If You Watch Movies With Headphones, Dolby Atmos Is A Game Changer
As someone who spends a lot of time fussing over their home audio setup, I'm always wary of software that claims to 'enhance' audio. One of the worst examples of this is simulated 7.1 surround sound—usually found in gaming headsets—which must have people who work in sound design breaking out in a cold sweat. It must be a nightmare carefully designing, mixing, and mastering an audio mix, then hearing it reduced to a mushy, watery mess.
The idea of simulated surround sound is to maximise the soundstage in your headphones, making everything sound more expansive. But if you go through as many high-end headphones as me, you'll know it's hardware that really determines how wide and open audio sounds. Use a pair of, say, Audio-Technica M50Xs and the soundstage is notably narrow, while Beyerdynamic's open-backed DT 990 PROs sound much more open.
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The M50Xs are great headphones for music production, playing instruments, or anything where you need to really hear what you're listening to in an intimate, detailed way. They're my go-to for playing the bass without annoying my neighbours. But when it comes to playing games or watching movies, a bigger soundstage makes a huge difference. Simulated surround sound does make things sound bigger, but it destroys the audio quality in the process.
I recently bought a pair of Apple's stupidly expensive AirPods Max. Even with a $100 discount, the price was still eye-watering. I justified the indulgence by selling a few other, unloved headphones I had hanging around. Even so, I still got hit with an avalanche of buyer's remorse when I clicked the buy button. But the moment they were on my head, I
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