If you have a HDMI Dolby Atmos receiver or classic Dolby receiver or headphone amp or whatever. You will want to check to ensure you have enable exclusive mode access in your Windows audio properties under the advanced Tab as this allows for AC3 passthrough/WASAPI or ASIO or low latency and DSD or audiophile audio or just better sounding surround sound and HDMI output.
You will then want to configure your receivers ensuring it has a suitably matched pair of speakers. If you buy some cheap reference studio speakers it maybe sounds better than cheap non reference speakers. But its made to be used in content production like YouTube or whatever so it plays back the audio closer to the recording. Which is fine, but studio reference or critical listening headphones might be far better for hearing things as they were recorded and cheaper. You want to look for audio speakers rated for about 60+% audio reproduction quality and find a nice even wide sweeping level what slightly V shaped natural sound profile graph in the reviews for a more natural sound it shouldnt taper off till far out on the edges. I grabbed me an atmos surround speaker pack of pioneer andrew jones speakers. Above 60% accurate reproduction is considered the entry point to audiophile. you could buy 80% for maybe a bit more money but i mean it gets absurdly more expensive with diminishing returns so keep price point into consideration. Even if you're rich you wont be if you waste it all. Buying non studio speakers and non reference stuff means it will sound more musical, it could be more club music punchy kicky bass and sparkly shimmery shiny bright somewhat absurdly overly clear treble on the peaks of vocals but different brands tend to have their own sound shape/profile tuning. Anyway I think the Yamaha receivers with the higher slew rate, the burson audio soundfeel from TI BB PCM and the powerful watts output and said to be better more surround sounding surround might be a good buy though i've not got one myself as they were twice as expensive as my pioneer vsx933 or onkyo equivalent and never ever seemed to go on sale to anywhere near half price discounts unlike others.
You will want to use a free app like daum potplayer or its predecessor the open source KM player (pot player is AKA pot player reloaded) and set it for hardware output 10bit and all that and set your audio renderer to WASAPI exclusive mode AC3 passthrough and maybe resample the audio always normal quality or low quality depends on your latency 96khz set to same speaker config as the playback media. Then passthrough to your atmos receiver with both audio renderer and output device set as WASAPI exclusive mode on or off see what words best in its config. You would also then want to use the windows 11 default passthrough im guessing and create a config.ini file to type in AMD True Audio Next=true dont worry amd uses same audio chips as nvidia it all works its open platform open stuff that works on any device or OS or whatever see GPU open.com and specify the number of channels or whatever. And Capability=Direct3dAAAAAA 999999 Capability=VULKAN AAAAAA 999999 Capability=DirerctXAAAAAA 999999 Then set your receiver to crossover to FULL RANGE in windows its a throwback to the old DOS 3.11 windows when PC speakers were the size of a coin and sounded like a tin can on a string reproducing audio (In your receiver if your speakers are large and you've got a sub you can set the crossover low as it goes basically just leave 80-120hz low to be covered entirely by the sub. As long as you dont enable "double bass" or "phase matching bass" at extreme volumes your speakers probably wont explode unless you bought the cheapest fakest of stuff. You would then for the crossover or speaker config if it allows specify the atmos height speakers as like a 150hz and up or a 'small speaker' sometimes depending on if its fist sized or bigger or not. if its a coin sized tiny plastic looking $50 computer speaker looking set and doesnt look like floor standing towers.. most bookshelf speakers are fine for bass actually as many AVR receivers can enable PHASE matching bass for when you dont have a sub nowadays) huge head sized speakers should have no issues unless cranked to absurd volume levels with setting the cross over low as possible tiny atmos tweeters height speakers might need to be set to small or 150hz and up or whatever. im assuming as i've had no issues so far but sound opens up and sounds richer. Just dont crank your receiver to max volume at all times and you're probably fine. Set your receivers distance levels to around 1meter 1.03 or 1.11 whatever sounds best for ALL of them and your receivers height speakers or ceiling speaker distance to about 1.5-1.6 or somethings 1.9-2.0 meters whatever sounds best or positioning. Set your sound retreiver on maybe depends on its quality ensure ALL EQ and auto EQ and MCACC whatever auto calibration with the mic stuff is DISABLED and no theater mode or theater filter. Set tone to like +10 for both treble and bass or adjust depending on how it sounds. consider checking your player app to enable subwoofer channel redirection or enable or disable Dynamic range compression for the dolby or for the windows audio settings configure it to be 7.1 or atmos for home theater and full range and enable enhancements and loudness equalitzation configured short or volume management or a normalizer. You will be getting a good enough sound and you would save thousands.
You could also consider downloading from the windows 10 app store a free app called kodi which can have rather pleasant audio too when configured right. Play around with directsound audio or wasapi or a mix and setting to DXVA decoding and such with upmixing and surround speaker configs in "expert" settings mode. Its meant for use with TV's and TV media players with TV remotes? i guess but its fine to use as a PC desktop app too. the navigation maybe feels strange. I think the sound quality improves by disabling all the UI sounds and optional stuff and maybe setting it to lower or normal quality depending on your latency.
I'm actually quite into hifiman audio products but hardly any amps or players or devices can power them the 10+Watts RMS or whatever they need to drive their speakers for your ears like sundara or arya with high swing voltage and slew rate. Might need to investigate if a cheap desktop ebay speaker amp can run them or if the multizone in my pioneer VSX or puredirect stuff can be wired straight into my balanced hifiman sundaras without blowing up? no clue how to go about it safely and cant afford to replace stuff it if breaks. Also their in ear RE600S VS or RE400a with mic for android phones can be affordably priced and sound amazing make all JB hiprice stores obsolete and are on sale in black friday sales. I think the 599AUD or was it USD RE800 in ear earbuds silver are about $129USD plus postage and maybe a balanced TRRS to TRS stereo plug adaptor lead thingy from their hifiman website > hifiman store> black friday sales. get balanced ones if you can and use the hifiman cable adaptor if you ever plug em into a balanced player you will thank me later. If you have a android phone with like quad DAC or something with great audio like the LG V60 cheap off ebay or whatever.. you should get the app Onkyo HF player as those phones have hardware MQA decoding you can purchase onkyo HF player unlock about $13 its best audio player i've tried by far it lets you enable DIRECT TRANSFER MODE and a strong or medium normalizer! and adjust the latency or correct for certain models of earbuds.
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