Dolby Atmos for Headphones now available in Windows 10

[x7007]

It's a bit hard to tell here. Not sure if Shadow Warrior is the best way to test this. Take a look at the links I posted above to getting an actual Atmos test track. It is easy to here the difference and then if you record your internal audio you should be able to hear if it was recorded. A 'ghetto' way to record the audio is to just capture the sound out of your headphone report to another recording device. Then import the wave back and blend it with your video. On Mac OS X I use a program called Soundflower to route internal audio to recording software, I'm sure there is a Windows equivalent.

Anyhow, it isn't quite clear if Dolby Atmos for headphone will work automatically with games when you switch them to 5.1/7.1 and headphone out. I know it works with Battlefield 1 (has a dedicated Atmos track). Would probably work with BF3 and BF4 (converting their surround sound channels to simulated surround).

So GSX 1000 is still the best Virtual Surround ? How well does the GSX 1000 work for Stereo only channels ? and how well for 7.1 ? is there a difference for this kind specific with the GSX ? so I'll know in comparison we already know that the Atmos doesn't upmix

 

[Malfunkt]

Not sure if the GSX1000 is the best. It is definitely more expensive. From what i heard on some test videos it worked well on stereo-channels but so did Atmos. Some GSX1000 videos on youtube didn't quite sound right, for a couple reasons, people putting too much reverb on the source signal, or applying it on top of two-channel sound that already has spatialization.

Some people who replied in Youtube comments said that it sounded much better in person and that some of these videos didn't do the GSX1000 justice. That said, its fairly $$$ for what really can be done with just software. :/

So it's nice that Sennheiser has this, but really for gaming I'm not sure if it will have longevity. I guess it depends if game developers will continue to put resources into 5.1/7.1, but perhaps they won't, as internal game engines such as the ones used by Battlefield 1, CS:Go, Overwatch (uses Atmos natively) pretty much allow for full spatialization. The GSX to me is actually best used on 5.1/7.1 digital media, and some two-channel content to give spatialization. It's a very nice DSP implementation, but aside from some live controls, not sure of its advantages over Atmos, aside from preference of one algorithm over another. And price... significant price difference, plus Atmos software won't take up any desktop space and can be routed to amp/DAC of choice.

 

[username1]

Can anyone tell me how to activate this Windows Sonic (not Atmos) thing? I have chosen it in Spatial settings, it reverts audio settings to 44.8kHz 2.0 stereo. Do you need to play real 5.1 source material to hear the difference? Do i have to keep "Headphones" setting under Creative settings or 5.1? Right now playing music or other stuff makes no "reverb" difference at all, while enabling Creative CMSS it adds this crappy reverb automatically to everything.

I'm using USB based X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro DAC.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

You don't really need to do anything else, just select it in the spatial surround settings. This doesn't really impact music playback hugely at all like most other processing algorithms so it's not like you can immediatly tell if it's on or not based on music playback.

 

[username1]

Maybe i need to use Windows drivers for my card. Creative driver suite is known to cause problems, though.

Also some info from MS page:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/mt807491(v=vs.85).aspx

On both Windows and Xbox, the number of available voices varies based on the format in use. Dolby Atmos formats support 32 total active objects (so if a 7.1.4 channel bed is in use, 20 additional dynamic sound objects can be active). Windows Sonic for Headphones supports 128 total active objects, with the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel not actually being counted as an object -- so when an 8.1.4.4 channel bed is in use, 112 dynamic sound objects can be active.

 

[Clovis559]

It's a bit hard to tell here. Not sure if Shadow Warrior is the best way to test this. Take a look at the links I posted above to getting an actual Atmos test track. It is easy to here the difference and then if you record your internal audio you should be able to hear if it was recorded. A 'ghetto' way to record the audio is to just capture the sound out of your headphone report to another recording device. Then import the wave back and blend it with your video. On Mac OS X I use a program called Soundflower to route internal audio to recording software, I'm sure there is a Windows equivalent.

Anyhow, it isn't quite clear if Dolby Atmos for headphone will work automatically with games when you switch them to 5.1/7.1 and headphone out. I know it works with Battlefield 1 (has a dedicated Atmos track). Would probably work with BF3 and BF4 (converting their surround sound channels to simulated surround).

Dolby Atmos for headphones doesn't work with Battlefield 1. Maybe for the 7.1 virtual, but you cannot enable Atmos in game. Same for BF4 and BF3. Tried them.

 

[Malfunkt]

Dolby Atmos for headphones doesn't work with Battlefield 1. Maybe for the 7.1 virtual, but you cannot enable Atmos in game. Same for BF4 and BF3. Tried them.

To clarify. Atmos doesn't work 'natively' for headphones in Battlefield. It does work natively if you are outputting via HDMI to a home-theatre surround sound speaker setup.

In order for it to work with headphones, the Dolby Atmos for Headphones software is required on Windows. Enabled, it seems to 'just work' with BF1. It's nice, and I've been using it. Not sure if its that much better than the native headphone implementation, as I haven't tested extensively.

Edit: Clovis559 is right. At the moment it appears that it is only 7.1 virtualized. Nice, but the native headphone mode may be more accurate spatially.

 

[Clovis559]

To clarify. Atmos doesn't work 'natively' for headphones in Battlefield. It does work natively if you are outputting via HDMI to a home-theatre surround sound speaker setup.

In order for it to work with headphones, the Dolby Atmos for Headphones software is required on Windows. Enabled, it seems to 'just work' with BF1. It's nice, and I've been using it. Not sure if its that much better than the native headphone implementation, as I haven't tested extensively.

You didn't clarify. You partly restated what I said. The person I quoted was interested because Battlefield 1 supported Atmos. You are not getting Atmos with Dolby Atmos for Headphones. It does not work in Battlefield 1. You are only getting 7.1 virtual.

 

[Malfunkt]

You didn't clarify. You partly restated what I said. The person I quoted was interested because Battlefield 1 supported Atmos. You are not getting Atmos with Dolby Atmos for Headphones. It does not work in Battlefield 1. You are only getting 7.1 virtual.

Thanks Clovis559, I stand corrected. I made an assumption that as BF1 has Atmos that 'somehow' when using Dolby Atmos for Headphones it would recognize this audio track. But I believe you are correct, and that it is just using 7.1 virtualized. This is all that it shows selected, and sonically, it even sounds like 7.1 virtualized. So better off just using its native headphone mode which is excellent.

The game is outstanding for audio immersion. Gameplay, well, is pretty fun, and I think will get better.

 

[x7007]

Thanks Clovis559, I stand corrected. I made an assumption that as BF1 has Atmos that 'somehow' when using Dolby Atmos for Headphones it would recognize this audio track. But I believe you are correct, and that it is just using 7.1 virtualized. This is all that it shows selected, and sonically, it even sounds like 7.1 virtualized. So better off just using its native headphone mode which is excellent.

The game is outstanding for audio immersion. Gameplay, well, is pretty fun, and I think will get better.

So should I play this game with Stereo set in windows cause that's what Asus card gives me. then set Headphones in BF1 ? that will give me 7.1 or just Stereo ?

If I want 7.1 which one should I choose ? Virtual Surround in the Sound Card drivers + Home Cinema in BF1 ?

With Atmos we should use Headphones also ?

I mean what are our options when we want Stereo only or Stereo Virtual Surround , or 7.1 Headphones Virtual Surround ? or there is just Stereo Virtual Surround. Hard to explain because I don't understand the game engine and we have so many ways to get virtual surround.

 

[Clovis559]

Tbh When it comes to Headphone and Spatial, everyone has a preference, love & hate. If you ask enough people, you will end up in a circle. What I recommend, you might not like.

For short, I when I do use headphones, I plug them into my Yamaha receiver. I get Dolby TrueHD as my spatial sound, but this is done in my receiver. I don't have to swap settings in games or windows ever. I don't have to adjust the quality to and from 48khz and 192khz.
(In fact in Battlefield 1 I get an Atmos signal to the receiver, but Dolby TrueHD to my headphones, without having to change any settings in Battlefield 1)

But my go to is regularly a 5.1.2 Atmos speaker setup.

In the long run, since everyone is different, I recommend you trying your different possibilities. Any Virtual software that came with your soundcard/headphones, windows sonic, dolby atmos for headphones (But not any two of them at the same time). Test them on the exact same medium.

I believe I downloaded some demos from here:
https://thedigitaltheater.com/index.php/dolby-trailers/

I would play "Leaf" and "Amaze". If you have windows 10, you won't need any special software. You can play this through the Movies and Tv app.

Some people will complain about the quality of certain spatial settings, and Amaze is perfect for this. It has a wide range of distinct, easy to listen to sounds, and positional audio. From the bugs flying around your head, to the bass of the thunder rumbling... you can really test everything you need. Leaf is great for positional because it's really just the leaf flying around you.

From there you can test the quality and positional of each sound easily by testing each one on those two videos. You should see if the different technologies sound the same to you, have better sound quality, or better positional audio for your ears.

 

[x7007]

Tbh When it comes to Headphone and Spatial, everyone has a preference, love & hate. If you ask enough people, you will end up in a circle. What I recommend, you might not like.

For short, I when I do use headphones, I plug them into my Yamaha receiver. I get Dolby TrueHD as my spatial sound, but this is done in my receiver. I don't have to swap settings in games or windows ever. I don't have to adjust the quality to and from 48khz and 192khz.
(In fact in Battlefield 1 I get an Atmos signal to the receiver, but Dolby TrueHD to my headphones, without having to change any settings in Battlefield 1)

But my go to is regularly a 5.1.2 Atmos speaker setup.

In the long run, since everyone is different, I recommend you trying your different possibilities. Any Virtual software that came with your soundcard/headphones, windows sonic, dolby atmos for headphones (But not any two of them at the same time). Test them on the exact same medium.

I believe I downloaded some demos from here:
https://thedigitaltheater.com/index.php/dolby-trailers/

I would play "Leaf" and "Amaze". If you have windows 10, you won't need any special software. You can play this through the Movies and Tv app.

Some people will complain about the quality of certain spatial settings, and Amaze is perfect for this. It has a wide range of distinct, easy to listen to sounds, and positional audio. From the bugs flying around your head, to the bass of the thunder rumbling... you can really test everything you need. Leaf is great for positional because it's really just the leaf flying around you.

From there you can test the quality and positional of each sound easily by testing each one on those two videos. You should see if the different technologies sound the same to you, have better sound quality, or better positional audio for your ears.

What is your yamaha receiver model and what year ?

if I also talk about Movies , should I use the Atmos , I usually get movies that are HD-DTS or Atmos. that would be better than other virtual surround right ?

Because there is Out of your Head, I'm not sure what to use for movies.

The Out of Your head surround or Atmos, because the sound is very good with the OOYR but there are so many presents that I can't choose the best one I like . the sound changes so much and I can't decide which is the right one like in the movies theatre .

Also btw : Dolby Access windows 10 granted another 4 days Trial after the 30 days.. funny. they just update issues with the license thing and activation... every update is with that.

 

[CluckerByte]

Hi everyone,

As of 2 days ago I have adopted Dolby Atmos for Headphone and been playing around with it non-stop.
You see I currently have an ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card in my Windows 10 machine, and have ALWAYS used Dolby Headphone, specifically the DH-2 setting as I found it had a little more separation without sounding "reverby" to my ears compared to the boxed sound of DH-1.
I have been posting over in the Monolith M1060 thread, but someone suggested I bring my information and experience over here - good idea!

Compared to Dolby Headphone, this is certainly a step up and above to what I am used to.
I have heard Youtube representations of what other DSP's sound like (SBX, GSX, SBZ, DH, CMSS-3D), and this appears to be pretty competitive considering it's $15 vs Creative or Senn's leading hardware based solutions.

I have not bought the full version of this software yet, I am currently on trial and still have 27 days left.

I had some problems initially with some content sounding a bit "off" - this has now been identified as having too much reverb and some sounds being quieter than the mastering intended.
What was the cause? - Allow me to explain.

By default when you enable Dolby Atmos for Headphone and get it all set up, it up-mixes ALL content and it's channels to a 7.1 simulated experience.
I have found that for 5.1 and 7.1 content this works a treat, no complaints really at all.

With 2 channel content however, reverb is introduced and some of the details in the 2 channel mixes are lost or visualised in an extremely quiet way where the environment or situation can appear to sound off or hollow.
Solution? - Allow me to explain.

As with Dolby Headphone, which up-mixes all content up to a 5.1 mix and 7.1 down to a 5.1 mix, content sounds the same in experience regardless without issue, at-least in my experience.
With Dolby Atmos for Headphone, you need to UNCHECK the 7.1 virtualisation box when playing stereo (2 channel) content.

Please remember when you change Atmos settings in the Spatial Audio tab, you generally should have the content closed and not playing, and you should re-open it fresh as in my experience changes do not take effect until a program picks up the new settings fresh from the go, not on the fly.
Immediately you will notice 2 channel content has less reverb, especially noticeable on voices to myself, and the content feels a little "fuller". (Content specific obviously)

I have had SOME content which comes through well from 2.1 to 7.1, but all 2ch content appears to benefit better from just being played without the 7.1 virtualisation.
To my understanding, when you uncheck 7.1 virtualisation, it does a 5.1 up-mix instead, like Dolby Headphone.

Less channels to split the streams into = less room for error with sound level virtualisation and less reverb.

I originally didn't like Atmos for playing music or listening to quite a bit of things, but when you understand how to utilise it, it's fantastic.

One thing that needs to happen, is being able to change channels somehow as currently selecting Dolby Atmos for Headphone defaults your sound channels to 2 channel, which means games that auto select their game track based on the Windows mixer play in stereo, so you need to uncheck 7.1 to get the most out of them.
Hopefully Dolby fixes this somehow so we can select 5.1 and 7.1 so we can utilise full 7.1 virtualisation in games.
Obviously games that allow you manual control of in-game sound channels work fine.

Also remember Atmos won't benefit games with already DSP'd / Binaural audio tracks, I believe Battlefield and Witcher 3 have these built in with some sound option configurations.

Well, I think that's everything I wanted to share, I hope you guys can learn something from this and improve your experience, this is very beneficial to me because I wanted a dedicated high quality DAC / AMP combo but I needed a DSP for gaming / movies and music. (Love how it transforms the sound into a more full presentation)
On a side note, does anyone know if an Aune X1S will benefit my setup vs my current headphone jack from my Xonar Essence STX?

Thanks.

 

[Clovis559]

2016 Yamaha Rx-A760. I plan to upgrade to a Rx-2060/2070 for 5.1.4, and I will keep that until 7.1.6 becomes available without ridiculous $10,000 investment.

At the moment, with movies... With Dolby Atmos for headphones.... again you will not get Atmos sound. I tested this. In even in the windows Movies & Tv, you will not be able to select the Atmos track. So you will be stuck with Virtual 7.1. For me it selects, then auto deselects the track. Where when I use my receiver, the Atmos track is already auto selected (For reference, everything that I have tested with the Atmos for Headphones, no Atmos content actually works on it. I only get 7.1 virtual surround). Even though I have a receiver, I bought the headphones access because I love to fiddle with things. So with regards to movies, I still advise my advice above with the two demos and listening.

I'm reluctant to recommend because my ears have been well adapted for surround sound. I'm not as immersed in headphones as I used to be. When I switched from headphones, surround sounded funky. Now that I'm adjusted, headphones sound funky. My best pair of headphones were bose q25, and there are a lot better headphones out there.

I kinda like to pop in to give my experience with Atmos/headphones/receivers. But when it comes to what your asking for more specifically, besides the two demos, there are a lot more experienced headphone users on these forums who will hopefully jump in this conversation.

 

[CluckerByte]

2016 Yamaha Rx-A760. I plan to upgrade to a Rx-2060/2070 for 5.1.4, and I will keep that until 7.1.6 becomes available without ridiculous $10,000 investment.

At the moment, with movies... With Dolby Atmos for headphones.... again you will not get Atmos sound. I tested this. In even in the windows Movies & Tv, you will not be able to select the Atmos track. So you will be stuck with Virtual 7.1. For me it selects, then auto deselects the track. Where when I use my receiver, the Atmos track is already auto selected (For reference, everything that I have tested with the Atmos for Headphones, no Atmos content actually works on it. I only get 7.1 virtual surround). Even though I have a receiver, I bought the headphones access because I love to fiddle with things. So with regards to movies, I still advise my advice above with the two demos and listening.

I'm reluctant to recommend because my ears have been well adapted for surround sound. I'm not as immersed in headphones as I used to be. When I switched from headphones, surround sounded funky. Now that I'm adjusted, headphones sound funky. My best pair of headphones were bose q25, and there are a lot better headphones out there.

I kinda like to pop in to give my experience with Atmos/headphones/receivers. But when it comes to what your asking for more specifically, besides the two demos, there are a lot more experienced headphone users on these forums who will hopefully jump in this conversation.

I've seen someone else (or perhaps yourself on another thread/forum) have this issue with ATMOS soundtracks, I wonder if they'll introduce a way to play them back, I heard from someone who contacted Dolby late last month that Dolby told them the implementation is still buggy and not final, they're working on it.

Makes me excited because it already sounds great, any improvement is just icing on the cake.

Anyone know how the virtualisation compares directly between GSX 7.1 and Atmos 7.1 in a game that's putting out 5.1 / 7.1?
I've heard the GSX is better but only slightly, not sure how exactly though, and the GSX falls behind the SBX in positional audio but the GSX excels over the SBX in putting you "in the environment"..

Need more comparisons, was going to drop money on the GSX before remembering to give Atmos a try.