If by "audiophile" you mean "dork" then yes.

A couple silly stories because the coffee just kicked in:

1. When I was finally to the point of studio construction where I could set up the speakers and actually fucking listen to something, I was fussing over the exact positions of the speakers and my chair, getting it all a perfect equilateral triangle. While I was doing that, I was flashing back to earlier setups and thinking about how I used to sit really close to the speakers, but over the years that triangle was slowly getting bigger and now I sit like 9' back.

And then I flashed back to being 16, I had a shelf behind my bed with my Fisher boombox on it. That thing ruled, I wish I still had it. Turntable input, 5 band graphic, detachable speakers. I had the speakers spaced out as far as they'd go on the shelf, and I'd sit crosslegged in bed listening to records for hours. So that was my first speaker/ears triangle.

2. In college, we'd be sitting around getting stoned and listening to records, as one does, and there were at least two times where I'd really be LISTENING, i.e. staring blankly into space like I do professionally now, and someone else in the room would say, really uncomfortably, "uuuhhh....dude? what are you looking at?" And I'd laugh and say "oh, sorry, I wasn't using my eyes."

It probably makes sense that kid grew up to be a mastering engineer, right?

3. I used to always make fun of audiophiles because, well, it's easy, but mainly cause I'd always see pictures of their rooms and it'd be a pair of $20,000 speakers and absolutely zero acoustic treatment. Which as I said earlier and you knew already anyway, is not the way to get yourself an accurate listening experience. So I'd always chuckle and think "oh those silly fools"....

Now that I have a room with really serious fuck off acoustics I've softened my stance drastically, because good mastering room acoustics are equivalent to operating room lights: you can clearly see every little detail. Which means really great sounding records REALLY REALLY sound great in a mastering room (take a bow, FM Steve), but with less-great sounding records you start noticing things you'd maybe rather not notice and it's distracting. So I still think it's dumb to put 20k speakers in an empty room but I get it, it's a perfectly reasonable hobby for people with too much money, let them have their fun.

Curious about how anyone in this thread feels about Atmos. A dude I work with is specking out a minimal Atmos rig and it is getting really insane. The prices just keep climbing as you keep having to add equipment and shit just to get it up and working. Monitor controlling seems to be a huge expensive speedbump, and if you are using any room correction hardware/software... absurd.

Kniferide wrote: Thu Jan 04, 2024 6:25 pm Curious about how anyone in this thread feels about Atmos. A dude I work with is specking out a minimal Atmos rig and it is getting really insane. The prices just keep climbing as you keep having to add equipment and shit just to get it up and working. Monitor controlling seems to be a huge expensive speedbump, and if you are using any room correction hardware/software... absurd.

Any system with so many speakers, which all need amplification (or powered speakers) along with a complicated preamp thingy to sort it all out, is going to get expensive quick.

it sounds like it has benefits for movies, but I fail to see why I need to listen to mission of burma or the melvins in full surround sound mode.

plus, i read somewhere that the only significant source for streaming Atmos content is going to be Apple Music, but it won't be streamed lossless, in fact it won't be streamed even at 16/44. So the resolution may not be there. Which you will hear on a good rig.

I have a friend who happens to be a ME, and he is busy installing Atmos in a studio nearby. I have asked for a demo.

motorbike guy wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:08 am I fail to see why I need to listen to mission of burma or the melvins in full surround sound mode.

Yeah. I've never understood it. To date, no surround sound strategy has had any legs, it's tough to imagine Atmos being any different. How many people (who aren't on this board) even have a decent set of stereo speakers? What percentage of those people want to have another 10 speakers scattered around their living room? Would ANYONE actually want a bunch of speakers around their living room? I wouldn't, my wife sure wouldn't.

Even in a movie theater, I feel like having the sound come from behind me is weird. Just have it come from the same place the image is coming from, But maybe I'm no fun.

motorbike guy wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:08 am plus, i read somewhere that the only significant source for streaming Atmos content is going to be Apple Music,

I believe going forward Apple Music and Spotify will be requiring a Binaural Atmos render for every thing being uploaded, as well I think Tidal and some of the other things nobody uses will too. My friend Chris has been taking stems and rendering them through just to provide this.

It is already being used in cinema and I'm sure VR/Video games have a lot to gain from it, but music in Surround sound wil most likely only be a thing for weird electronic music. I bet the Modular crowd could have fun. The monitoring set ups for it are absurd and the specs to get Certified are monstrous. I hate Airpods the most but Apple is defaulting to Spatial Audio being active when you turn those on so it's def a thing they are trying to force feed you. Given my druthers I'd mix everything in Mono, BABY!!!

I shit on every form of surround at every opportunity but also have to admit I have never sat in a room and actually done a close listen to material mixed in it.

I do like stereo mixes a lot when used creatively, but a song's a song and should hold up regardless of how many speakers it comes out of.

Garth wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:35 am I shit on every form of surround at every opportunity but also have to admit I have never sat in a room and actually done a close listen to material mixed in it.

I do like stereo mixes a lot when used creatively, but a song's a song and should hold up regardless of how many speakers it comes out of.

definitely seems like they are trying to sell something to listeners that they couldn't care less about.

Kniferide wrote:

Garth wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:35 am I shit on every form of surround at every opportunity but also have to admit I have never sat in a room and actually done a close listen to material mixed in it.

I do like stereo mixes a lot when used creatively, but a song's a song and should hold up regardless of how many speakers it comes out of.

definitely seems like they are trying to sell something to listeners that they couldn't care less about.

Yeah you'd think they'd have learned with the giant flop of quadraphonic 50 years ago but these companies are always desperate to try to find some reason to sell us more crap.

Unless you're at Epcot watching Captain EO (or I guess if you were in some sort of immersive VR), wtf is the point honestly.

I have seen colleagues in the recording/mixing world sell off racks of gear to convert for their new ATMOS business model, I've also seen bigger studios invest in opening a C Room with full ATMOS setup. I wish them the best, but that shit was going to be 'the next big thing' like three years ago. It ain't happening.

Garth wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2024 2:58 pm

Kniferide wrote:

Garth wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:35 am I shit on every form of surround at every opportunity but also have to admit I have never sat in a room and actually done a close listen to material mixed in it.

I do like stereo mixes a lot when used creatively, but a song's a song and should hold up regardless of how many speakers it comes out of.

definitely seems like they are trying to sell something to listeners that they couldn't care less about.

Yeah you'd think they'd have learned with the giant flop of quadraphonic 50 years ago but these companies are always desperate to try to find some reason to sell us more crap.

Unless you're at Epcot watching Captain EO (or I guess if you were in some sort of immersive VR), wtf is the point honestly.

A while back, Rhino released Blu-Ray editions of a few albums with the Quad mixes. Seems like "Quadio..." was the catchphrase they were using.

The only reason I even gave it a second thought was that Paranoid and Billion Dollar Babies were on that list.