GoldenEar Hits the Ceiling

People who walked in to the GoldenEar sound room at CEDIA 2015 sat down eager to hear a Dolby Atmos setup anchored by the Triton One tower speakers in the front of the room. Despite the presence of those floorstanders, all of the speakers used for the Atmos demonstration were in the ceiling—including the left, right, and center. Only the new Supersub XXL was operating on the floor. The two Triton Ones visible at the far left and right in the photo were there for a separate 2-channel demo for those who asked to hear them.

Ceiling fronts shouldn’t sound better than workmanlike, but functioned far better even in this flimsy show room than I ever expected. If your domestic situation requires that the speakers be more or less invisible, this can work. As an audiophile I know I’d never be permanently happy with it (come to think of it, we audiophiles are never permanently happy with anything!), and given the choice would still opt for the floorstanders at the left and right together with a matching center. But that’s not possible for everyone. I’d avoid it however (for the fronts) if your ceilings are more than about 9 feet high (my estimate of the ceiling height in the show’s prefab sound rooms).

On my first visit to the GoldenEar room I heard demos from Dolby’s latest Atmos sampler. Everyone was using this Blu-ray, and while it had a nice range of selections, the same three or four (the noisiest, of course) were seeming heard everywhere and became tedious as the show wore on—likely even more so for the demonstrators who had to listen to them at least 50 times a day for 3 days.

I returned later with some of my own Blu-rays—the live action Cinderella and Oblivion. Since neither are Atmos transfers, we played them in simulated Atmos (which is now officially known as Dolby Surround). They both sounded excellent, with nary a gunshot, a car chase, or a city being trampled on, and only one explosion between them. I picked them specifically for their stunning (and very different) music scores. Both of them sounded expansive and compelling on GoldenEar’s system.