Dolby Atmos: What Is It, and Is It Worth It?

Dolby Atmos is a term you've probably heard thrown around at one point or another at the movies or in the soundbar aisle, but what is it? Dolby Atmos refers to audio technology that creates a well-rounded, immersive listening experience by allowing sound to travel in unique ways. Let's get more specific and take a deeper look.

What Is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is an audio technology built into many modern speakers. When a speaker or soundbar is Atmos-enabled, it means that any audio it produces will have a height dimension. This adds a whole new listening element to your audio that makes it more immersive. Dolby Atmos relies on specialized software inside your audio device that will direct where each sound should go in regards to the space around you.

What Does Dolby Atmos Do?

When sound plays through your speaker, the special software associated with Dolby Atmos will take the sound and direct it to play in a way that makes sense for that specific sound. If a scene has a plane flying overhead, you'll hear the plane above you. If a scene has the main characters eating in a restaurant, you might hear chatter around you. With Dolby Atmos, all of your favorite content will feel more immersive than ever as you find yourself in the middle of anything you hear.

Does Dolby Atmos Affect Music Too?

It sure does. Listening to a song from an Atmos-enabled device will give you that same immersive feeling. Instead of simply listening to a song, it'll feel like you're inside of it, like it's bouncing off of every surface in your room and you're at the epicenter of the rhythm. In some cases, it could even feel like you're at an actual live show.

Does Dolby Atmos Really Make a Difference?

If you're still not convinced that Dolby Atmos is all that, we can break it down further. If you don't have a Dolby Atmos enabled audio device, you may have surround sound audio. Surround sound is similar to Dolby Atmos in the way that it envelops you in sound to immerse you in whatever you're listening to. However, surround sound does not give any height to your audio like Dolby Atmos does. Sound can only move side-to-side and front-to-back in a surround sound system. Sounds also come from fixed channels rather than being dynamically assigned, as they are with Dolby Atmos. If you don't have a Dolby Atmos-enabled audio device or a surround sound system, you are missing out on some serious audio quality. Once you hear the difference, you won't be able to go back to just any speaker.

Do You Need Special Speakers for Dolby Atmos?

The short answer is: not always. Atmos-enabled soundbars often include ceiling-facing speakers to create the overhead effect that they're known for. However, those additional speakers aren't always necessary. Other Atmos-enabled audio devices, like headphones, use digital signal processing (DSP) to simulate height. This technology essentially tricks your ears into perceiving height rather than actually moving sound towards the ceiling. This is a necessary part of Atmos-enabled headphones, since they can't have upward facing speakers. In other words, instead of having additional speakers to create the overhead effect, some Atmos-enabled devices that can't fit those extra speakers use DSP to trick your ears into hearing the audio in different places around you. If you want the genuine Dolby Atmos experience though, you may want to consider getting an Atmos-enabled audio device with the additional speakers.

Where Can I Stream Atmos-Enabled Content?

Once you have an Atmos-enabled device, you can access Atmos-enabled content from a wide variety of streaming services. For movies and TV shows, you can stream Atmos-enabled content from many of the major services like Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, Max, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and VUDU. For music, you can stream Atmos-enabled content from Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal, as of this writing.

Dolby Atmos offers you a new way to approach your home audio setup. This amazing technology has something for gamers, movie watchers, and audiophiles alike. If you value great sound, try out an Atmos-enabled device at your local P.C. Richard & Son store. It might just change the way you approach audio.