I think that the "elephant" in this conversation isn't if the music was conceptualized and recorded first in 7.1.4, or 9.1.4, or for the few out there 12.2.6, and then encoded in Atmos or any other object surround field array or instead the other way around, that if was first conceptualized in an Atmos or DTS:X field with 12-19 "objects", and playing back in any other way than the original setup and worse yet, having to listen to it downfolded in any way is inferior to and insulting to our ears. (Wow, what a run-on sentence!) The elephant is really about as the technology advances in this way, our niche group of listeners are always going to be on the fringe where we will spend whatever money we have or are able to spend to keep up to the next setup of 40 different sound sources, and that the masses are not going to be the ones to continue advancing how music is "better" sounding than before. It is always just different, isn't it?
I know there are some on this and other forums that feel that any upmixing technology is sacrilege. yet there are many in this group that create "better" mixes in 5.1 etc. than some of the most well-known studio mixers with all of the wealth of studio monies and gear/tech available today, but really it's only different rather than better.
It's better to me, and that's what we all forget to remember. I'm 64 years old, and a full time practicing pediatric anesthesiologist with a 50-60 hour work week, yet I still find time to spend 20-40 hours a week using DeMix Pro and Lalal.ai with Audacity to create 5.1 mixes from my favorite 60's and 70's music that IMHO (and others) are quite often "better" than some of the current new remixes, even Atmos mixes. I with the the help of another motivated amateur yet talented upmixer have created 5.1 mixes of a number of Beatles albums that not only rival but blow away the mixes by Giles Martin, and even sound IMHO far superior to his Revolver Atmos mix by leaps and bounds.
5.1, or 7.1 mixes can often sound better than Atmos mixes, and I'm setup for 7.1.4 Atmos. Whether you are pro-Atmos, anti-Atmos, whether you feel one way or another about the chicken or egg discussions about whether studios, or even companies like Apple are giving incentives to artists or mixers to create mixes that are actually an Atmos mix first from concept, the more pertinent question is similar to quad. Will the current interest in Atmos die due to the masses listening to their songs through stereo ear buds rather than expensive SS setups that playback Atmos Blu-rays or stream Atmos like we have, or will it continue to advance to larger and larger sound field technologies ad infinitum, because there is enough of the masses that are willing to spend their money upgrading to bigger and bigger streaming systems where the music sounds any "better" to them.
Personally, I think not, that we will reach a saturation point where
who cares that there are 16 different object sound sources because the "songs driven" masses don't have that type of setup nor are interested in spending money on one. I will always prefer to listen to my more adventurous 5.1 upmixes even with my 4 Atmos speakers quiet and not being utilized, rather than some boring studio Atmos mix with a hundred different sound fields.
The film industry is really responsible for advancing audio surround technologies more than anyone in the business in the last 40 years, and we are lucky to benefit from this advancing tech for our music listening pleasure. I love to buy big-ass box sets, and stand alone Steven Wilson releases and remasters, but we are still the niche market, and Atmos per-se may just stay at 5.1.4, or 7.2.4 and will continue to be driven by the film industry to some point. The more the mass market go to streaming music and films in our home, either though low-end ear buds, or though even a mid-grade Sony TV with built-in 7.1 surround sound, that doesn't advance Atmos' cause.
IMHO Atmos is likely to be only here and now, today's more advanced Quad set-up, and only the standard for this time, and will be surpassed by other Dolby/DTS product, and it's people like us who will continue to buy the stand-alone Atmos Blu-Rays until the industry stops making or losing money on them, like Quad. I think the future will look back on these esoteric conversations of Atmos love or hate, with equal merit to the stereo vs quad, or VHS vs.Betamax wars, or the 8-track vs. cassettes wars, or the cassettes vs. minidisc wars or even the ongoing Dolby Labs vs. DTS labs wars. It was and is, and will always be only a sign of the times. Atmos may die, but will only likely to be a current step on the music journey rather than the end-all standard moving to the future. Look at people who thought that CD's would the ultimate tech
. Again, all IMHO.......or is it?
