Hello AVR GAF,
Recently I purchased a Denon AVR-X1300W to replace my Denon AVR-1712.
My main beef (and it was no fault of the 1712) was that there was not a configuration that matched my 7.1 set-up.
I have FR, C, FL, and then 4 ceiling (top) mounted speakers pointing straight down. Two of the ceiling mounted speakers are close to the FR and FL, and the other 2 basically are overhead and off to the side of the seating positions.
The closest I could get was Dolby Height, and it just did not sound right. Too often, the vocals would get drowned out, or the surrounds would be overly loud. I knew the speaker were not optimal for HT and gaming, but the house came with wired overheads, and they sound great for music.
I recently saw Atmos advertisements basically saying that they are specially made for ceiling mounted over head speakers. This pretty much gave me the fever that can only be tempered by purchasing new tech.
The sales guy at BB told me that Atmos would not solve my problems at all, that the speaker config wouldn't work, etc. I understand that relatively few discs are mixed with Atmos, and that ok, as Dolby provides umpiring for Atmos, from what I can tell from the website.
Well, I really did not heed his warning, and purchased the unit. So glad I did. One of the preset Audessy calibration settings nearly exactly matches my room config. It is called Top Front, and is ATMOS (and DTS:X) compatible. The only difference being that the surrounds are located on the ceiling instead of at ear level. Not optimal, but actually sounding excellent.
I put on some reference quality material, Blade Runner OFC and had my ears caressed by the sweet, atmospheric sounds. All of my gripes had been solved. Center channel audio crystal clear and balanced perfectly with the surrounds.
Now, the audio here is Dolby TrueHD 5.1, but the Receiver was listing it as 'Dolby + Dolby Surround', which I think is basically short for upmixed Atmos, as all speakers were in use.
I looked around for some native 7.1 content, but all I had seemed to be DTS.
Now here is the rub: currently, I can't use the Dolby + Dolby Surround on any DTS content, so the Receiver doesn't send any audio to the top from and top left speakers, which is a bummer, man.
Additionally, the DTS:X decoder is supposed to be released in a firmware update this year, but has yet to happen.
Any of you AV heads can confirm that the Dolby + Dolby Surround is upmixed Atmos?
I also saw a few gaffers recommending to place the PS4 setting in LPCM out, while the Dolby website says to make sure to choose bitstream priority (Dolby). Whats up with that? I know the video player should be set to bitstream.
Recently I purchased a Denon AVR-X1300W to replace my Denon AVR-1712.
My main beef (and it was no fault of the 1712) was that there was not a configuration that matched my 7.1 set-up.
I have FR, C, FL, and then 4 ceiling (top) mounted speakers pointing straight down. Two of the ceiling mounted speakers are close to the FR and FL, and the other 2 basically are overhead and off to the side of the seating positions.
The closest I could get was Dolby Height, and it just did not sound right. Too often, the vocals would get drowned out, or the surrounds would be overly loud. I knew the speaker were not optimal for HT and gaming, but the house came with wired overheads, and they sound great for music.
I recently saw Atmos advertisements basically saying that they are specially made for ceiling mounted over head speakers. This pretty much gave me the fever that can only be tempered by purchasing new tech.
The sales guy at BB told me that Atmos would not solve my problems at all, that the speaker config wouldn't work, etc. I understand that relatively few discs are mixed with Atmos, and that ok, as Dolby provides umpiring for Atmos, from what I can tell from the website.
Well, I really did not heed his warning, and purchased the unit. So glad I did. One of the preset Audessy calibration settings nearly exactly matches my room config. It is called Top Front, and is ATMOS (and DTS:X) compatible. The only difference being that the surrounds are located on the ceiling instead of at ear level. Not optimal, but actually sounding excellent.
I put on some reference quality material, Blade Runner OFC and had my ears caressed by the sweet, atmospheric sounds. All of my gripes had been solved. Center channel audio crystal clear and balanced perfectly with the surrounds.
Now, the audio here is Dolby TrueHD 5.1, but the Receiver was listing it as 'Dolby + Dolby Surround', which I think is basically short for upmixed Atmos, as all speakers were in use.
I looked around for some native 7.1 content, but all I had seemed to be DTS.
Now here is the rub: currently, I can't use the Dolby + Dolby Surround on any DTS content, so the Receiver doesn't send any audio to the top from and top left speakers, which is a bummer, man.
Additionally, the DTS:X decoder is supposed to be released in a firmware update this year, but has yet to happen.
Any of you AV heads can confirm that the Dolby + Dolby Surround is upmixed Atmos?
I also saw a few gaffers recommending to place the PS4 setting in LPCM out, while the Dolby website says to make sure to choose bitstream priority (Dolby). Whats up with that? I know the video player should be set to bitstream.