[theslut]

I am testing out Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones X with my Bose QC II.

Everything seems to work well with Kodi but I am unsure if I should set the audio output settings to 7:1 or leave it as it is for my speaker setup with subwoofer (2:1)

As far I understand it, both Atmos and DTS should be able to take the mutlichannel audio and position the sounds in the headphone instead of just do a stereo upmix.

My audio settings for Kodi when using the headphones are to set the output to Direct X Bose headphones and set the channels to 7:1. I have leaving it at 2:1 and can't really discen any difference in spatial decoding but I haven't tested with different movie sources in Kodi so unsure what is the best setting.

Also, what is the best codec to buy? Atmos sounds really good but seems to boost the volume a lot so it's hard to do a fair comparison with DTS. I do seem to prefer the dialogue in Atmos compared to DTS. DTS seems to place the dialogue in a more "far away" position.

[ciukacz]

for VSS to work properly you should use 5.1/7.1 in kodi. test using this sample audio file:
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/7.1au...v2_rtb.mp4

all channel names should come from different directions and it should be easily recognizable if your virtualizer is working correctly.
i am using SBX G6 7.1 DAC with stereo headphones and CMSS-3D virtualizer (via HeSuVi) mostly for games but it works great with kodi and mpc-hc too.
Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones X work very similarly, it should apply to them too.

[theslut]

for VSS to work properly you should use 5.1/7.1 in kodi. test using this sample audio file:
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/7.1au...v2_rtb.mp4

all channel names should come from different directions and it should be easily recognizable if your virtualizer is working correctly.
i am using SBX G6 7.1 DAC with stereo headphones and CMSS-3D virtualizer (via HeSuVi) mostly for games but it works great with kodi and mpc-hc too.
Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones X work very similarly, it should apply to them too.

Yes thanks, I do need to set the audio channels to 7:1 in Kodi for it to work.

I can't decide which I like best. The DTS  sounds more spatious though.

[ibbs]

for VSS to work properly you should use 5.1/7.1 in kodi. test using this sample audio file:
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/7.1au...v2_rtb.mp4

all channel names should come from different directions and it should be easily recognizable if your virtualizer is working correctly.
i am using SBX G6 7.1 DAC with stereo headphones and CMSS-3D virtualizer (via HeSuVi) mostly for games but it works great with kodi and mpc-hc too.
Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones X work very similarly, it should apply to them too.

Yes thanks, I do need to set the audio channels to 7:1 in Kodi for it to work.

I can't decide which I like best. The DTS  sounds more spatious though.

I've been looking at which one to buy also . I'm curious however, do you know if one will decode both (e.g dolby atmos for headphones will decode both dolby atmos and dts-hd audio files). Or if you have to buy both and switch them out. Also check this reddit post and the video linked inside, helped me lean more towards dolby atmos.

[theslut]

for VSS to work properly you should use 5.1/7.1 in kodi. test using this sample audio file:
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/7.1au...v2_rtb.mp4

all channel names should come from different directions and it should be easily recognizable if your virtualizer is working correctly.
i am using SBX G6 7.1 DAC with stereo headphones and CMSS-3D virtualizer (via HeSuVi) mostly for games but it works great with kodi and mpc-hc too.
Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphones X work very similarly, it should apply to them too.

Yes thanks, I do need to set the audio channels to 7:1 in Kodi for it to work.

I can't decide which I like best. The DTS  sounds more spatious though.

I've been looking at which one to buy also . I'm curious however, do you know if one will decode both (e.g dolby atmos for headphones will decode both dolby atmos and dts-hd audio files). Or if you have to buy both and switch them out. Also check this reddit post and the video linked inside, helped me lean more towards dolby atmos.

What I do know is that the results are better with 7:1 streams so presumably atmos will spread the 7:1 anyway. I am guessing though that proper atmos encoded audio has more meta data for its object tracking, but in headphones I am not convinced by it.

After a lot of hours switching out and testing various encoders i've come to the conclusion that you can forget about mind blowing surround sound. It just doesnt' have that sense of audio being infront or behind me, at least with my Bose QC35 headphones. The audio is pushed more to the sides but I don't feel like i am sitting in the centre of an audio field. The front LR and C channel sound on the side of my head. The Side channels feel like they are just wider and the rear channels sound like they are between the front and side and slightly pushed back but not much.

It's difficult to compare atmos and switching back to normal stereo because it really boosts the volume when you turn it on.

What I have decided on is that I like the sound of atmos and it's got a 3d feel over normal stereo so it's an improvment for headphones.

I bought Boom 3d as well and it sounds quite similar to atmos but with more controls.

[ciukacz]

What I do know is that the results are better with 7:1 streams so presumably atmos will spread the 7:1 anyway. I am guessing though that proper atmos encoded audio has more meta data for its object tracking, but in headphones I am not convinced by it.

After a lot of hours switching out and testing various encoders i've come to the conclusion that you can forget about mind blowing surround sound. It just doesnt' have that sense of audio being infront or behind me, at least with my Bose QC35 headphones. The audio is pushed more to the sides but I don't feel like i am sitting in the centre of an audio field. The front LR and C channel sound on the side of my head. The Side channels feel like they are just wider and the rear channels sound like they are between the front and side and slightly pushed back but not much.

It's difficult to compare atmos and switching back to normal stereo because it really boosts the volume when you turn it on.

What I have decided on is that I like the sound of atmos and it's got a 3d feel over normal stereo so it's an improvment for headphones.

I bought Boom 3d as well and it sounds quite similar to atmos but with more controls.

what is often referred to as VSS (virtual surround sound) just takes CHANNEL based input (5.1/7.1) and applies HRTF.
HRTFs have mixed results for different people (it depends on the shape of the ear).
the more data (channels) they are given as input the better the results,
but they will never be able to differentiate between a sound source being lower or higher than the listener.

OBJECT based audio (sounds with coordinates defined in a 3d space) is a bit of a different topic, yet they are often mixed together.
it does not help that some of these technologies/algorithms share similar names (Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos for headphones, DTS, DTS headphone X) but they work fundamentally different underneath.

very few games currently have HRTF built in which gets a sound source's position in 3d space. i know of overwatch and cs:go.
results are usually much better than VSS:



for the remaining games (or movies) VSS usually does a good enough job if given 5.1/7.1 input.
HeSuVi is a great tool that lets you test multiple HRTFs, some of them otherwise available only in expensive equipment.
player/game needs to output 5.1/7.1. if they downmix to stereo you can forget about VSS working correctly.