I understand how Dolby Atmos works on 5.1 and 7.1 systems, but wouldn’t translating it to headphones just make it standard stereo? Headphones only have two speakers, one on the left and one on the right.
Even without head tracking like Apple’s spatial audio, why does surround still sound different from stereo?
In: Technology
You only have **two ears**. Seems like stereo, right? But you hear the real world in full 3D.
It’s because sounds from different directions will hit your ears at different times and will be filtered differently through your head, and your brain knows how to interpret this and convert it to 3D perception.
So, audio companies can use HRTF (head-related transform functions) to make sounds sound like they’re coming from any direction. This is why HRTF 3D requires a special processor/software, like the Astro A40 MixAmp, because it’s translating the surround signal data into HRTF *instead of* directly sending signals to a bunch of little surround speakers.
You only have 2 ears. 2 sound sources is all you need to hear full real 3D. *If they’re processed* in a certain way.
This is why multi-speaker “surround” headphones are a scam. But people don’t understand ears or sound perception, so they think they need multiple speakers and they have no clue about HRTF.
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