Dolby Atmos, Next Age of Home Theater Surround, to Hit Stores Q3

The race is on toward the next phase of surround sound at a time when sales of five- and seven-channel AV receivers have been trending downward. Denon, Onkyo, Marantz and Pioneer announced Monday Dolby Atmos-enabled AVRs, which deliver up to 11 channels of audio, including channels for height to create what the companies call a multidimensional surround-sound experience.

Onkyo is bringing Atmos technology to the high end in its TX-NR1030 and TX-NR3030 network AV receivers and PR-SC5530 flagship controller, as expected. It’s also packing Atmos into HT-S7700 and HT-S9700THX home-theater-in-a-box systems and SKS-HT693 and SKH-410 speaker packages, the company said. Three mid-priced Onkyo AV receivers will be upgradeable to Atmos with a firmware update in September, the company said.

Pioneer said Monday it will detail its Atmos-compatible plan at its CE Week news event Wednesday. Chris Walker, director-AV product planning and marketing, said the company has developed a line of “ultra-high-end” receivers and tapped its head speaker engineer, Andrew Jones, to design an Atmos speaker system.

In a blog post Monday, Brett Crockett, director-sound research at Dolby, highlighted the ability of Atmos to deliver sounds from above the listener, which Dolby-equipped movie theaters have been providing since 2012. Crockett cited the movie Noah, where torrential rain sounds as if it is “pouring down from the sky on top of you.” Atmos adds a height channel that is best served by in-ceiling speakers, but for consumers who can’t install speakers in the ceiling for Atmos, Dolby-enabled speakers will be available that produce “full, detailed overhead sound from speakers located where your conventional speakers are now,” Crockett said.

One “likely won’t need” a new Blu-ray player to enjoy Atmos, Crockett said. “Existing players that fully conform to the Blu-ray specification will be able to support Dolby Atmos content on a Blu-ray disc,” he said. Dolby is working with studios and production houses “to help them create Dolby Atmos soundtracks for a broad range of movies and TV for home viewing,” he said. The first Atmos Blu-rays and streaming video content will come this fall, “with more to come at the start of 2015,” he said.

Onkyo is launching Atmos in three high-end AV components: The 9.2-channel TX-NR1030 Network AV Receiver, the 11.2-channel TX-NR3030 Network A/V Receiver and the PR-SC5530 Network A/V Controller. All three Onkyo components have dual 32-bit digital signal processing engines to decode, scale and calibrate Dolby Atmos to suit individual home theater configurations, Onkyo said. Users can “unlock the full experience” with in-ceiling height channels or Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers to enhance a standard 5.1, 7.1, or 9.1 home theater setup, Onkyo said.

Onkyo described Atmos as a multi-channel audio format where sound comes at the listener “from all directions,” including overhead. The format combines a “channel-based audio bed with object-oriented sound to accurately place and move effects around the theater,” the company said. It said audio engineers can mix in a three-dimensional space within Dolby Atmos, “steering effects through surround channels and creating a seamless overhead sonic dimension through discrete height speakers.” The TX-NR1030 ($1,699), TN-NR3030 ($2,399) and PR-SC5530 ($2,499) will ship in August, Onkyo said.

Denon said its AVR-X4100W and AVR-X5200W will be its first AV receivers to feature Dolby Atmos. All Atmos-compatible Denon receivers will offer an Audyssey MultEQ XT32 calibrated nine-channel Dolby Atmos layout using 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 configurations using either ceiling-mounted or Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, it said Monday. A 5.1.4 speaker configuration is based on a traditional 5.1 speaker layout complemented by four overhead or Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, Denon said. A 7.1.2 configuration is based on a 7.1 speaker layout with two overhead, or Dolby Atmos-enabled, speakers. The AVR-X5200W will support a full 11-channel Dolby Atmos setup with 7.1.4-channel configurations, Denon said.

Denon sister company Marantz announced two Dolby Atmos-enabled products due in fall: The SR7009 receiver (September) and AV7702 preamp (October). The models will run an Audyssey MultEQ XT32 calibrated nine-channel Dolby Atmos layout using 5.1.4 or 7.1.2 configurations with either ceiling-mounted, or Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, the company said. The AV7702 preamp will have the processing capability to support a full 11-channel Dolby Atmos setup, Marantz said.