Surround sound has been present in almost every cinema for several decades. In 2012, Dolby, Inc. announced a new spatial audio format – Dolby Atmos with object-based audio approach. Because of that, sound designers can take advantage of more precise positioning of sound sources in space. This paper examines whether listeners can perceive the position of sounds reproduced as objects with higher precision compared to 5.1 and 7.1. Listening tests with 127 respondents were conducted to compare perceived positions of six samples, each of them reproduced in 5.1, 7.1 and Dolby Atmos. The results do not show a significantly increased precision of spatial localization when using object audio; however, the respondents felt more certain when identifying position of an object sound source compared to regular channel-based reproduction.
https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=20846
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