Real Atmos is not 7.1, it is 9.2 or more.
Pure Dolby Atmos
MIX is anything from 5.1 to 24.1.10 channels.
Dolby ATMOS
ALGORITHM in Windows 10 is responsible for downmixing this multichannel
MIX into a stereo mix (3D virtual surround) using a generic HRTF and some other proprietary technology to try and retain some of the direction/depth/size/space/room/distance information in the Dolby Atmos MIX.
SXFI used alone on the Atmos soundtrack of Ghost in the Shell sounds very out of the head already.
If you have a Dolby Atmos
MIX soundtrack in a game (not using the Windows 10 Dolby Atmos algo), it is already a
downmixed to stereo.
That is, the multichannel mix is already
downmixed to
stereo channels and has one layer of 3D Virtual Surround applied.
Turning on Super X-Fi on top of that won't make it any more Virtual or 3D, it will just mask/distort the original Dolby Atmos downmix by applying ANOTHER layer of Virtual Surround on top of it, AND doing it from a 2-channel source (that has already been virtualized). Super X-fi cannot guess multichannel data from the Dolby Atmost stereo downmix and calculate ANYTHING useful to that stereo mix. It will just add new layers of echo/reverb and phase errors.
And I liked the result. The positional cues were very accurate.
It is perfectly ok to like the result, I'm sure it can even sound more "out of your head" (phase shifting does that). That can indeed sound fun and more spatial.
However to call it accurate (to what the original author intended) or accurate in terms of directionality when compared to NOT applying the Super X-fi distortion (to already 3D VSS Atmos signal) is perhaps not the most accurate or honest portrayl of what is happening.
I can very good differentiate between messed up tricks and well done simulation.
That may be so, but in this guess you were either fooled or didn't understand what was happening. Super X-fi can NOT:
- Take in undecoded pure bitstream PCM Dolby Atmost signal (Super X-Fi does not have Dolby Atmost licensing and does NOT know how to decode Dolby atmos data).
- Can only apply Super X-fi echo/reverb/phase shifting to a downmixed Dolby Atmos STEREO signal that has already been downmixed by the in-game (or Windows 10) Dolby Atmos algorithm. That is, Super X-fi IS NOT applying these effects to a discrete multichannel signal and does not know how to properly place the sound streams into the 3D space it is trying to create.
What Super X-fi in Creative Sound Blaster X3 CAN do:
- Super X-fi CAN take NON-Dolby multichannel (up to 7.1) discrete audio signals (from game, etc) that is NOT yet downmixed (by Dolby/DTS or any other algo) into stereo, and downmix that multichannel signal itself into stereo Virtual Surround 3D audio mix using the proprietary Creative Super X-Fi personalized HRTF algo.
At the end of all VSS it is a 2 channel signal to the two headphone drivers, isn't it?
Yes. But doing multiple VSS algos on top of each other on a STEREO signal doesn't make it better.
The X3 is a very interesting device due to it's SXFI in my opinion, if interested in VSS it is a must buy.
I don't doub that, but based on how Creative implemented it (no ability to adjust the VSS effects esp reverb/echo in Super X-fi algo), perhaps it is not for me.
I don't want an artificial 3D spatial feeling of a "room" applied to my discrete multichannel gaming audio input, if the game happens in open space...