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‘Another Feature’

Onkyo Seeks to Differentiate Its Dolby Atmos Lineup Via Wide Gamut of Price Points

As Dolby Atmos-compatible products roll out over the rest of Q3, the biggest challenge for receiver and speaker makers hoping to capitalize on the next-gen surround-sound format will be “giving people an opportunity to experience it,” Paul Wasek, national marketing and product planning manager at Onkyo, told Consumer Electronics Daily. Onkyo announced a menu of Atmos-compatible products Monday that will ship to dealers over the next three months at a variety of price points, Wasek said. Atmos is a “very compelling format when you're able to listen to it,” he said.

That’s a challenge in today’s retail environment where a demo isn’t a guaranteed part of the sales experience. Onkyo is selling its higher-end Atmos-compatible receivers through specialty dealers and more mainstream products through Fry’s, Best Buy and h.h. gregg, and a firmware upgrade in September will make the products Atmos-enabled. Having content available will have a lot to do with the ability of people to experience it, Wasek said. Onkyo is in discussions with its partners to determine the best way to demo Atmos in their environments, Wasek said.

Wasek deflected our question on the challenge of selling Atmos products in a period of waning sales for AV receivers, and focused instead on the “everything’s there” aspect of Onkyo’s Atmos-ready HT-S7700 receiver/speaker system ($899, September). The speakers in that packaged system include the up-firing Atmos-enabled drivers in the left and right front speaker enclosures “so we're not asking anyone to do anything special other than to connect wires differently in the back of the receiver,” he said.

Onkyo is banking on consumer exposure to Dolby Atmos at theaters to generate interest for home systems, Wasek said. He said when Atmos soundtracks are available to consumers via streaming and on physical media, “they'll be able to hear the difference.”

With Dolby Atmos taking a nonconventional route to market versus previous surround-sound formats that began at the high end and trickled down to the mainstream, Wasek said Onkyo is using the mainstream appeal to differentiate itself in the market. “Atmos becomes another feature and where you decide to put it in your lineup helps you differentiate,” he said.

Onkyo has brought Atmos down to the “very attainable price point” of $249 for Atmos-enabled speakers that can be paired with conventional speakers and connected to an Atmos-ready receiver, he said. The starting point for an Atmos-ready receiver is $299 for the 5.1-channel TX-SR333 that’s due in stores this month. Atmos-ready home-theater-in-a-box systems include the HT-S3700 ($499, July) and the step-up HT-S5700 ($699, August), the company said.

Meanwhile, on the loudspeaker side, some companies are hoping to take advantage of the hype about the Atmos format without initially investing in Atmos-specific designs. Greg Stidsen, director-technology and product planning for PSB Speakers, told us PSB is a Dolby Atmos licensee but the company hasn’t announced any Dolby-specific products. Stidsen said Dolby-licensed speakers are only required for certain Atmos configurations and that most Atmos installations can use existing PSB in-ceiling speakers.

Similarly, Sandy Gross, president of GoldenEar Technology, said in a news release Monday that GoldenEar will demo at CEDIA an “ultimate no-holds-barred system” using the company’s existing Invisa HTS 7000 in-ceiling speakers, which Gross said will “rival, and in many cases, exceed the performance available” in many commercial Atmos venues.