Dolby Atmos Explained

You’ve likely seen “Dolby Atmos” pop up if you’ve been playing games during the last few years. If you’re used to only seeing the Dolby name pop up in theaters, you might be wondering what it has to do with video games. Here’s a quick little introduction to how this clever bit of technology can help enhance your gaming experiences.

So, what is Dolby Atmos? According to Dolby, Atmos transports you into a spatial sound experience that you can feel all around you. It does so by precisely placing the sounds that come out of your speakers all around the soundscape. This imparts a better sense of the distance, direction, and location of where the sounds are coming from.

Within the context of competitive gaming, what that means is that you should start to intuitively notice audio cues in games are a bit more helpful. Say you’re getting overwhelmed by having to pan and scan to try and find where the enemies are spawning from in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies. With a good headset like the CORSAIR VOID WIRELESS v2 and Dolby Atmos, you’ll probably start to notice that you can pick out the direction of those zombie jerks before you see them. That intuitive sense will probably buy you a couple of moments, which should lead to less panic firing.

This will also help in situations with team fights so you can avoid getting flanked, or ambushed by a 3rd party, or when someone tries to stealth in and to unleash a massive ult. The extra time you gain from determining the direction of the threat without having to actually see it can be the difference between a team wipe and a clutch hold.

It’s not all about getting an audio advantage, though. Dolby Atmos can also add an expansive layer of detail to the game world. By hearing the little sounds of the environment all around you, you’ll feel a greater sense of immersion in the world, instead of just feeling like you’re just being dropped into a flattened-out 2D soundscape. Sound effects like the visceral, moist sounds of gibs, and guttural growls and roars in Doom: The Dark Ages gain additional impact.

There’s also the benefit you get from hearing talented voice actors and singers performing their craft in maximum clarity. You might be missing emotional details of their vocal performances when you have to hear their work in a less-optimized setup.

You may also find that you can hear finer details of your favorite game soundtracks in greater detail. The rhythmic thumps of the madal on Civilization VII’s Nepal Modern Theme just hit different when they’re enhanced by Dolby Atmos. If you’re more of a Final Fantasy XIV aficionado, you might find that it takes hearing the juxtaposition of the up-tempo drumbeat and the background choir in Paved in Solitude to another level.

With so much attention paid to graphics cards and pushing the limits of your computer to pack as many frames into a second as possible, people sometimes forget that there are other senses at play when it comes to gaming. Sound can play a very big role in amplifying the immersive qualities of a game, and when you’ve got a game that pays attention to those details, Dolby Atmos technology and a headset that can take advantage of those efforts like the CORSAIR VOID WIRELESS v2, games can go beyond entertainment and can become experiences. If you’re trying to set up Dolby Atmos on your CORSAIR headset, well, you’re in luck, here’s an article that’ll help you do that very thing!

If you’re in the market for a headset that supports Dolby Atmos, here’s a list of current CORSAIR headsets that support the tech.

• CORSAIR HS55 SURROUND v2
• CORSAIR HS65 WIRELESS
• CORSAIR HS80 RGB USB
• CORSAIR HS80 RGB WIRELESS
• CORSAIR HS80 MAX WIRELESS
• CORSAIR VIRTUOSO RGB WIRELESS XT
• CORSAIR VIRTUOSO MAX WIRELESS
• CORSAIR VOID WIRELESS v2