How to get the most from your Dolby At mos soundbar

01 placement

For a soundbar and wireless sub to present a genuinely unified (sonic) front it’s important that they gel seamlessly. Your only job is to place the sub in the right place. Usually this means keeping it physically close to the soundbar. If a sub sounds disconnected, you should rethink its position.

02 listening dis tance

A soundbar that employs dedicated upfiring drivers will rely on reflected sound to deliver the height channel. This sonic bounce will vary with ceiling height, so experiment with your seating position.

03 upscale

While there are plenty of sources for Dolby Atmos, you’ll be listening to a lot of material that’s stereo or encoded in traditional 5.1. Use an upscaling mode to make the most of this.

04 Avoid compression

Soundbar systems will offer a neutered ‘night mode’, which restricts the dynamic range of sources – on the Sony HTST5000 this is called DRC (Dynamic Range Compression). Our advice is to turn this off.

05 ge t hook-up righ t

Dolby Atmos audio is only delivered over HDMI. While these soundbars also have digital audio, Bluetooth and even analogue stereo connectivity, these inputs should only be used for nonAtmos sources, such as dedicated music players.

06 Don’t cr owd it

Ensure your soundbar is completely unobstructed when you place it, and do not put it inside AV furniture.

07 All aboard the ARC

If your TV features HDMI with ARC, the soundbar will become the default TV audio system, turning on automatically with the set and handling all TV sound. But TV s generally can’t pass through Dolby Atmos, so Atmos sources need to be wired over HDMI directly.