Yes, of course, it’s only natural to replace a 2.1 or 2.0 HiFi system with the scam that is Dolby Atmos…
Dolby Atmos does jack shit for quality audio; I say this as an audiophile. It is extremely controversial in HiFi, and not some gold standard. Additionally, the sound bar system you linked is just a facil approximation to what Atmos is, and far, far inferior to good passive stereo bookshelf speakers of the same price (I think Elac DB52s cost about $250, plus a $70 300W per channel fosi v3 amp will get you a fantastic setup. Later you could even add a $200 sub for the <60Hz range.)
The farthest I would ever go with surround/quadraphonic sound would be something like the Schiit Syn, which is now discontinued anyway. I have two ears: I only need to speakers. If the speakers are good and the track is well mixed, this will always lead to a better result than Dolby Atmos.
Movies like Interstellar are mixed with quiet dialogue for the dynamic range, like you say, and that can make speach difficult to understand. This is a questionable trend in movies led by Christopher Nolan but is absolutely not alleviated by Atmos.
I won’t go into what I think of the trend, but I really want to emphasize that buying an overpriced consumer sound system with Atmos marketing on it will not solve the problem. Please do not invest you money into faux-HiFi! If you are going to spend that much money, spend it wisely, and don’t pay attention to marketing.
There is a lot of text just to bitch to people that probably don’t care about niche differences. We’re talking about budget options here, not “audiophile” snake oil.
I also don’t personally care about a random “audiophile” opinion, especially on a site like Lemmy. You have no credentials here, your opinion has no weight over anyone else’s, that’s why sites with testing and reviewing methodologies are most useful. From my experience most “audiophile” opinions usually are about as good as Monster cables were, pure overpriced snake oil. Especially when that audio opinion includes absolutely insane and anatomically inaccurate things like “I have two ears: I only need to speakers.” You might as well be saying that Airpods are good enough because they’re right there.
I do trust the opinion of places like Rtings where there’s s defined testing methodology and direct comparisons can be taken from those. While the system I posted is definitely a generic mid-range system, it’s what they recommended for a budget soundbar system, it’s $350 all in. You provided anecdotal opinion and an alternative that’s twice as expensive for a pair of bookshelf speakers (actually more, the MSRP of those speakers is $370 alone, plus the amp and the Sub). From a company that markets their products as the “Best Audiophile Speakers” no less. That screams of Monster cable type scam shit, even if it isn’t, that’s the type of snake oil marketing that drives people away now. And in an product industry where snake oil products are a dime a dozen, that’s the opposite of what the serious companies usually try to do.
Yes, of course, it’s only natural to replace a 2.1 or 2.0 HiFi system with the scam that is Dolby Atmos…
Dolby Atmos does jack shit for quality audio; I say this as an audiophile. It is extremely controversial in HiFi, and not some gold standard. Additionally, the sound bar system you linked is just a facil approximation to what Atmos is, and far, far inferior to good passive stereo bookshelf speakers of the same price (I think Elac DB52s cost about $250, plus a $70 300W per channel fosi v3 amp will get you a fantastic setup. Later you could even add a $200 sub for the <60Hz range.)
Here’s a Benn Jordan vid I found on the subject: https://youtu.be/5Dw3aKbw5Wo
The farthest I would ever go with surround/quadraphonic sound would be something like the Schiit Syn, which is now discontinued anyway. I have two ears: I only need to speakers. If the speakers are good and the track is well mixed, this will always lead to a better result than Dolby Atmos.
Movies like Interstellar are mixed with quiet dialogue for the dynamic range, like you say, and that can make speach difficult to understand. This is a questionable trend in movies led by Christopher Nolan but is absolutely not alleviated by Atmos.
I won’t go into what I think of the trend, but I really want to emphasize that buying an overpriced consumer sound system with Atmos marketing on it will not solve the problem. Please do not invest you money into faux-HiFi! If you are going to spend that much money, spend it wisely, and don’t pay attention to marketing.
There is a lot of text just to bitch to people that probably don’t care about niche differences. We’re talking about budget options here, not “audiophile” snake oil.
I also don’t personally care about a random “audiophile” opinion, especially on a site like Lemmy. You have no credentials here, your opinion has no weight over anyone else’s, that’s why sites with testing and reviewing methodologies are most useful. From my experience most “audiophile” opinions usually are about as good as Monster cables were, pure overpriced snake oil. Especially when that audio opinion includes absolutely insane and anatomically inaccurate things like “I have two ears: I only need to speakers.” You might as well be saying that Airpods are good enough because they’re right there.
I do trust the opinion of places like Rtings where there’s s defined testing methodology and direct comparisons can be taken from those. While the system I posted is definitely a generic mid-range system, it’s what they recommended for a budget soundbar system, it’s $350 all in. You provided anecdotal opinion and an alternative that’s twice as expensive for a pair of bookshelf speakers (actually more, the MSRP of those speakers is $370 alone, plus the amp and the Sub). From a company that markets their products as the “Best Audiophile Speakers” no less. That screams of Monster cable type scam shit, even if it isn’t, that’s the type of snake oil marketing that drives people away now. And in an product industry where snake oil products are a dime a dozen, that’s the opposite of what the serious companies usually try to do.