Hands in the air, I was wrong about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect – at least in one way
Dolby Atmos FlexConnect has been the subject of much interest among home cinema fans since it was introduced three years ago at the IFA show in Berlin.
That’s because it’s next-generation technology designed to make Dolby Atmos even better in a variety of ways.
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Especially since Dolby has made big claims about the technology, including one that promises that compatible speakers will still deliver a “dome of sound” effect, even if they are placed in the basement of the room.
Which is why the marketing materials showing the satellites in incredibly silly positions, including having one in front of the viewer’s seat and another two feet behind on the bookshelf, meant I had my doubts.
What can I say? I’m Scott-ish (and by that I mean an RAF brat with roots where thank the stars he still has a British accent, not a US one after years at international school) and naturally pessimistic.
I even said as much in front of Dolby engineers, when I asked them if they were worried that such strong marketing claims might make the expectations of moviegoers too high. I’m embarrassed to admit that I might have let out a haughty “tsch” when they confirmed that it wasn’t.
But, you know, magnanimous home cinema aficionado (snob) that I am, I think it’s important to admit when I’m wrong.
Because, despite our best efforts to disable it with a long game of moving the speaker, FlexConnect’s auto-calibration feature proved to be a great performer. No matter how brutal we were with our testing, the system intelligently adjusted its settings, adapting itself to our new location, or satellites, in the room at the click of a button.
As we say in our Sound Suite review: “Dolby Atmos FlexConnect isn’t a gimmick – it’s a surprisingly effective technology that (in LG’s hands at least) delivers satisfying length, scale and spatial accuracy even when the speaker placement isn’t ideal.”
Overall, while the Sound Suite’s slightly louder, louder profile stops it from getting real recommendations from our reviewers, FlexConnect’s room calibration and performance, to my surprise, gets a big thumbs up.
Why don’t I do my happy dance (yes, it’s a lot like Carlton’s from the OG The new Prince of Bel-Air)? Well, for starters, while we like the Sound Suite’s calibration and room conditioning services, we haven’t found a FlexConnect system that we’d say sounds really good. Witness this three-star rating for LG. And that, of course, is too big a deterrent to start recommending buying the FlexConnect system.
Also, we’re still on the fence about one “external” aspect of FlexConnect. Namely, the promise to let users build Frankenstein’s monster systems using any FlexConnect-compatible speakers they want.
The idea here is that people can take any FlexConnect-compatible satellite speakers, subwoofers, soundbars, or built-in TV speakers, and put them together to create the perfect Dolby Atmos surround system — whether they’re from the same product line, or even.
This controversial feature, which really opens the door for people to create mismatched systems with speakers that don’t have consistent sonic profiles, is a huge problem. And, unfortunately, it’s one we didn’t test with Sound Suite.
That’s because LG has chosen to lock down its Sound Suite system and only allow you to pair certain speakers, soundbars and TVs in an effort to ensure you get a decent experience.
The fact that LG felt the need to do that means I’m still worried about the state of the technology being said to be open. Especially given my experience helping friends who don’t like building systems in the past. Trust me, 99 percent of the time it’s human error or a lapse in good judgment when trying to match system components that are causing problems…
So opening the door for us gremlins to keep cooking things seems a bit risky, in my mind – or at least ill-advised.
However, who knows? Maybe I’ll be proven wrong again when we try to make our first FlexConnect system with random compatible parts we find lying around our stock room. After all, I was wrong about Sound Suite and its strong calibration capabilities. Who’s to say pigs can’t fly twice?
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