Dolby Audio vs Dolby Atmos: What’s the Difference?

There’s a lot more to modern audio and video gadgets than just the hardware, with various technologies, platforms, and encoding standards built into making everything look and sound better. These technologies and standards can be rather specialised when it comes to development, but work with a huge number of devices that we use, including televisions, headphones, speakers, and sound systems for homes, cars, and public spaces. One brand is at the forefront of this, and it’s one that we’ve all heard of quite often – Dolby.

Unlike technology, audio, or video brands which develop hardware for consumers, Dolby focuses on the technology behind it all. There are no Dolby products such as headphones or speakers; instead, Dolby licenses its technologies to consumer electronics brands to use in their products, such as televisions, speaker systems, headphones, and more. 

A couple of popular technologies from Dolby which we’ve heard a lot about are Dolby Audio and Dolby Atmos. While both of these are audio technologies for devices, they work quite differently and are meant for unique use cases. If you’re wondering about the differences, read on to find out.

What is Dolby Audio?

One of Dolby’s most popular technology suites, Dolby Audio isn’t just a single technology or encoding standard. Instead, it covers a range of individual technologies such as Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby AC-4, among others. These technologies work on a variety of devices including headphones, speakers, televisions and automotive audio systems, to deliver better sound quality.

Dolby Audio works subtly to improve the hardware’s capabilities, delivering clearer dialogue, richer sound with music, and volume levelling to avoid jarring transitions when switching between tracks or different content. It’s compatible with all kinds of products, from basic two-channel audio such as headphones and speaker systems, to even surround sound systems with 5.1 or 7.1-channel setups. Many televisions, laptops, and smartphones also feature Dolby Audio technologies.

Dolby Audio technologies are seen products across all price ranges given the wide range of features it offers, and is often seen on even affordable products such as basic headphones and earphones or affordable speaker systems. 

What is Dolby Atmos?

Among the newer and more impressive audio technologies by the company, Dolby Atmos started out in 2012 as a technology suite for theatres to deliver surround sound in not just the typical channels, but also from different directions such as above the listener. The technology has since been rolled out for various consumer electronics devices, including televisions, soundbars and surround sound systems, headphones, automobile speaker systems, and more. 

ALSO READ: What is Dolby Atmos? The surround sound format explained

Dolby Atmos aims to deliver a more immersive surround sound experience, by allowing sound engineers to give precise and detailed inputs as to where the sound should be heard by the listener. The system works best with multi-channel speaker setups which include overhead and rear speakers, but it’s been implemented even for basic speaker systems such as those on TVs and smartphones.

For Dolby Atmos to work, it should be supported on all elements of the entertainment system, going from the content itself all the way to the output speakers. This is why Dolby Atmos is supported on various platforms and devices, including streaming services such as Netflix, various smart TVs and streaming devices, home theatre receivers, and speaker systems themselves. It’s a more complex and detailed system, and it works best with multi-channel sound systems.