Just listened to it, as best I can. Sounds wonderful on my 5.1 system, and I can only imagine how sublime it would be in Atmos. I am not ready to take the leap yet, but since my AVR supports 7.1, I wonder if it would be worth adding two speakers. Couple of beginner questions: Does Atmos have 7.1 bed, or just 5.1? And where would I place the two extra speakers?
It is my understanding (and it’s probably more complex than this, people who actually work with it please chime in and correct me) that Atmos at its core is a Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 “core”.
This 7.1 track is mixed like any other 7.1 track, but there is an extra layer of metadata that sits above the 7.1 track that takes that core 7.1 data and expands it into Atmos “objects”, sounds assigned to a object moved around inside a 3D space. This is where heights and extra wides (9.x, 11.x etc) can come from.
If the Atmos decoder reads the metadata correctly, the 7.1 core is effectively replaced with a purely object/bed based mix, where as if it *doesnt* then it falls back to that pre-made 7.1 track. (This is the part I’m least sure on)
In turn, that 7.1 track will automatically fold down to 5.1, 4.1, 4.0, 3.0, 2.0 etc in the same way that any other Dolby track will adapt to a lower number of speakers.
So: if you want to inch closer to Atmos, but not go all the way, you would add two speakers, directly to the sides of your seating area per 7.1 spec, and you’d get that core 7.1 track. Upgrading your AVR to one that handles Atmos, and adding additional “bed” or “height” speakers as you see fit would be the next part of that upgrade
