[wilsonbj]

Just wondering what the correct in-game audio setting for Atmos is? Do you set it to Surround Sound or Headphones? So many conflicting answers online. Trying to make the most of my new Maxwells.

I opened a reddit post asking the same thing with Audeze_CS replying saying always select Surround Sound, but another user pointed out conflicting information on the Audeze support page:
Support Page Link:
https://support.audeze.com/hc/en-us/articles/15894700928013-Enabling-Dolby-Atmos-on-Xbox-and-PC

Reddit Post Link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Audeze/comments/1cnreyo/ingame_audio_settings_for_dolby_atmos/

Just can't seem to get a straight answer on this and was wondering what everyone else thinks here.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm gonna edit this, since there's so much conflicting info.

All I'll say is all you need to do is test 2 channel, headphone, home theater options in a game you know. If it's an FPS or third person shooter, move the character like 10-15 feet away from sound that is constant in and repeatable, Like say a waterfall in front of you.

One of those game sound options will place that sound around you better than the others with Atmos enabled. Turn your character around to put the sound (i.e. waterfall at your 4 o clock behind you.)... It should evidently sound like it's behind you at your 4 o clock. The wrong sound option will make it much harder to tell if it's at your 4 o clock, or at your 2 o clock in front of you.

If it all sounds the same to you, then it ain't gonna matter. Some people can't really tell of HTRF improvements, and just prefer stereo without any processing.

I'm gonna be doing my own tests, as for a very long time, Home Theater was always the option for any and all virtual surround processing options like Dolby Headphone as feeding it headphone/2ch would be limiting the information to convert down to virtual surround.

However, this may have changed with Atmos itself. Our article states using headphone, which... is different from my own experiences, so I'm gonna look into it, personally.

 

[wilsonbj]

I'm gonna edit this, since there's so much conflicting info.

All I'll say is all you need to do is test 2 channel, headphone, home theater options in a game you know. If it's an FPS or third person shooter, move the character like 10-15 feet away from sound that is constant in and repeatable, Like say a waterfall in front of you.

One of those game sound options will place that sound around you better than the others with Atmos enabled. Turn your character around to put the sound (i.e. waterfall at your 4 o clock behind you.)... It should evidently sound like it's behind you at your 4 o clock. The wrong sound option will make it much harder to tell if it's at your 4 o clock, or at your 2 o clock in front of you.

If it all sounds the same to you, then it ain't gonna matter. Some people can't really tell of HTRF improvements, and just prefer stereo without any processing.

I'm gonna be doing my own tests, as for a very long time, Home Theater was always the option for any and all virtual surround processing options like Dolby Headphone as feeding it headphone/2ch would be limiting the information to convert down to virtual surround.

However, this may have changed with Atmos itself. Our article states using headphone, which... is different from my own experiences, so I'm gonna look into it, personally.

Thanks for the reply, how did you go with your testing?

 

[zilax002]

Thanks for the reply, how did you go with your testing?

You'll also want to look out for games that have specific options related to Atmos.

Resident Evil 4 remake, for example, has a 3D audio option that's grayed out on PC until you enable Atmos through Windows, at which point it flips on but you can't turn it off (the game enables/disables Atmos purely based on the Windows audio settings).

I hope we'll get better transparency and visibility going forward (i.e., in-game menus making it clear which setting should be used for Atmos audio over headphones).

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Thanks for the reply, how did you go with your testing?

My conclusions with several games:

If a game fully supports Atmos (i.e. Overwatch 2) and has an in game Atmos for Headphone option, as long as that's chosen, Headphone/Home Theater doesn't matter. Both will work.

If a game support Atmos, but does not have in game "Dolby Atmos For Headphones" option, but has speaker config options, it may or may not matter whether you choose Surround/Home Theater/7.1 vs Stereo/Headphones. May be on a per game basis. I've tested some games where it works regardless of choice.

If a game supports Atmos, but does NOT have speaker config options or choices to choose between stereo, headphone, home theater, etc. It seems to still work.

If a game does not natively support Atmos but has speaker config options (i.e. stereo, headphone, home theater, etc). You will want to set it to the Home Theater/Surround/multi channel option. Setting it to headphone/stereo will not feed Atmos enough info to convert this to spatial audio.

If a game does not support Atmos and has no speaker configuration: It's a crapshoot. It MAY or may not work, depending on whether the game defaults to multiple speaker audio rendering or not.

In short, the universal option should be Surround/Home Theater as that seems to just work regardless

 

[zilax002]

Very detailed breakdown, @Mad Lust Envy !

I never would have thought to select home theater when there's no Atmos option, though it makes sense when I think about it that Atmos would want the multi channel info to convert that to Atmos.

Really hoping a good standard/best practices gets solidified though so things will just work in the future without all these guessing games!

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

It's been a long time annoyance of mine with all the surround dsps.

Virtual surround anything should honestly slap a big warning sign "Set games to surround for wide compatibility. Even if using headphones, you do not want to use Headphone option in game when using our surround software which needs the information from the surround option, etc, etc. Setting a game to stereo or headphone MAY work, but in applications that don't support X-Y-Z, it may not."

It's the wild west out there, unfortunately, and when each game may behave differently depending on options... it's hard to really provide a universal "this works on all games" option.

Ideally, like Overwatch 2, games should just have a "Spatial Audio" option. That would eliminate a lot of the guess work.

If only most game studios put some amount of effort into headphone audio like they do with graphics.

 

[MotherGooz]

Well after more then a month on repair and 2 weeks at Audeze the conclusion is; to bad, not fixable, no replacement send back. I’m disappointed in the Audeze solution, I expected more from you @Audeze . The store I bought it from would not even give me my money back and didn’t have a replacement on hand. Told them this is unacceptable and after playing it higher up, I got my money back. But I don’t think I will order another one after this experience. But I miss the headset so much…

 

[onek00lj4y]

Plenty more reliable headphones out there,just move on,do yourself a favour & forget about Audeze

 

[Audeze]

Well after more then a month on repair and 2 weeks at Audeze the conclusion is; to bad, not fixable, no replacement send back. I’m disappointed in the Audeze solution, I expected more from you @Audeze . The store I bought it from would not even give me my money back and didn’t have a replacement on hand. Told them this is unacceptable and after playing it higher up, I got my money back. But I don’t think I will order another one after this experience. But I miss the headset so much…

For anyone who is international (you are in NL) and is not assisted by the dealer (Dealers do not have to assist you past the initial return period), you need to contact the local distributor in your country (if you purchased in your country).

Also check the distributor first who handle all warranty claims in their region.

https://www.audeze.com/pages/european-distribution

After that, if the distributor refuses to assist you, you can email us at support@audeze.com and we'll look into it (we may not have been informed of this prior).

We cannot help you if we were never told about your issues to begin with.