I have full 7.2.4 Atmos and I don't have holes in my ceiling, and I definitely have better sound from the overheads that reflective models. Reflective speakers tend to fall into 2 camps... Cheap "crap", and expensive "decent" sound. This is where people 1) don't want to invest into the sound format enough to make other changes and thus don't want to spend anything on it, or 2) have money to throw at the problem, even though it doesn't yield the ideal sound.
There seems to be a market in the middle that has a void, but even so, that is probably where a bulk of the "enthusiast" are at, and they are making efforts to get true overhead sound, and are going with in-ceiling or on-ceiling speakers.
So it is a distinct market oddity for sure, but I don't ever see Axiom jumping into that, nor do I fault them for it. They are not in the cheap "crap" or the expensive "decent" market. They do offer an enthusiast level in-ceiling option and have other options that work for on-ceiling as well.
As for sound effect quality, Atmos (and DTS:X) are more than just "sound effects." In order to do the proper 3D sound imaging in a room, you need the speakers to be as close as possible in make and model (timbre) to do it correctly. I mean, imagine trying to pan a sound between a front M80 and an overhead Bose cube (extreme example, I know) and you will not get smooth panning, let alone good ability to place that sound object anywhere in the theater space due to the lack of timbre matching and lack of pure output quality. Similarly, if you take a monopole front and try to use a highly diffused overhead reflected sound to do the same thing, it is definitely less precise sounding and cheaper options are borderline "muddy" sounding.
Now, we can't (although I am sure that someone, somewhere has) put M80s in all of the current 11 speaker locations, so there needs to be some compromise, but if one compromise is already a smaller overhead (or surround for that matter) speaker, then why add another compromise of either a low cost "crap" speaker or a non-monopole speaker that both will just muddy what Atmos can do?
If someone has no other choice, then so be it, but after too many compromises one would just come to the conclusion that "hmmmph... Atmos isn't really *that* great." When in actuality, their implementation is what is holding it back. AS for a reflected speaker on top of the M80s or other front towers, someone would need to blaze that trail on their own as I don't think that too many will be taking the time, effort, and even money, to try out difference modules as installing something else would end up just being easier than the experimentation.
PS. Yeah, I am a bit grumpy today too. I know it, and I am sure that it is coming across in all of my posts today. Maybe I just need a nap. My points still stand, but I probably could have been a little less "blunt" about them.
