Immersive Audio and How to Achieve It

@mahler123 

I would like to experiment with a true Atmos setup.  However I have a drop ceiling 

There are advantages to using front and rear height channels, mounted high on the wall, see the pic of my system or the pic above of abbey road studios. They are easy to wall mount but I chose tall stands because active speakers are heavy. See:

https://www.svsound.com/products/prime-elevation

And I might sell the house in a couple of years as we downsize

Those prime elevation speakers are wall mounted, no drilling holes in the ceiling. I recommend you look at the Onkyo RZ50 receiver, I use Onkyo in the mancave (which also has a drop ceiling, I wall mounted the height channels)

@mihorn 

Great system, are those auralex panels? I had great results with auralex.  

The quality of the sound is more important in hi-end audio.

I agree, this doesn't need to be an either/or binary decision. With an immersive system you can use as many speakers as you want, from 2 to 22, depending on the song and the recording to get the quality you want. Atmos is backward compatible, object oriented audio. Its not channel based, but will still play back on two speakers. The vast majority of the tracks I play are mixed in stereo and I upmix them.

@dinov 

I’m old school, I’ll take a great soundstage over surround sound any day!

Surround sound is from the last decade, this immersive audio is not the same. Yes, I still enjoy old school too, generally in the mornings with my coffee I will listen in stereo.

@winoguy17 

Blanket statements like this  are only good for creating arguments...

Noted,

I like the system you posted, how is the Marantz Ruby SACD player? I use one of their processors and have great respect for that players designer.

@kota1 I’m familiar with immersive audio, I guess I should have been more clear, I’m not knocking it, binaural, 5.1 surround or other ways people are trying to change the traditional home audio listening experience.  As an audiophile, I just prefer stereo and all that brings to the table.