What's Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is a technology for audio equipment that allows you to be surrounded by sound. This renewed version of Dolby Surround has been used in movie theaters since 2012. Cinemas with Dolby Atmos have up to 64 speakers spread throughout the space. These speakers are placed in various corners of the space and all receive an unlimited amount of audio signals. This ensures a realistic surround sound experience. You don't just hear the sound coming from the right and left, but also from above your head.

Luckily, you don't have to install dozens of speakers around you to experience Dolby Atmos at home. With at least a Dolby Atmos soundbar, you'll feel like you're in the movie too. This will reflect the sound to your listening position via the ceiling and walls, so you can listen to spatial audio.

You create a Virtual Dolby Atmos experience with front-facing speakers. Dolby Atmos technology then ensures the sound is sent upwards and to the sides and then bounces to your position. There's a difference in the quality per soundbar. It depends on how well the Dolby Atmos technology creates the spatial audio. With Virtual Dolby Atmos, you experience movies more realistically, but you want True Dolby Atmos for a real movie theater experience.

A soundbar with True Dolby Atmos has upward-facing speakers. This produces truly spatial and detailed sound. The speakers bounce the sound to your position via the ceiling and walls. This makes it seem like you're in the middle of the movie. True Dolby Atmos makes sounds from the movie sound more realistic. You can really hear the plane from the movie flying overhead this way.

For an optimal Dolby Atmos experience, you should choose a soundbar with upward-facing speakers, a subwoofer, and rear speakers that have upward-facing speakers too. You'll hear the sound come from all the corners of your room reflected to your seating position. You'll be completely surrounded by the sound. The combination of this and the deep bass from the subwoofer allows you to fully immerse yourself into the movie. That way, you can get the movie theater to your living room.

It's important that your audio equipment at home supports Dolby Atmos technology. Connect the Dolby Atmos soundbar or speaker set to your television with at least a 2.0B HDMI cable. For high sound quality, you can use a 2.1 HDMI cable. In addition to the right technology, you also need audio sources that support Dolby Atmos. An example is an Ultra HD Blu-ray movie. Otherwise, you'll still experience quality loss. Make sure to check both your movie and television support this technology.