Dolby Atmos on a Soundbar

• 

  boffman on 04/10/2020 - 08:13

  If you already have a reciever and half decent speakers then better to upgrade the reciever.
  Guessing you have 3.0 or 5.0 setup. Add two ceiling speakers or two upward firing height speakers (that sit on top of your front LR speakers. And a sub when you can afford it. Budget up to $1k for the receiver, $300ish for the ceiling/height speakers and $800ish for sub. Don’t worry too much about matching the speakers. Main thing is to try to make sure the speaker cone material is the same, e.g.paper, Kevlar etc.
  Good luck. Decent Atmos is awesome when it comes together

  • 

    OzFrugie on 04/10/2020 - 11:51

    Yep i have got 5.1 setup using entry level (Accusound). Need some space saving so I thought might as well upgrade to the latest tech.

    Were u implying that i need to upgrade my receiver to use atmos?

• 

  This Guy on 04/10/2020 - 08:26

  +2

  Atmos is just a licensed brand when it comes to speakers, unfortunately. You can get two channel atmos. You can get 7.1.2 channel atmos with poor quality speakers. The brand is meaningless IMO.

  edit: Soundbars are usually stand alone. The electronics is all built in. Most do not need receivers.

  The Arc or the Samsung Q950T (or Q90R if still available) would be your best bet if you want surround sound and high quality sound in a sound bar form factor.

  The Samsung comes with wireless rears (still need power connected) which add significantly to the surround effect and their subwoofer goes hard. That said, I am happy to use my older version, the Q90R, with the sub turned off. It still sounds great. The model down is the same soundbar and sub without the rears. $1300 leaves $200 in the Q950T for the store.

  The Sonos can use two identical Sonos speakers as rears (if you want rear surrounds). You can also buy a sub separately. Both will improve your experience, but the Arc already sounds great by it's self. Sonos system will be significantly more expensive for the 'full' set up.

  There are bars close in price that kinda suck. LG's atmos bar reviews poorly is a nice way of putting it. The JBL stuff is gimmicky and plasticy IMO. And these are 'top of the range'

  The benefit of a sound bar is the neatness, compactness and ease of use of the system. You can get better sound for $2k, but you need to have some idea of what you are doing.

  With a sound bar you loose some separation as your left and right speakers are closer together (compared to beside the TV with towers or bookshelf speakers). Turning up the top reflection channels makes the effect more noticeable. Side reflection channels work, but only seem to add a little ambiance. Most content will not take advantage of them.

  • 

    AustriaBargain on 04/10/2020 - 09:19

    Any HD audio piped into stereo speakers can sound great. Maybe the sound engineers just spend more time getting it just right when they are told they need to make a HD audio track, but to me HD audio sounds better on stereo speakers than the average audio track on old discs

    • 

      This Guy on 04/10/2020 - 16:36

      Yes. Most sound bars use tiny speakers. You can get excellent, loud sound out of well built speakers as small as ~2.5 to 3 inches.

      Samsung and Sonos currently differentiate themselves by using larger, higher quality drivers. I am sure both are using a combination of chambers, tubes and sound processing to improve their sound further.

  • 

    OzFrugie on 04/10/2020 - 12:31

    Thanks mate thats a great response.
    I wonder why q90r is no longer available? Isnt it newish?

    Whats the difference between q90r and q950t?

    • 

      This Guy on 04/10/2020 - 16:29

      +1

      Samsung seems to be updating their soundbars annually with one or two new features. The Q950T has two speakers on each end instead of one, with one kicked out slightly so it can provide two side channels. AVForums likes this extra sound stage (good review to compare agianst the Q90R). RTINGS states the result produces soft, hard to locate sounds I personally don't mind hard to locate surround speakers, but everyone is different.

      Other differences is the bar has fabric instead of a metal grill, plastic bars on each end (those aren't wave guides…) and the display is on top this year, making it less usable, but also less of a distraction

      Your not upgrading from the Q90R so the slight changes should not be an issue.

      • 

        OzFrugie on 15/10/2020 - 23:12

        Cant find q90r anywhere it seems since it's discontinued.

        Hoping to grab one for cheaper than q950t since its pretty expensive stuff! Some people seem to think q90r sounds better..

        Btw currently I am using pioneer vsx 524k receiver. If I get soundbar, I don't need this receiver anymore?
        If I want to keep using it, will it even play nicely with the soundbar, e.g. won't play Atmos etc?

        My concern is these soundbars usually have limited number of HDMI connections. If u have more Hdmi inputs than in the soundbar, how to get around that problem?

        • 

          This Guy on 16/10/2020 - 07:40

          @OzFrugie: The receiver would not be needed to play sound.

          You can use ARC (Audio Return Channel) to send audio back from the TV and use the TV's HDMI ports as well as the sound bar, giving ~5 (most TV's have four, but you need one for the sound bar, and that soundbar has 2).

          But depending on the TV, it may not pass all audio formats. Most TVs more than two years old won't pass more than stereo sound. Newer ones will pass surround sound and compressed Atmos, but often won't pass uncompressed Atmos and DTS:X.

          If the receiver supports Atmos and DTS:X (or even if it supports more audio formats than your TV), you could use the receiver as a HDMI switch. It could be easier to use than a combination of the TV/Soundbar as you would only switch on the receiver.

          If you want to use the receiver to power a sound bar you would have to buy a 'dumb' or undriven sound bar. These are stupidly big as audiophiles need big speakers (they don't. In this cause they need point sources. 3" drivers are fine).

• 

  aph1985 on 04/10/2020 - 17:42

  I'm also in the same situation.

  Looking at JBL bar 9.1.

  • 

    OzFrugie on 15/10/2020 - 23:12

    Have u made your decision?
    What other products were/are u considering?

    • 

      aph1985 on 16/10/2020 - 10:04

      Sonos arc + woofer

      Not really interested in Samsung as one of my friend had an issue with it and Samsung didn't fix it

      • 

        OzFrugie on 16/10/2020 - 20:04

        Where did u buy it from n how much?

        I heard arc doesn't support DTS formats, is that true ?

        • 

          aph1985 on 17/10/2020 - 18:17

          @OzFrugie: I haven't bought arc

          I'm considering arc or jbl.

          • 

            OzFrugie on 17/10/2020 - 20:48

            @aph1985: The jbl 9.1 looks good. But what happen if the battery on the rears stops working ie doesnt hold charge anymore, is it easy to replace just the battery, or need to buy a replacement rear speaker if they sells it separately at all..?

            Those are my concerns with the jbl

            • 

              aph1985 on 19/10/2020 - 08:07

              @OzFrugie: It has usb plug in, similar to Samsung.

              Anyways, i haven't bought it yet. It's too expensive and I will wait for a discount

              • 

                ronburgundy11 on 27/10/2020 - 12:21

                @aph1985: Hey mate - you can get this with 25% off on the JBL website with the code JBLTOYOTA.

• 

  ozbargainsam on 16/10/2020 - 01:51

  I recently picked up my Q950T from JB (price match with TGG Commercial, then pay with GC) for about $1280 net.

  I came from an almost no setup so anything was better. I still need to figure out the surrounds (I don't know if they're loud enough OOTB). Haven't heard very much of the satellites or overhead effect. Need to find some convincing material. Xbox has a sample app with videos that did left/right well enough but no height.

  • 

    OzFrugie on 16/10/2020 - 09:38

    Any issues with dropouts or other glitches?