Cool, yeah just was curious. I'm not too up to date on the latest in A/V tech so it's unclear to me what the minimal specs need to be in order to take advantage of things like Atmos and Vision. I'm pretty sure my PS4 can't handle that stuff, for example, but I think my TV can? That's just with streaming though so I assume it's not the full effect. I'm just living vicariously through your posts 😂
Discussion
The biggest hurdle with Atmos (aside from the addiction of adding more and more speakers) is the receiver/amp situation.
7.x (non-Atmos) receivers are ubiquitous ("x" can be anywhere from 1 sub to 4, but that doesn't matter here).
But if they have Atmos onboard, then can switch between:
7.x vs 5.x.2
(the ceiling ".2" speakers need to be amplified, so they eat up two of the 7 channels).
So a 7-channel Atmos receiver is really your minimum.
If you want 5.x.4, you need a 9-channel amp. Starting to get more expensive.
But the full Atmos spec supports 7.x.y ("y" = in theory I think you can go insane to like 30 ceiling speakers).
If you want 7.x.4, that's 11 total channels. Only a few really high-end receivers provide that many amped channels. Megabucks.
BUT the clever workaround is that there are 7- and 9-channel receivers that offer you the line-level (not amplified) audio out for the missing channels, you just have to pipe that to a separate amp.
And in my case, my separate amp is the GOOD AMP. So even though my receiver can amplify 9 channels(?), I'm only using 6 of them and instead I have my good amp doing the most important work:
Proceed AMP5: L, R, C, side L, side R
Receiver: rear L, rear R, top front L, top front R, top rear L, top rear R
Wow, that is way more complicated than I expected! So you're splitting all the signals into two separate amps? And the sub doesn't have its own channel, it's just fed by some frequency range?
I still haven't heard Atmos in a proper setup yet (though I have in airpods, that's a whole separate thread... the things I've read about mixing for Atmos is another rabbit hole). I've always found rear speakers kind of distracting/gimmicky but have heard Atmos is a bit more immersive. I would hope so with that many speakers 😀
Well, the receiver has its own 9(?)-channel amp built-in, so I'm just sending those five channels out to the exterior amp.
But, yeah, took me a while of reading the online manuals and scouring forums to make sure I got a receiver that could do this.
What really sold me on Atmos was just how lovely the musical score is when it's lifted partially toward the ceiling. It just adds a fullness that's so right. And it's hard to explain, but it helps to have the usual surround effects "on the ground" (e.g. a car driving on gravel conveyed by the 5.1 or 7.1 horizontal plane) while the music sits above it. Sounds contradictory, but being able to separate elements like that creates a more cohesive whole.
Oh man you're selling me on this now