I just wanted to share with you all, what seems like "The Official Answer" from Dolby Labs themselves - the answer to the question:
In the Spatial Sound tab of the Properties of my Headset/Headphones, should I have the "Turn on 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound checkbox selected ('checked'), or not..?
I found this question asked in a Steam Discussion earlier in the year, about whether or not the checkbox for
"7.1 virtual surround sound" should be selected or not. At
the time, I was sending emails back and forth with Dolby Support a bit, and got the answer of 'use whatever sounds better for your headset'
- which does make sense; each model in each brand of every set of
headphones has different capabilities and manufacturing limitations
and can indeed sound different from the next.
While helpful advice, I
had submitted a Feedback Comment at their website, that said that the Dolby App did not specifically address this checkbox in Windows 10 (and
whether or not it should be 'ticked'). I looked recently at the Dolby
App again just a couple of days ago [as of the time of this posting, which is near the end of 2018] and found that a diagram, showing
the answer to whether the 7.1 Surround Sound checkbox should be
selected/ticked or not, was now present; and wanted to share it with you all, here.
Below then, is the Screenshot from the Official Dolby App in Windows 10 [and the "Spatial Sound" Tab of my Headset, how it was at the time, shown on the Right]:
 |
| The Dolby Atmos App in Windows 10, showing the "Turn on 7.1 virtual surround sound" checkbox suggested as "Checked", with my Windows 10 Sound Properties panel shown on the right (showing the checkbox unselected at the time) |
It seems then, that 'the final answer' to whether or not this checkbox should be selected or not, is "Yes", as suggested by Dolby Labs themselves.
[Edit: After returning to do more Testing with Dolby Atmos in Windows 10, I have found that the checkbox for "Turn on 7.1 virtual surround sound" now automatically becomes selected ('checked') when SPATIAL SOUND > DOLBY ATMOS is chosen/enabled (eg. when right-clicking on the Speaker icon [Sound] in the System Tray / Notification area of the Taskbar to enable it [near the Clock on the taskbar in Windows])]
If I may still add, 'juuuust in case', to try both ways still, with whatever headphones you are utilizing, taking a moment to listen to something with it checked then unchecked, to 'make sure' that you are getting what sounds the best, to YOU - as suggested by Dolby themselves [to me directly through emails with them]. Regardless, I hope this helps to clear things up a bit.
Addendum:
While a Review of Dolby's Atmos surround sound for Windows 10 is out of the scope of this specific posting, I am slowly working on a short "Review" of the function/app, comparing it to other '7.1 Surround Sound' sources, such as Razer's "Surround Pro" and others, with some examples/recordings of the differences as well.
Until then, to help, I will state a very brief 'first impressions' of this audio functionality/app [that Santa saw fit to give me as an early Present for Xmas] - that is, a point-form of my own 'first impressions' of Dolby Atmos in Windows 10:
- It does sound good' overall, with the expected "Dolby Quality" that their products produce. Clear and Crisp and Boom-y
- The surround sound works very well, moreso in movies than games though; as in some games it can seem a bit 'muddled', where the surround directionals 'leak' a bit into each other [to my ears]
- Overall though, it has clear, crisp highs and nice booming/pounding lows
[the high end seems to be a bit over-accentuated to me, but it may just be that my ears are a bit more sensitive to that range. it is a common practice to enhance Treble slightly to increase perceptive audio clarity to humans]
- The only thing missing from the App is a configurable Equalizer (sliders that can adjust the strength of each frequency range, so that users can increase/decrease ones that they wish to adjust), but then, it is suggested in the app itself, that it actually adjusts automatically, based on the source and frequencies within the media itself (as their proprietary Dolby algorithms/functions do in movies,etc).
- If you don't have a Surround sound option with your headphones already
[a 7.1/8channel dongle/plug or option somewhere - for example, my Headphones from Santa one Xmas has a little box on the USB cable that has a '7.1 Button' on it, which works surprisingly well for emulating Surround Sound]the sound quality of Dolby's Atmos really does seem worth the $15 so far in my limited testing; however don't worry if you can't purchase it, Windows 10 now comes with its' own "Windows Sonic for Headphones" 7.1 Surround Sound emulation.
