DTS:X Surround Format Overview and First Listen
DTS:X Speaker Configuration for First Listen
After Audioholics was on-hand at DTS Headquarters for the official reveal of DTS:X, we came back to put together the most comprehensive coverage of this new technology available. There’s no regurgitated press releases here, just true, first-hand perspectives.
There’s a lot to digest with this slew of recent technology announcements from DTS, so we’re going to do our best to break them down for you. First, we’ll outline what we consider the four main applications of DTS:X: Production, Theater, Home, and Personal. Then, we’ll take you through our experience at the demo and give you our listening notes. Finally, we’ll address the main implications for individual consumers and answer some common questions.
Let's start out with DTS headquarters itself. Now this is a place I could see myself working at!
The Lobby of the DTS Headquarters, complete with a live DJ
DTS:X Home Theater, Cinema, Headphone Technology Details Emerge
Production: The Multi-dimensional Audio tool (DTS MDA)
MDA is DTS:X for the producer. When a professional audio mixer is working on content in immersive audio, they have to choose an audio tool to specify which sounds go where in the overall mix. Will the sound be in front of you, behind you, over your head, or all of the above? All of that is determined by the initial mix, and DTS is proposing MDA as the best tool for making that mix.
So, why would a producer choose MDA instead of another tool from another company? DTS is hoping that they have made a compelling argument for choosing their tool as it is easy to use, free, and produces a file that is not locked in a proprietary format.
DTS:X Multi-dimensional Audio tool (MDA) Interface
Using the tool is as simple as dragging a sound object around a circle. As you drag the object to the top of the circle, it comes from the front of your soundstage. Dragging it around the sides moves it to your sides and dragging it to the bottom...you guessed it, has the sound coming from behind you. The outside of the circle signifies ear-level, so as you drag the sound towards the center, it moves increasingly overhead until, at the center of the circle, the sound is positioned directly over the listening position. It’s easy enough for a toddler to use, and powerful enough, in the right hands, to make a truly immersive mix.
And now I’ll put on my infomercial host voice: “What would you expect to pay for this miracle product? $49? $19? How about, absolutely nothing?!” DTS is making the MDA tool available for free to producers in the hopes of spurring adoption at the head of the content production chain. Because the resulting file is open and the immersive sound mix can be imported into third-party tools, there really doesn’t seem to be a downside for producers. DTS MDA is well positioned to become a very popular content authoring tool.
Theater: The Return of DTS Cinemas
Who would have guessed that the company that provided the soundtrack for one of the biggest movies of all time, Jurassic Park, would find itself largely squeezed out of the commercial theater space? Well, that’s exactly what happen to DTS, but they’re looking to come back in a big way. The key to this will be blockbuster content and key partnerships, along with install flexibility.
DTS is out of the gates with a few key partnerships. GDC Technology boasts the largest install base of digital cinema servers in the Asia-Pacific region, and the second largest globally. GDC will provide DTS:X installation and certification for approximately 350 screens throughout Asia beginning in May 2015. In the U.S., Carmike Cinemas will upgrade selected theaters to DTS:X in spring of 2015. Revealed at the demo event, IMAX theaters will also feature DTS:X technology and, on the content side, Avengers: Age of Ultron will be mixed in DTS MDA.
While this is a good start, DTS:X will still need to add more partners to become the dominating audio format. Helping the adoption rate is the flexibility of DTS:X to adapt to numerous room designs thanks to speaker re-mapping. If a theater has already made an investment in Dolby Atmos or Auro 3D upgrades and speaker placement, DTS:X can be adapted with minimal changes to speaker locations which will save cinemas money and eliminate the need to rip out and re-position existing speakers.
Home: Immersive Sound for Real Spaces
We here at Audioholics have been at the forefront of the conversation around object-based mixing formats like Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D in the home, and why wouldn't we be? We are enthused at the promise of a more immersive surround experience where a 360 degree soundfield is matched with audio channels overhead to give a fully enveloping sonic environment. However, many rooms in homes are simply not suited for overhead speakers, and the reflective speaker technology used to bounce sound overhead has been seemingly ill-conceived and underwhelming.
See: What are Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers? and Dolby Atmos In-ceiling vs Atmos-enable Speaker Demo Results
We've gotta be real: the need for more speakers, and the awkward location of those speakers, is perhaps the biggest sticking point in the adoption of these next-generation object. Here's the issue: a standard 5.1 setup meets the requirements for speaker placement in both DTS and Dolby Surround. You can switch between the formats and the two can peacefully co-exist. No such congruence exists with Dolby Atmos and Auro 3D; those two formats have very different speaker layouts. However, DTS:X claims to map to your front, surround, and height channels no matter where they are. And let's face it, even with a 5.1 setup, most of us have had to diverge from the standard placement. I know in my system, my front speakers are all spot on, but my surround speakers are mounted higher than what would be ideal. With DTS:X, there is no recommended speaker placement, they just match what you have, or at least that was the underlying message at the presentation. We’ll have to see if this holds true in a real world listening scenario, and if/how the manufacturers will implement this.
DTS:X Channel Check
When pushed, DTS noted that a standard 5.1 setup with an additional 2 fronts height and 2 rear height speakers would be a good place to start, but there were no specific angles in the horizontal or vertical plane given. This is in contrast to Auro 3D's specific placement requirements, and Dolby's seemingly contradictory approaches of exactly placed ceiling speakers, or distinctly non-specific reflective speaker approach that bounces sound off the ceiling. If object-based mixing is to take off in the home, it seems like DTS:X presents the best chance of success given it's ability to adapt to an almost infinite variety of speaker placements.
Personal: DTS Headphone:X Sounds Like Real Speakers On The Go
DTS Headphone:X using psychoacoustics to trick your brain into thinking it’s hearing speakers in front, behind, and overhead through a standard set of headphones. I'm not going to bury the lead here: I was thoroughly impressed with DTS Headphone:X. In the demo, we had just finished listening to a standard channel check where a pictures of the various speakers is displayed, a speaker is highlighted on screen, and the corresponding speaker plays a voice saying "left front", "right surround", and so forth. So, after that channel check was played through real speakers in a real room, we were asked to put on headphones, and the channel check was played again. I think I made it almost 3 speakers in before, in the middle of "center", I pulled off my headphones to make sure they hadn't accidentally left the real speakers on. They hadn't.
DTS Headphone:X Logo on Display
Now, that's not to say that the headphones sounded as good at the real speakers in a real room that we had just heard, but DTS Headphone:X sounded more realistic, at least on that demo channel check, than any other headphone pseudo-surround that I've heard.
A follow up clip from the film "Divergent" was played. It was a scene where one of the characters is escaping from a box filled with water. Truthfully, I didn't find it a good clips for evaluation. Sure there was a lot of info in the surround field, but it was all rather non-descript like bubbling water and cracking glass. I would have preferred a clip with some dialog and distinct sound cues placed in familiar, realistic space to get a sense of how well DTS Headphone:X can transport the listener out of their head. Nonetheless, the demo convinced me that DTS Headphone:X could be a real benefit for personal listening.
Speaking of preferences, DTS Headphone: X can be adjusted for listener preference. The sound can be more on-ear, or more in-the-room, and the apparent size of the room adjusted. For anyone who is regularly banished to headphone use when trying not to wake family members or disturb close neighbors, DTS Headphone:X will do a fantastic job of bringing the speakers-in-a-room experience to headphone users. But, don't take my word for it, try it out today by visiting the DTS Headphone:X webpage for example clips, or download one of the smart phone apps that includes DTS Headphone:X technology.
DTS:X: Listening in the Theater and Home
As we are still waiting for consumer hardware, what follows from this point on is largely based in speculation. We’ll talk about what DTS:X “could” do for the home, but until we see final products, we won’t know for sure.
With object based audio, instead of mixing sounds to specific speakers, sound is mapped to a 3D space, and the decoder translates that into the audio sent to your speakers. Say you want overhead speakers, because of a wall opening or vaulted ceiling, your left height speaker is much closer to your listening position than your right. DTS:X claims that they can remap to your speakers locations. With object-based encoding, your soundtrack can now match your speaker position, even if your speakers are off center or at the wrong angles, though again, we’ll need to see how his plays out in the final hardware implementation.
Control Over Dialog Levels
Another really great trick is the ability to identify portions of an soundtrack, dialog, for example, and increase or decrease the volume of the dialog relative to the rest of the soundtrack. If you've ever had a hard time understanding dialog, you’ve probably increased the volume level of your center channel, but this also increases the volume of everything else in that channel that's not dialog, like explosions, or ambient noises. With Object-based encoding, you can increse just the dialog, and leave other center channel effects untouched.
DTS showcased this control over dialog with a sports broadcast. Let's say, in the simplest terms, that they are two main parts to sports audio: the announcers and the crowd/field noise. DTS:X allows you to turn up the announcer dialog so that you can understand them better, or turn it down to give more of a feel of being in the crowd surrounded by the noise.
Demo Listening at DTS Headquarters
We were treated to multiple demos of DTS in a number of environments. The first was a large lab/theater that featured dozens of speakers in many different configurations. This large space is what DTS uses to develop its various technologies, and with those dozens speakers mounted at various distances, above and around the listener, a seemingly endless number of configurations is possible. We listened in two different configurations that mimicked a large and small room environment, both essentially a 7.1.4 setup with the .4 being front and rear L/R speaker pairs. We were also treated to a similar demo in a smaller room approximately 18x25x10 that could stand in for an immodest home theater space.
DTS Test Lab Overhead Speakers
As for the vast majority of existing content, DTS:X also takes non-object oriented mixes and upmixes them from a 7.1 mix to a 7.1.4 system, or beyond. I had brought a flash drive full of familiar music and video material in the hopes of getting a more critical evaluation of what DTS:X could do for existing content, but was told that I wouldn't be able to demo any personal material today.
Instead, I experimented with this by requesting that a music clip available in both formats on the DTS test disc be played, switching between the two as quickly as possible. The 7.1.4 mix was clearly meant to highlight the capabilities of multiple overhead speakers with backing vocals inexplicably shifting from left to right overhead as though the singer were running around above me. Unsurprisingly, the 7.1 mix, even when upmixed with DTS:X special sauce, didn't replicate these circus antics, and I was actually thankful for it. Instead, I would say the effect was simply a more enveloping soundstage, though I can't say for certain the benefit to DTS:X in 7.1.4 over a more simple 7.1 system.
While we were able to listen to content mixed specifically for height channels, and content that was mixed for a traditional 7.1 spatially remapped with height channels, one thing that wasn't available for our ears was a comparison of a standard 7.1 system, versus a 7.1.4 system. Thus, the question "Are height channels worth it?", can't be answered from this demo. Did the material sound great with the height channels? Yes, absolutely. Would it have sounded almost a great without the need for suspending speakers overhead? Possibly, but as DTS wasn't focused on making the case for why having height channels is better than not having height channels, I can't say one way or the other.
DTS:X Common Questions and Conclusion
Q: Where is the Content? Will it be available in both Physical and Streaming formats?
A: DTS was not ready to announce any other content, with the exception of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The DTS:X mix can also be compressed into lower bitrates and lossy formats, so streaming titles can take advantage of object-oriented mixes without maxing out your internet provider's bandwidth cap, which I would know nothing about because I live in a small town with municipal, uncapped fiber internet #humblebrag.
DTS:X Home Theater, Cinema, Headphone Technology Details Emerge
Q: Will I need a new blu-ray player?
A: When the initial DTS:X content does arrive, it will likely be delivered via blu-ray to begin with, and no, you won't need a new blu-ray player.
Q: Will I need to buy special DTS:X versions of a movie?
A: Probably not, as a single DTS:X soundtrack will play on older hardware and non-surround systems.
With some encoding formats, there might be the need for one mix for stereo 2.0 systems, one for lossy 5.1, one for lossless 7.1, and one for 7.1.4 and beyond systems. With DTS:X, the producer creates a single mix. Instead of 4 mixes, this single mix can be be played back in a 32 speaker theater, a 7.1.4 home system, or in 2.0 over headphones. A DTS:X capable AVR is also not a requirement. A DTS:X mix will play back just fine on a 10 year old AVR with plain vanilla DTS decoding, though you'll still need to use an HDMI cable, so Toslink only AVRs need not apply.
Q: Will I need a new AVR or AV processor?
A: Probably. The only current AVRs listed as DTS:X upgradable are the Denon AVR-X7200W and Marantz AV8802. However, the DTS press release include 2015 release dates for hardware from other partners that represent nearly 90 percent of the home AVR and surround processor market.
Q: Can I use my Atmos reflecting speakers with DTS:X?
A: Nobody’s going to stop you, but DTS:X won’t be officially supporting them. So, you may need to get creative with their configuration and be prepared for less than ideal performance which is to be expected in general given the physics of Dolby Atmos-enabled reflection speakers and their limitations.
Conclusion
We've covered everything that DTS:X is capable of in this overview, but there is one very HUGE caveat: none of this will be available to the consumer unless producers mix in DTS:X using the MDA tools and unless manufacturers implement it in their hardware. Yes, DTS touted many launch partners, but it's up to those manufacturers to determine IF and HOW they implement these features. Yes, DTS:X can spatially remap sound to accommodate setups where speakers are not in common 7.1.x setups, but how will your AVR allow you specify the height, angle, and distance of your speakers? Will there be an auto-setup routine with multiple microphones determining speaker position, or will this require a lot of work with a tape measure and calculator? Will features like dialog control and DTS headphone be implemented in all DTS:X processors, or will some of these be held back to feed a future AVR replacement cycle, or reserved for only the most expensive, flagship products? DTS is quick to point out that they've developed the tools to make all this possible, but the end user is ultimately at the whim of the hardware manufacturer to bring it to market.
So, at the end of the day, the potential is clear. Producers get a tool to mix with that is free and open, and ensuring that their mixes can be exported for use in other systems. Cinemas and Homes get an immersive object based audio format that can be scaled and configured to non-standard systems of almost any size. Headphone users get a less in-your-head sound that can be adjusted for preference. DTS is ready to deliver all of this...if everyone else in the chain from producers to manufacturers buy-in.
At the end of this experience, there's no doubt that a full 7.1.4 system with DTS:X provides a more enveloping experience. I'm personally not interested in more fly-overs and other moving objects bouncing around my head while I'm watching a movie. I'm interested in a more realistic reproduction of ambiance in spaces, the subtle echoes and cues that can take you from a parking garage, to an Olympic stadium, to a buried coffin all without leaving your living room. If DTS:X can do that for me, and map to a non-standard speaker layout so that I don't have to build a false ceiling over my vaulted living room or construct a rear wall where I currently have none, then I'm buying.
Tell us what you think in our forum. Are you ready for DTS:X?
Marshall is an Educator by trade, and currently lives in Oregon. He was lucky enough to grow up in a musical household, and though the AV equipment wasn't the greatest, it was always on. His dad introduced him to Queen, Paul Simon, and Sgt. Pepper's, and his mom played Lionel Richie and Disney Soundtracks. When Marshall was 14, his uncle passed down a pair of JBL towers and Marshall finally had his own system. Having enjoyed podcasting and video production over the past 10 years, Marshall is happy to be contributing at Audioholics.
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