Preaching to the choir... smile

Go back and find my posts here about Atmos. I actually know more about it than most, even though I don't have it installed yet. Ha!

With that said, I will say this. With a 7.1 system (there is no such thing as a 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, etc, the naming designates how many LFE channels are in the sound mix, and not the number of subwoofers, and that is also true with Atmos as clarified many times at CEDIA 2015 whever someone would be in a demo room and ask about a 7.4.4 or similar configuration and they would get corrected by that company's rep), 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, 7.1.4, etc, although I understand why so many people mention it) or I guess I could say with my "7.2" system, LOL, when I had a temporary Atmos capable receiver, when playing Atmos content, you could hear a nice difference over the regular TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack and that was without height speakers.

No, not the full "Atmos experience," but definitely a better soundfield all around. It was a fun experiment and just refueled my push for a full Atmos, DTS:X setup with 4 overheads.

So I absolutely must disagree that a 7.1 (or 7.2 as you mention it) setup doesn't benefit from a Dolby Atmos capable receiver and media. I experienced it first hand just after Christmas 2015 and it WAS a better experience. I had my wife and one daughter compare the TrueHD vs Atmos soundtrack of a couple of movie clips without telling them which was which, and even they could hear an improvement with the Atmos capable playback.

Again, I've reported all of this here somewhere already. Have to use the Google search feature that is in the Water Cooler section I believe to find it all.

Lastly, Anthony Grimani (a highly respected audio speaker, room configuration, calibration guru) actually believes that a 9.1.2 setup is almost always superior to a 7.1.4 setup. It is more about "filling the gaps" than anything, and most people have a big gap (I did) between their front mains and their side surrounds. That is why I changed my setup and layout this past weekend. So that I wouldn't need to incorporate wide speakers in a 9.1.2 setup and could go 7.1.4 so that I get the best layout possible.

"If you don't have a solid bed layer, then the overheads aren't going to be as effective." - Anthony Grimani

I also posted that here somewhere. LOL

Lastly, I posted a few diagrams of a standard Dolby Atmos layout vs. Anthony's "real world" best layout. That was in a different thread than the others I believe. At the time I was going to look at going 9.1.2, but have sense decided against it. The diagrams are still valid though.

So yeah, I've been a huge fan, researching the snot out of Atmos since 2014 and my first demo at CEDIA. I asked a lot of questions then, and even more (once I had a much better set of knowledge on it) at CEDIA 2015. I also dug more into Auro 3D, and DTS:X at that time. Auro isn't anywhere near established, except with a few "international" titles, and DTS:X will use, in theory, any speaker layout that you have. There is a bug with the current firmware installation of DTS:X that prevents overhead speakers from working correctly and you have to simply set them as front and rear "height" speakers vs. front and rear "overhead" speakers, and it does not currently support wides so no 9.1.2 configuration. I am sure that both of these will be resolved at some point, but just go to show why I am waiting for then 2nd gen DTS:X capable receivers.

Thank you tough for spending the time to look that up and share. It is very much appreciated that you want to make sure that someone else is educated on the subject and doesn't make an error. That was very thoughtful of you, and will go to possibly help someone else reading this thread.

Farewell - June 4, 2020