have no idea, but I suspect DTS has their reasoning because it seems to work much better subjectively speaking with 7.1 movies vs 5.1. mixing pink noise equally between the front left and rear left channels remapped the sound into the top middle left, obviously the same was true with the right channels. Copyright 2000-2022 M2N Limited E. & O.E. You can find Dolby Atmos products from an increasing number of hardware manufacturers, as well as across Blu-ray discs and streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+. Maybe ATMOS will improve over time. Guarantee you'll miss them. I really do believe it was designed with an 11.1 style configuration in mind just based on experience, but it doesnt really seem to differentiate much between having 4 top speakers vs 4 height speakers. With the old Prologic II decoders, sounds could be placed into the surrounds via a completely phase reversal, or a timing delay. With Dolby Surround, it was really difficult to tell the difference between the multichannel mix and the 2ch upmix. BA1 1UA. I only a few DTS:X discs but they are very good. I believe all that does is switch neural x on with DTS legacy inputs. The reason for this will be discussed further on down. Throughout the rest of the movie, Neural:X would every so often grab a distinct sound and move it to the heights with extreme precision, but the rest of the time it just sat there and did nothing. What I was really curious about was how DSU would determine what should go into the surrounds and what should go into the heights with 2ch content. The 440hz sine wave moved to the surrounds, and the band limited pink noise moved into both the surrounds and the heights in a similar fashion to what happened with multichannel content. What does this mean exactly? This worked extremely well with any content, providing a simulated surround experience that was nearly as accurate as a discrete mix. It expands the soundstage and many movies sound much better with it. I dont have a ton of money so my system and setup is relatively modest. When switching back to stereo, I instantly felt like the sound stage seemed flat and lifeless when compared with DSU. Unlike PLII, there was absolutely no channel bleed whatsoever. DTS: Neural X is said to be a completely new design, independent from Neo: 6/X. They recreate object-based effects, such as a plane flying overhead or bullets zinging around the room, thanks to multiple audio signals aimed at set-ups with a greater number of speakers than the standard 5.1.

Remember that these movies are recorded to play back at reference level, whereby all your speakers if calibrated correctly will DO THEIR THING! The scene that really caught my attention was the Millennium Falcon taking off from tatooine. With Dolby Surround, sounds can be shifted into the height channels by a simple timing delay between a specific set of channels, for example, a 10ms delay between the left and right channels with full band pink noise will push the sound into the top front channels, add that same delay to both the surround and front channels and it gets pushed into the top middle, add it to the the rear channels only and that sound gets pushed into the top rears. Sign up below to get the latest from What Hi-Fi?, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Obviously, there is some subjectivity here. That said, other factors such as signal to noise ratio and speaker calibration mean that plenty of audiophiles would rate Dolby above DTS. The sound stage is noticeably taller and the room is bigger. As Rey and Finn are running towards the ship, tie fighters are blasting away at the ground, sending rocks and sand flying into the air, as theyapproach the ship, the airborne rocks can be heard hitting the top of the ship overhead. Regardless, both upmixers are significantly more advanced than their predecessors. LG's OLED TVs over the past years also support Atmos, while the 2022 Panasonic LZ2000 4K OLED TV (and some of the company's older flagship TVs) has its own upward-firing Dolby Atmos speakers built into the rear of the set. Would there be any benefit to using Neural X upmixing for 2.0 sources on a 5.1 system? Currently, there are far more Atmos releases than DTS:X releases, and it seems to be the preferred object based format for studios for whatever reason, so I would first and foremost design my system around the Atmos specifications. For this demo, I used the Vudu version of The Force Awakens, since its encoded in 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus. Theres not much to say than was already said in the Star Wars demo, outside of more ambiance being pushed upwards, the experience was fairly similar. Remember Neural X being described by DTS as a spatial remapping algorithm? I often felt like there were a lot of sounds that should have been remapped that werent, such as rain, wind, birds, and echos. Buying Advice, Tech Support, etc for Televisions, Home Theater, Speakers, Projectors, Audio/Video Receivers, etc. They truly elevate the experience. The upmixer seems to do a good job no matter what the content is. With wind and rain, this offers an exceptionally three dimensional sound field, with single origin sounds, such as the falling rocks, it makes it harder to pinpoint as coming from above. Read on to find out how DTS and Dolby Digital differ and why it matters. There's a range of simpler options, such as Dolby Atmos soundbars with upfiring drivers that bounce the sound off the ceiling to similar effect, or better yet upfiring modules that can sit on top of your traditional speakers. If You Care To Share Thead! AV eARC HDMI to TV. Comparing between stereo and 5.1.2, DSU really opened up the sound stage in all way that sounded impressively realistic to what one would hear at a live performance. I'm not really sure where the reviewer got that dts nx was more aggressive and much louder, because that hasn't been my experience. So leave DTS on or off? This obviously left much to be desired. If i upconvert to DTS Neural X so it plays on my 5.1.2, will i lose quality? For 5.1 signals DTS neural its amazing (especially in games) but for stereo signals is a little bit aggressive and sometimes fails redirecting the sounds (especially in stereo animes). The Dishonesty of Sighted Listening Tests, What is the function of FRONT HEIGHT speakers and how loud should they be? On AVS forum, the consensus seems to be that the most discrete effect is with height configuration. I have included the files used at the bottom of this post. Theres not a whole lot of detail on how it works exactly, but its said to be a spatial remapping algorithm, which uses the knowledge of the sound position and the speaker locations to properly route sounds to the correct speakers. I have a 7.1.4 setup with the .4 speakers physically mounted to the ceiling. (9.4.6) Trinnov Altitude 16, Trinnov Amplitude 8m x 2, JBL SAM1/2 x 3, Arendal 1723S x 4, Arendal 1961 x 8, Arendal Sub2s x 2, Sub1s x 2 Hoverboss - 3 x12" drivers. With a 7.1 mix, the only way to to get sound to come from the heights is to spread it between the rear surrounds and fronts. DTS:X will mix in the floor speakers and attempt to map the sound back down to 45 degrees . Accuracy was improved by using logic steering (hence the name), which operated by raising or lowering the volume of other channels depending on the dominant signal, for example, a strong mono signal would trigger the decoder to lower the volume of the left and right. Press J to jump to the feed. You are using an out of date browser. Unlike DSU, which upmixes based on variations in the time and frequency domain, Neural X operates entirely in the spatial domain. It appears more overall ambiance is pushed to the speakers in this configuration. A new solution was needed. Overall,DSU does equally well with multichannel content and stereo content, and irs method for deriving height channels from a 2ch mix seems to work quite well. It delivers a cinematic surround sound experience and is commonly referred to as the 'industry standard' (primarily because Dolby Labs has been around longer than DTS). Nevertheless, I do appreciate good sound (much more than I do video, still rocking a 720p display). It should also be noted that unlike DTS:X, Atmos actually does render a mix quite differently when configured for front/rear heights vs top height configurations, so if youve got top speakers, its best to leave them configured as such. Neural X decodes height information based on the spatial relationship of sounds in a 5.1/7.1 mix. Not so fast. To start off, I used Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its my default setting on my Denon 6700h. The separation between the front left, top left, and surround left was nearly non existent, almost as if I were using an old Dolby Prologic decoder with extra speakers attached. (My default is DTS Neo Cinema.). Despite the fact its recorded in stereo, all of the phase and spatial information is preserved, reflections from the room arrive at the microphones at different times, which gives the decoder lots to work with. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8fwzv7vr0mx823u/AAB6rnUn3FauFFbCsyNgCUqxa?dl=0. DTS is encoded at a higher bit rate and therefore is considered by some experts to be better quality. Configured as heights, it sounds like an aggressive version of Dolby Surround. I saw that article too and never really understood why they used rainfall as an example of great Atmos effect given that its sound comes from water hitting the ground which is below ear level! Be sure to check out the test files I uploaded on your own systems. It consisted of two tracks mixed as stereo called Right Total and Left Total, containing the left and right tracks, a center channel mixed at -3dB, and the surround channel mixed at -3dB and out of phase with the right, left, and center. Around 90 per cent of the home AV industry supports DTS:X, with many manufacturers either releasing firmware updates for existing receivers or launching new models. I am watching a movie in DTS HD MA 5.1. I use Dolby Surround for all my sources. The company got its big break when Steven Spielberg chose DTS for his dino-romp, Jurassic Park (opens in new tab). The first film to use Dolby Digital was Batman Returns in 1992. Okay, so after some time with both DTS Neural X and Dolby surround, I've come to the conclusion that neither is better or worse than the other. Dolby now uses a multiband decoder, vs the broadband PLII, and God knows what DTS is doing to derive the extra channels. I have noticed music often is sent to front atmos pair instead of LR. Each channel pair is first divided by frequency bands to allow independent processing of individual sounds, then, each band is processed in the timing domain, direct sounds with timing differences can be steered into the bed channels, while diffuse/decorrelated sound can be steered into the height channels. It works with standard surround sound set-ups and doesn't require extra overhead speakers. It has occurred to me recently the chasm that exists between an average Dolby Atmos track and a truly great one. With the release of Atmos, (and later, DTS:X), both decoders came with entirely redesigned upmixing solutions, Dolby Surround and DTS Neural:X, both of which are able to fully decode as many extra channels as your AVR can process. Dolby Atmos uses speakers placed in the ceiling to create a 'bubble' of sound. Part I: SpeakerLayout. DTS:X seems to work just fine with top front/rear configurations. There is a setting to reduce the audio range of the loudest and quietest in Dolby. On AVS forum, I have read that it is better to change the configuration to height instead of top for DTS:X. company number 03997482, registered in England and Wales. Im definitely blown awayby the extreme precision it has, especially with 7.1 channel mixes. Unlike Atmos, the DTS:X layout I have seen has no height speakers on the front and rear walls . Confused? In their most basic form, both DTS and Dolby Digital support 5.1-channel audio (i.e. The good news is that both are widely supported and chances are you won't have to play favourites. It is less common and you won't find it on any streaming services, even on Disney+ where Marvel movies are available in IMAX Enhanced, a presentation format from the same company as DTS (Xperi) and which typically uses DTS audio. DSX functioned by increasing the apparent width and height of the sound stage via ideal early reflection simulation. This offers extremely good separation of channels and highly accurate placement of sounds. The ultimate in sound mixes. Both DTS and Dolby Digital are audio compression technologies, allowing moviemakers to record surround sound that can be reproduced in cinemas as well as homes. InPart Iwe looked at the differences between DTS:X and Atmos as far as the layout goes. Looking for feedback on parts & sketches, LG CX, Sonos Arc, Dolby Atmos Audio Differences based on Format, Lypertek drops price of PurePlay Z5 TWS earphones, Auro-3D finds a buyer to secure its future, Netflix loses nearly one million subscribers, What's new on Sky, NOW and Paramount+ UK for August 2022, Netflix teams up with Microsoft to deliver its ad-supported subs tier.