Improving the Musicality of a Home Theather

Welcome @hondaron , I have a 9.2.7 immersive audio setup you can check out in my virtual system. Upgrading your Blueray to an Apple streamer for movies is going backward. Discs are the higher level source. Upgrading to an Apple streamer for Apple Spatial Audio (atmos music) is a must. You have already done the heavy lifting and got your equipment.

There is ONE thing you should do now while your amp is still breaking in. Checkout my thread on setting up your room for Atmos, the Dolby specs contain angles to place your speakers. Follow the bed channels to the letter. The height channels we can discuss depending on your room. Next steip is post your system and pics if you can in your profile "Virtual System" page and we will get you to where you wanna be. Enjoy.

As for alternate sources it will depend on the type of files you listen to. if you rip your files to a NAS, if you like gaming, if you like to steam in atmos or dts, or dd, etc.

As for cables you will have long runs, my preference is Mogami (also sold as worlds best cables on amazon)

Thank you for the insightful reply’s. I didn’t do the math myself, the installer, Audio Breakthroughs in Manhassett, NY did a fancy ARC computer room correction with three microphone positions and the music and theater is basically flawless. I don’t really understand it but it makes perfect sense to have the computer do all the bacon corrections / calculations. 
 

what a difference from about 14 months ago

What is your Blueray player? If it is an older player, it may be limited to 1080P.  If you are sticking with the Elite Plasma, you won't get the benefit of a 4K Blueray player, but if you decide to upgrade to a 75+ inch TV you will. Getting an external streamer is a no-brainer though. Content is king. Online streaming services have so much readily available content if you are so moved. No need to even lock into a single service. You can buy a month a time and flip around between services. 

With the new compression CODECs and the relative high bandwidth for HD streaming, up to 2-3 megabytes per hour, the quality is very good. You don't need to spend much money either.  Google 4K Chromecast, Amazon 4K Firestick, ROKU 4K all support the popular streaming services, Netflix, Amazon, DisneyHD, Paramount, etc.

@thespeakerdude 

spot on, blue ray is 11 years old and is 1080P, same as plasma. Will there be a noticeable difference going to a 4k source and say and OLED? Live in a smaller 1904 vintage home, and thinking about the video upgrade path when we move to a bigger home. Will the 4k blacks be as good or better than the elite plasma? Not sure about what cables the 4k require, assume hdmi are out? Is there a source publication where I can learn before thinking about spending the $?  Thanks