I have been comparing Auro and Atmos upmixing for movies. They are both excellent and have different trade offs. Now my speakers are setup for Auro 3D so this may not be a perfect comparison but I use wide dispersion full range speakers so I think the comparisons are still pretty good.
I used The Hobbit for comparison streaming from Amazon. My sound card let's me switch from Dolby Digital to PCM. For Dolby Surround I used DD and I used the scene where the orcs were chasing Radagast on his sled pulled by rabbits. The thing i liked most about the atmos mix was the addition of rear surrounds with the height channels. As the chase was going on you could hear wolves howling and that sled clanging in the chase scene from behind you, adding to the immersion effect. LFE were good and the height channels sounded good. I compared to traditional dolby digital by toggling the remote and traditional 7.1 sucked in comparison, just flat and not immersive.
Auro 3D codec is MUCH more dynamic. Any smashing, howling, clanging, booming has a quality like you are being struck yourself. I have never heard or felt this typs of dynamics from any other codec. The speakers also tend to disappear more, sound is coming from above you but not localized at all. Atmos also is pretty good at not localizing but Auro is a little better, maybe because I have a proper Auro speaker layout. Because of the huge dynamics I tend not to notice the rear surrounds are missing.
In a nutshell both upmixers are excellent and my thoughts is it would boil down to your choice of speakers as to which would be better for your system. If you have nice full range speakers as height channels I think Auro is a no brainer. You will FEEL those huge dynamics viscerally and it is a VERY engaging experience.
If you are using small satellite speakers not capable of huge dynamics you would probably need the rear surround channels to get really immersed and might like an Atmos setup better.
in this comparison I focused on MOVIES only. For music Auro is hands down better because in music there are no instruments on the ceiling above you and atmos just sounds unnatural on music upmixes.
I used The Hobbit for comparison streaming from Amazon. My sound card let's me switch from Dolby Digital to PCM. For Dolby Surround I used DD and I used the scene where the orcs were chasing Radagast on his sled pulled by rabbits. The thing i liked most about the atmos mix was the addition of rear surrounds with the height channels. As the chase was going on you could hear wolves howling and that sled clanging in the chase scene from behind you, adding to the immersion effect. LFE were good and the height channels sounded good. I compared to traditional dolby digital by toggling the remote and traditional 7.1 sucked in comparison, just flat and not immersive.
Auro 3D codec is MUCH more dynamic. Any smashing, howling, clanging, booming has a quality like you are being struck yourself. I have never heard or felt this typs of dynamics from any other codec. The speakers also tend to disappear more, sound is coming from above you but not localized at all. Atmos also is pretty good at not localizing but Auro is a little better, maybe because I have a proper Auro speaker layout. Because of the huge dynamics I tend not to notice the rear surrounds are missing.
In a nutshell both upmixers are excellent and my thoughts is it would boil down to your choice of speakers as to which would be better for your system. If you have nice full range speakers as height channels I think Auro is a no brainer. You will FEEL those huge dynamics viscerally and it is a VERY engaging experience.
If you are using small satellite speakers not capable of huge dynamics you would probably need the rear surround channels to get really immersed and might like an Atmos setup better.
in this comparison I focused on MOVIES only. For music Auro is hands down better because in music there are no instruments on the ceiling above you and atmos just sounds unnatural on music upmixes.