But Atmos Music isn’t a conversion of stereo into multichannel surround - it’s a from-scratch-made recording that uses these extra channels in a whole new way. After all, every home theater receiver can take a stereo source like vinyl, CD, or streaming media and run it through circuits and software that optimize it for a surround system, like a 7.1 speaker setup. It would be easy to dismiss Dolby Atmos Music as simply a way to play normal tracks over a surround sound setup.

But that same recording technique can be used with music for a similar result: Total sonic immersion. That sounds like the kind of thing you’d get in a commercial movie theater, and it is - Dolby Atmos is used for creating highly immersive soundtracks for movies, with sound that feels like it’s coming from in front of you, behind you, both sides, and above. Dolby Atmos Music, on the other hand, is a native surround sound technology, with support for up to 128 channels and up to 34 separate speakers in a home theater, including speakers that can direct sound down toward the listener from the ceiling. However, no matter how many channels they start with, if they’re creating a stereo recording, these multiple channels must be combined eventually into just two channels: A left and a right, which corresponds to the two speakers in a stereo environment. Modern-day music producers have access to some very sophisticated digital recording equipment that lets them mix music from dozens of separate channels (also called tracks). Keep the channels open LightFieldStudios/Getty Images Why your next soundbar should have Dolby Atmos.How to know if you’re actually getting Dolby Atmos sound.Dolby Atmos: The future of immersive sound.The best noise-canceling headphones of 2023: Sony, Bowers & Wilkins, and moreīest headphones for 2023: Sony, Sennheiser, Apple, and more

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