Nowadays, watching movies at home is incredibly easy. The best streaming platforms often get access to giant blockbusters as soon as they appear in movie theaters, and getting high-quality gear such as the best TVs or home projectors is getting cheaper every year.
That being said, even if you get the best TV possible, you won’t get the same cinema experience at home without a sound of similar quality. To really experience the emotions, immersion and excitement of your favorite movies, the sound has to elevate the visuals.
Does Dolby Atmos actually sound any better? Here’s what it can do
Dolby Atmos takes surround sound to another level and gives you cinematic sound from the comfort of your home.
That’s where the best Dolby Atmos speakers come into play. Thanks to this spatial audio format, you can experience sound at your home like never before, with exceptional spatial audio capabilities, creating a totally immersive, cinema-like experience.
Even better, you don’t really need a huge speaker setup to bring Dolby Atmos into your home. We’ve found a range of excellent Dolby Atmos solutions that require you to find space for just a soundbar, a subwoofer, and a pair of satellites to experience the full glory of 3D sound — the rest is done through the magic of virtual surround channels. So, here are the best Dolby Atmos speakers you can buy right now.
Best Dolby Atmos speakers: Our top picks
Best Dolby Atmos speakers: Which one should you get?
Picking the best Dolby Atmos speakers can be quite difficult — there are so many great options to choose from. That being said, for us, the best choice right now is the Samsung HW-Q990C. It combines excellent performance with a versatile sound, making for the best Dolby Atmos speaker.
If you’re looking for something on a budget, the Vizio M-Series 5.1.2 Soundbar performs admirably for the price, and will fit nicely into a budget home theater setup. Conversely, if you’re after something that will make your audio setup’s sound more fun, engaging, and add a bit of oomph to it, JBL Bar 1300X is a great choice for its boomy bass and generally fun sound profile.
I tried Audible’s Dolby Atmos audiobooks to see if they sound better
Here’s my experience with the collection so far, plus tips on how to find and listen to Audible’s Dolby Atmos-enabled audiobooks yourself.
FAQ
Q: Where can I stream Dolby Atmos content?
Even though at first Dolby Atmos was hard to come by, more than ten years after the standard was first introduced, the situation has changed completely.
You can now find Dolby Atmos content almost everywhere you look. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Disney+ each support Dolby Atmos on movies and TV shows. Roku also has support for that format, as well as Android TV boxes, such as the Nvidia Shield TV, and Amazon’s Fire TV.
That’s not all. If you have a newer console – Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4, you can also stream Dolby Atmos content — TV, movies, and even games — straight from them. Or, if you are into spatial music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Apple Music support the Dolby Atmos Music format.
Q: Will a soundbar be enough for Dolby Atmos?
As Dolby Atmos is a spatial audio standard, you might be wondering whether getting just a soundbar, or a soundbar with only a few satellites, is enough to fill your room with 3D sound.
Well, contrary to previous surround sound implementations, Dolby Atmos does not require you to get all the channels physically around you. Of course, it is still the best way to go, but getting a true Dolby Atmos setup is not only extremely expensive, but it also requires carefully planning your room layout and speaker placement. Instead, you can rely on virtual channels.
That’s exactly what the soundbars we chose above do. They have enough speakers inside them to give you the full Dolby Atmos experience, but instead of placing them around the room, they bounce the sound off the walls and the ceiling. This tricks your brain into thinking that the sound is coming from, for example, behind you, even though it’s produced by the soundbar under your TV.
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