Marantz AV7706 Poor Surround

[Pogre]

what was horrible ?
I went thru 3 av7706 (long story , unrelated )
Playing atmos from Apple Music is not impressive (I blame the source or the song engineers on how they mix the sound )
Playing atmos from Dolby atmos disc or streaming hbo / Disney atmos contents from Apple TV 4K sounds fine to me.

I think there is potential in atmos but a lot depends on how the content is recorded and mixed to various channel …. I have many songs in CDs than sound better than other songs in SACD.
Only with the same good recording (e.g John Williams in Vienna) , you can appreciate the improved fidelity in SACD … assuming you have a good resolving speakers (not a Sonos or Bose grade level speakers )

This is a good point too and loosely related what I said above in that the source is often the culprit. Some recordings just don't sound very good, and upmixing stereo vs mixed in 5.1 or atmos is totally different in my experience. That's why I listen to stereo mixes in stereo and 5.1 mixes in 5.1. Upmixing stereo to 5.1 just doesn't sound as good as stuff actually mixed for it.

 

[PENG]

I think there is potential in atmos but a lot depends on how the content is recorded and mixed to various channel …. I have many songs in CDs than sound better than other songs in SACD.
Only with the same good recording (e.g John Williams in Vienna) , you can appreciate the improved fidelity in SACD … assuming you have a good resolving speakers (not a Sonos or Bose grade level speakers )

Absolutely, from 16bit/44.1 kHz and up, recording/mastering quality is much more important than the Bits and Hz. I wish more people realize that fact. It is also arguably more important than the electronics, a top quality 16b/44.1 kHz file will likely sound better with an mid range D+M or Y AVR than an average quality SACD if played through the same system using high quality speakers but swap out the AVR with $6,000 integrated amp or separates.

 

[Trebdp83]

Lots of links in the chain to sound. New versions of old favorites on a new medium aren't always better than an old version and memory can play tricks on you as well. Recently played 1992 "Aladdin" on Disney+. "Oh, this will sound good," I thought. I swear my old CAV laserdisc sounded better on my old gear than the new streamed version sounds with new stuff.