Seems like you really like the Auro-3D upmix. Very glad to hear that!
How would you compare it to Dolby and DTS upmixers (I am talking for music only)? I have tried these two but they are making some king of "movie" sounding to the music and try to separate the vocals from the rest and put them mainly on the center channel which sounds weird... Does the Auro do the same?
Disclaimer : With MY setup (7.2.2) with front height being not even 30 degrees to listening position, which is more within Auro specs than in Atmos specs.
Dolby Surround upmixing : it brings the scene closer to the listening positon, too close to my taste. I then not listening to an artist, I feel I am within his head, I don't like it.
DTS Neural X upmixing : the scene is properly spaced, but there is too much front height use, like some engineers wanted to be sure the listenner will notice they are working. I am losing too much the spirit of the original stereo, it's more a total transformation than an ehancement.
Auro 3D : it sounds wider, but with respect to the original stereo mixing, the front height are here to make the sound taller, some says "the wall of sound". I really like this MORE than stereo as I it's stereo++. It's still well separated, but wider. It's still at the right place, in front of you.
So that's MY point of view of course. I assume it depends a lot about the listenner and the setup.
edit : fixed there are -> they are and point of you -> point of view XD
Time for another coffee
edit 2 : for Atmos music, after testing straight vs Auro 3D, the native Atmos / Dolby surround performs better than Atmos through Auro 3D. Which is a good thing to experiment, Atmos is great