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Do NOT Blow Your Entire Budget on Two Channel Audio

Yes, two channel audio is here, and is not going away. However, object based audio is delightful, widely available on Tidal and Apple Music, and should be in the listening room of every music lover on the planet, not just "audiophiles. If you plan to be a music fan a year from now start building your object based audio system today. You will need:

1) A receiver/processor capable of Dolby Atmos.

2) A subscription to Tidal or Apple music.

3) A Firestick, ATV, or Nvidia Shield.

4) A minimum of 7 timber matched speakers and a subwoofer.

Once you experienced stereo would you ever go back to only mono? No, you would build a system capable of either mono or stereo. Now that object based audio has arrived do the same thing. Build a system capable of mono, stereo, AND object based audio. When Elton John heard Rocket Man in an object based format for the first time why did he demand to convert his entire catalog to Atmos? If you don’t know, then you need to go listen to Rocket Man in a good Atmos setup ASAP.

So, take your budget, DIVERSIFY, and get a good Atmos capable receiver or processor. Object based audio is NOT last decades surround sound or home theater. It is for MUSIC first, if you need a recommendation on how to allocate your budget feel free to post a question. Most importantly, you don’t NEED two systems, one for music and one for movies. A good object based audio system can play two channel music just fine. A two channel system on the other hand can’t play object based audio without a proper processor or receiver.

Greg Penny talks mixing Rocket Man in Atmos.

https://youtu.be/ggzfcUKDqdo?feature=shared

 

kota1
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,802 posts
 

Surround sound (home theater ) is not exactly the same as 3-D soundfield as in Choueiri BACCH filters ...

For those who want to read the basic in a short text :

 

https://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1302&context=caps_thes_all

 

This citation comes from a user of BACCH in ASR forum :

«“BACCH is focused on stereo and getting the most out of stereo. We have two ears only and we therefore, in principle, need only two channels to get the cues needed to correctly locate sound in 3D. This is the binaural approach (as opposed to object-based Surround Sound approach) to 3D sound.

Multi-channel Surround Sound (i.e. Dolby 5.1, 7.1, Atmos, Auro3D, etc.), wether channel or object based, is not of interest to us. It is not a focus of research and development at Theoretica (nor is it a topic of academic research in spatial audio, where the main three approaches are: binaural, higher-order-ambisonics, and wavefield synthesis).»

 

fittebd
101 posts
 

BACCH is wonderful from what I heard from others. I have not heard it myself. Too hard to do. I don’t want a Mac and it seems a bit too customer. Edgar comes over and does install and super expensive. I will wait for the BACCH in a box for less than 5k. Then I will jump in. The bonus of that kind of system is any 2 ch music to feed it. Atmos or object based has to be mixed and will always be limited. 
 

For the poster that says their tuned 2 channel system is just as good as a 5.1 has not listened to a proper system. Also atmos is min 5.1.2. Just adding a center for dialog improves movies.  2 vs multi ch for movies no contest. Playing a 2 ch song via some stupid DSP to multi ch surround. Yuch. Just have a good 2 ch setup is better.

I think the bigger point is you can have both. As long as your pre has bypass.  If it does not then you will end up compromising the 2 ch system to share speakers and amps.  

Comparing Quad from 70’s is not exactly even close comparison to object based music. 

Streaming also has opened the door to make this generation of multi channel music to be more successful. Comparing to SACD and DVDA is unfair. Need special players and setups etc.  not to mention to finding the discs. Millions upon millions have apple and Amazon and tidal. It’s there ready and waiting. The entire library of them. 

this forum is not exactly know for its open mind-ness and probably not the best place for the OP to try and find others to join in the fun. 

bikeboy52
199 posts
 

@mahgister Thanks for the information on the Bacch filter. Just watched a few interesting videos on the technology and the product. I believe you may be correct Mahgister, depending on what they can get the price of the unit down to when in full production it looks like it could make Dolby Atmos the new MQA.

britamerican
52 posts
 

BACCH has really dominated the market in the 8 years it has existed. Totally dominant. Probably at least a few hundred people have heard of it.

It is a good technology for one person, calibrated for that one person, in one specific environment. No listening parties. No trade shows with more than one person in a room. No listening with your spouse, family or friends. That limited market means it will always be a fringe product and hard to justify for any content creators.

If I were them I would ditch their present business model and work on only the ear calibration for headphones. Way bigger market. Stupid to compete with ATMOS and similar. They won’t just lose. They already lost. Ship has sailed. Integrate with them and make them better for the headphone crowd.

 

@fittebd you think most music available will work? Heck no. It would all need to be remixed. Who is going to do that for such a small market? Almost no one. The only steady stream of music that could be adapted automatically would be ATMOS.

kota1 OP
2,706 posts
 

@fittebd

For the poster that says their tuned 2 channel system is just as good as a 5.1 has not listened to a proper system

I disagree, you never know what mix you will prefer. I have EJ in two ch, 5.1, and atmos. I have him in lossy spotify, redbook CD, MQA and 24/192 hirez.

Having a 5.1 system you can choose, having only stereo you get what you get.

I think the bigger point is you can have both.

+10!! Agree

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