A Couple of Atmos Questions

[madscot]

I should clearly define what I mean by "channel". I am referring to the left and right front speakers as one channel.

So this my set up:

Front speakers channel, left and right - one amplifier
Back speakers channel, left and right - one amplifer
Center speaker channel, mono - one bridged amplifer
ATMOS channel, left and right - one amplifier

My question concerns the ATMOS channel. If one has more than one set of left and right ATMOS speakers, are all of the speakers playing the same source material?

Thank you. John

No, if you have four height speakers each speaker will have discrete sounds coming out of them, similar to your floor speakers, most atmos mixers work in 7.1.4 so eleven seperate channels of sound, although if you only have two heights like me the sound will fold down

 

[himey]

If one has more than one set of left and right ATMOS speakers, are all of the speakers playing the same source material?

Atmos is designed to scale depending on the setup. If you have an Atmos receiver that does 9 or more channels, then it will utilize all four height/top channels.

 

[newslane]

Atmos is designed to scale depending on the setup. If you have an Atmos receiver that does 9 or more channels, then it will utilize all four height/top channels.

And you're defining a channel as one speaker, left or right, correct? That makes more sense, actually.

 

[himey]

And you're defining a channel as one speaker, left or right, correct? That makes more sense, actually.

Yes. One speaker equals one channel. Atmos does use four top channels IF you set the configuration in the speaker setup to the correct layout. A 7 channel Atmos receiver is limited to 2 top channels/speakers. A 9+ Atmos receiver will have the speaker layout options to utilize 4 discreet top channels. A 9 channel receiver will go 5.1.4. An 11 channel receiver will go 7.1.4. Beyond that, for 6 channel tops, it gets very expensive for the receiver/processor.

 

[mandrix]

I have one of those AVR's that will amp 9 channels, but will process 11 (Atmos). For mine, that means I have to pre-out the back surrounds to a separate amp.
Since I have switched from 7.1.4 to 5.1.4 I'm using a separate amp for the 4 height speakers only.