Should I stop chasing Atmos in this room?

[dvon1981]

Hey all,

I was listening to the new video on youtube last night that came out and I'm starting to think I should rethink what I'm doing with my system.

Current system:
Receiver: Marantz SR 6013
Amp for mains: Rega Elcit R (system used to be 2 channel)
LR: Audio Physic Classic 3
C: Audio Physic Classic Center
Sur: KEF Q150
Subs: Two SVS SB 3000


Background:
The room is a basement and there are drops for plumbing and support beams. The high points of the ceiling at 7 feet, the low at 6.5 feet. I had one company come out to look at doing in ceiling but they were worried that there were too many unknowns behind the various drops in the ceiling for them to feel comfortable in definitively run wire in the ceiling. They said I might try doing upfiring. I bought four KEF Q50As to put on top of the 4 speakers. Do I hear a difference? Yes, but it definitely feels like I'm getting a half baked version of it. When watching Ready Player One the scene around 57 mins where the drone fly in I can hear them fly over in the ceiling but there's a couple factors that make me not LOVE it.

1. It doesn't feel precise. Meaning I feel like I can tell that it's trying to work around something.
2. Aesthetically a bunch of speakers on top of speakers ruins what will otherwise be a pretty clean setup once I'm done

The Question:
Should I stop chasing Atmos? I'm 99% sure I'm going to return the Q50As. For me things need to be REALLY good for me to be happy. So this leaves two options.

1. Stick with 5.2 (maybe do 7.2 but I've heard rear surround don't do much either)
2. Chase getting ceiling speakers done, with risk that I'm not wowed there either and have spent a good amount of time/money.

 

[2channel lover]

I have inceiling atmos speakers and I like it lot. I've heard atmos speakertop modules and your description of "half baked" is pretty close. IMO it's better than no atmos, but when you've compared the two, modules are more or less what you described a watered down version of it.

That said, great atmos sound effects are very movie specific...there are a good 25-30 or so Dolby atmos titles out there that genuinely have a wow factor. There are dozens more titles that carry the atmos logo with little or no wow factor.

I had easy ceiling access in fact it was a DIY project so the cost was speaker wire and 4 modestly price inceiling speakers. I've decided to build a small library blu ray library around those wow factor titles and we'll see what happens if anything with atmos streaming down the road.

Facing the bill that you would be to get 4 atmos speakers installed...if it's over 4 digits I would pass.

5.2...or 7.2...it looks like you would have ample space to put in a couple of rear surrounds.

7.1 content...it applies to atmos as well. I've found most of the streaming companies such as Netflix, Prime, etc. the vast amount of their movie catalogs have 5.1 content...in fact I've yet to see any 7.1 movies streamed. To get Dolby Atmos, or 7.1 movie content you will need to purchase or rent blu-ray discs.