The New Xbox Wireless Headset Comes With 6 Months Of Dolby Atmos

Did I read that right, subscription to make your headphones sound good?

@Yarec123 I was thinking the same it's absolutely ridiculous

@Yarec123 It’s a one time license fee not a subscription AFAIK. Totally worth it if you have Atmos setup.

The atmos fee is also regularly on sale too. I got it a while back on sale but don’t use it because of the audio lag it introduces. It’s the one of the few things I hate with Xbox and no one seems to mention it. It being stereo is fine. Windows sonic is slightly laggy and Dolby Atmos is even more delayed. Admittedly working in video production it’s something I’m super sensitive to but it’s still annoying. Xbox One X was the same. The best fix I can find is to plug my headphones (Arctic 9] into the controller and that actually swings things the other way. It’s nearly spot on but the sound comes a little before the picture then. But it’s the closest I can get it without go out of gaming mode on my TV and introducing noticeable controller lag.

Why not just include Atmos completely? You can get a good pair of Plantronic headphones for less and they come with the full license - not a trial.

Also, your Atmos for Headphones purchase covers up to 10 Microsoft devices (Xbox and Windows 10).

I'm just annoyed that my headset pre order got put back until April 10th.
At least I was able to grab one, most sellers stopped taking pre orders as they were already sold out.

@Scenes I thought about buying these because my blu tooth headphones have noticeable audio lag, and so does my sound bar. Seems weird with all this fancy tech we can’t easily get audio synced up. Makes rhythm games really hard and annoying!

@Nermannn wireless headsets with USB dongles you plug in seem to have lower latency then headsets that use XBoxes own protocol. And I think part of it is complicated by TVs. Having game mode shows the image quicker then it should by definition that’s how it feels more responsive. So I’m not sure how we fix it.

I can’t say it’s something I noticed with the PS4 Pro a buddy leant me to play Spider-Man last year so Sony may well handle audio in a way that doesn’t have the same issue as Xbox.

Discussing with you has actually made me wonder if you can enable atmos over a wired headset connected to the pad ? If that’s the case and wiring headphones for me puts the audio before the image then adding the delay of windows sonic or Dolby may sync things back up 😆

yeah I agree that charging to use an app for a product you bought is kind of dumb, should just be included in the cost of the headphones (hide it from us) rather than have a fee for the app.

The atmos plugin is pretty cheap if you know you want it versus Windows sonic. And both work for headphones over hdmi while Sonys advertised Tempest 3D still only works with usb or plugging into the controller.... So even the freebie is a perk.

I only paid 15 dollars once to get Atmos on my PC and Xbox both. What I'm concerned about with this headset is the 40mm drivers. My Man o War and Status Audio CB1 have really nice bass with 50mm drivers. If the Xbox headset had 50mm I'd most likely get one.

@Scenes haha I hope that works out for you!

@Scenes Atmos for Headphones does work with the controller's headset connection. I have been using Atmos for Headphones via the Xbox controller since Xbox One X days and I haven't noticed any lag in my audio. I even use Game Mode on my 2010 1080P Samsung TV.

It is like $15 to just own. What a strange selling point.

Is Atmos worth the money without a full blown 5.1 setup?

@GamingFan4Lyf look forward to trying it later today. I appreciate many don’t notice the delay. I envy you I really do. But it’s easy to confirm it’s there. Turn your sound up on your tv and have one ear of headphones in and you can hear the mis match in sound delay with an echo.

You can also Film your regular TV with your phone then film your TV with the audio and compare the sound waves in an editing program like premiere or final cut. I did to confirm I wasn’t going mad lol.

Also as the Xbox defaults to window sonic surround which has a delay it’s possible you’ve never seen it in actual sync properly and are just used to it.

@G8crasha absolutely. It’s incredible.

@Scenes Perhaps, so I won't ruin me being used to it by confirming there is a delay!

@G8crasha Dolby Atmos for Headphones is worth the cost if you don't have the proper home theater setup to get the most out of Atmos.

Dolby Atmos for receivers doesn't cost any money. The Xbox simply pushes the encoded Atmos information for your receiver to decode (via bitstream) - in other worse, the money to decode Dolby Atmos was spent on the receiver.

What you are paying for with Atmos for Headphones is for the software that decodes Dolby Atmos information and outputs the proper sound frequencies to you headphones to trigger the binaural response in your brain that determines sound direction.

Plus, it is better than Windows Sonic in my opinion (it's more accurate) - it seems Microsoft knows this, too, since it is promoting Dolby Atmos with these new headphones instead of just relying on Windows Sonic.

On top of all that, it still translates regular surround sound for games that don't do Atmos 3D Audio.

Dolby Atmos for Headphones also works with Blu-ray and streaming apps:

Netflix supports Dolby Atmos (selection isn't huge, though)
Disney+ supports Dolby Atmos (there are a ton of Atmos movies there)
Amazon Prime supports Dolby Atmos (I don't think the selection is big, though)
VUDU supports Dolby Atmos (for UHD versions of movies)

@GamingFan4Lyf can’t say I blame you 😀