I’ll load up the game with the xbox series X in dolby atmos for home theater mode. It’ll sound flat and just not atmos. It’s like it just defaults to some low quality headphone, tv speaker or soundbar mode with more sub/LFE. The difference is QUICKLY noticed on a home theater rig. What I’ll have to do every time I load a new car is set one of the other speaker setup modes ( headhpones has the most drastic effect ). Save. Set back to home cinema. Save. It sounds like home cinema is taking on whatever mode was set before it. Idk what it’s doing as a default, but it’s not high dynamic range home cinema.
Why has this not been fixed yet?! You’re doing all us with nice home theater rigs a disservice by allowing this to go unfixed.
AND I have to do this every time I load a different car. I thought this was fixed cos the game started sounding considerably better, but I guess not. This is still very much an issue.
Please fix this! I want the best sound this game can offer without workarounds!
Just last night I discovered that the speaker setup bug still remains. If I have mine set to home cinema, it won’t be true home cinema. It’s somewhere between home cinema and soundbar. I have to set it to soundbar, save, set it back to home cinema, save, to get actual home cinema settings.
So. I started testing it really hard, and I’m finding out that in order to get true dolby atmos soundstage ( not dynamic range tho ) I have to roll my workaround like so:
Set night time > save > set home cinema > save. Only then will I have proper dolby atmos width / soundstage. This bug has been plaguing me for well over a year. 
Update today sounds much better in Dolby Atmos than it did previously, but this issue still remains. Whenever I load a car, I have to do this workaround to get the right sound stage in cockpit cam. If I don’t, the center channel is all loaded up and the sound stage is narrow. Like it’s stuck in soundbar mode. Drives me mad.
I really need to test this with my setup.
But what I can say even without test is that the FH4 Dolby Atmos sounds much better than FH5.
NOT EVEN CLOSE. FH5 Dolby Atmos is light years beyond FH4. Get out with this nonsense.
What I hear happening is that home cinema is only adding more sub/LFE. It’s taking the EQ and sound stage profile of the other modes tho. Doesn’t seem to have its own. Like I’ll set it to TV, save, home cinema, save and it’ll sound like TV with more sub/LFE. Right now I’m tinkering again ( no surprise here ) and I can hear that everything above like 120hz in each of the other modes is being pulled to the home cinema one when I toggle between them. It’s annoying to say the least.
The gist = Home cinema never sounds like itself. It’s always got the characteristics of the other modes when they’re set before it. Home cinema will sound like headphones if you’ve set and saved headphones before setting back to home cinema. Same goes for every other mode. It’s maddening.
If you’re gonna tell me that this is working as intended and this is how home cinema is supposed to sound, then you’re WAY off the mark. It literally sounds worse than when it brings with it the characteristics of every other mode via this bug. Home cinema is 200% not right.
@ManteoMax this issue has plagued me since launch. It’s getting quite old. I have to roll some form of this workaround each time I change cars else they sound quite far off from a spatial audio standpoint. I don’t think we’ve EVER heard what home cinema mode is TRULY supposed to sound like.
@ManteoMax Sounds to me like a great improvement with this month’s update, but I can still hear the characteristics of the other speaker setup modes being carried back to Home cinema when I toggle set them. The GOOD thing is that right now I don’t feel the need to so I’m not fiddling with everything to get it to sound as it should. When I load a car the cockpit mix sounds very dolby atmos to me. I wouldn’t say they’re perfect, but much better than they were.
I can also still clearly hear that each of the 3 speaker reader modes are altering the entire game mix when they’re set. System default is acceptable and sounds the best of the 3. ON sounds the next best, but we have to deal with the robot voice thing. OFF sounds the worst by far with lowered bass, pushed mids and high end. 100% need to figure out what’s going on here. If this setting is altering the mix this much, it’s a problem. Especially when in home cinema speaker mode ( these modes don’t really make much sense to me tho since nearly every device colors the sound in a way that suits them o_O). Should just have 2 dynamic range settings. High and low. That’s all you need. No EQ trickery. No enhancement. Nothing. Just compression on or compression off. EZ PZ.
A definite improvement tho so keep up the good work sound team.
What we REALLY need tho is a setting that bypasses all the post. All of it. I want 100% studio reference dolby atmos mix. 0 compression. 0 enhancement. Just feed it to me straight up.
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@T10ManteoMax I found that each of the Xbox surround modes makes FH4 and FH5 sound drastically different when cycling through them where other games don’t behave the same way. Cyberpunk 2077 sounds worse when I set to DTS Digital Surround than it does when I set DTS:X or Dolby Atmos. DTS Digital Surround has the most 3D sound in cockpit views. All other modes pale in comparison. Imho Dolby Atmos and DTS:X should sound the most 3D of the bunch. It’s almost as if these 2 are using some form of upmixing that’s broken. IDK. What I do know and feel is that DTS Digital Surround feels the most immersive in cockpit cams. This puts my receiver in DTS + Neural:X mode. When I set the Xbox to DTS:X, every other game I play sounds stellar. It’s only the Forza titles that sound wonky.
Dolby modes in general sound broken right now tho so probably not really worth testing those.
@ManteoMax
This and the screen reader issues still remain.
Home Theater speaker setup mode is still inheriting the characteristics of something else. I’m not sure what. Either its EQ and compression profile is wonky, or it’s getting doubled upper midrange frequencies. Load into the Ferrari F50 and you’ll hear an obnoxious upper midrange frequency as it nears redline. Then set speaker mode to anything other than home theater, save, set back to home theater, save. I like to use Headphone cos I noticed the change instantly and it sounds more drastic than the others. That obnoxious overdriven cat cry frequency is calmed down. Sounds like it’s about 3500hz. This happens every time you change cars. Prior to this update I wasn’t able to use this workaround to fix it so y’all might have been on the right track.
Screen reader system default is muddy and a lil bright. On is about the same. Off gets all the bass sucked out and sounds too flat.
I experience this with every car I use, but it’s just very noticeable with the Diablo and F50. Also the racing V12.
P.S. If this is intentional in the Home Theater EQ and compression profile, cool it on the 3500hz bump.
I have another ticket in for this that has a lot more info >> ID #485949
All the work that’s been done to fix the audio is completely negated by these bugs. Especially for those of us running dolby atmos rigs.
@CRSSQU4R3D Let me ask you something:
Are you in the Xbox Insider Program with your Atmos Xbox and if yes, in which ring?
I am not. FH5 is the only game that gives me issues now tho. Everything else sounds fine since Xbox fixed the narrator bug.