If you have a Denon or Marantz, you can add the two additional channels if you add an external amplifier hooked up to the pre-outs. I have a 11.2 channel Denon x6700H that can add 2 more channels (13.2 total) when I add an amplifier, which I just got. Now I'm just waiting for my extra speaker wire to get here so I can activate all 6 height channels (7.2.6) not going with wides.
@@FURognar Thanks for the tip. I take a look at my owners manual to confirm. Only issue for me is wides are a must have, so we’ll see and if I solve the issue I will report back
I am more of a two-channel listener, but I have a question about atmos. As far as original soundtrack recordings go when playing movies back through an Atmos system, Does the DSP separate the channels to Atmos even though it wasn't recorded that way? I ask to understand if it is only new and future movies would benefit from the Atmos. I have heard there is a push on the music side to incentivize recording in Atmos. I suppose the theory is to give the listener the illusion of being on stage in the middle of the musicians as opposed to being in front of a stage. Pardon my ignorance but I am fairly new to system building and my goal was only to include movie watching as a benefit of the system not the primary function. With the music side of things going in the way of Atmos I'm thinking I should consider its implications going forward. Will music recorded in Atmos sound bad on a two channel system?
@bobr9605 thanks for the comments. Atmos is only available if the movie soundtrack was mixed and encoded that way. Your speaker configuration also plays a part in how your processor maps and renders the Atmos . The minimum speaker configuration for Atmos is 7.1 so you don’t necessarily need to install heights to decode Atmos. I’m not using any height speakers and my processor still decodes Atmos since I meet the minimum speaker layout for the codec. I’m not sold on Atmos for music at the moment and perhaps it’s because the music were not originally recorded that way . I prefer the original stereo mix and I often times listen in multi channel stereo which mimics live event I also turn off room correction When listening to music as it does not sound natural to my ears. So I’m not in any rush to hear Atmos for music. Hope this helps
@@ProfoundAV-123 You do learn something every day. Thanks. My Marantz is a 7.1 Atmos But it is usually used on Pure Direct. My room is an acoustical mess and room correction on some recordings does help but multi-channel is only fine if I have it on for background. Luckily my speakers have great base because the pure direct feature cuts out the signal to the Sub. This hobby is maddening sometimes but a ton of fun.
