[urn_piqoq]

Growing up with the DJ/Rave experience, after being primarily interested in MUSIC, not HOME THEATER, I basically have a stereo bias and have no interest in surround-sound formats or multichannel (beyond 2) playback.

I realize that this comment serves no purpose in this discussion, other than as a point of reference for a steady community that has never gone away: that which uses hi-fi playback for stereo music. The soundfield is immersive enough with stereo, and as sound has an inherent latency somewhere around 3ms/meter in 20 degree C air, I find that any large surround-sound setups are incapable of cleanly reproducing events like beats. Dialogue gets blurred, etc.

[bob1029]

This is my position as well. I've probably had every combination of surround sound setups imaginable, but nothing beats a really good 2/2.1 setup to my ears.

My takeaway has been that if 2 channels sounds crappy, you need to look at the room, not adding more damn speakers. It's just like shiny cloud tech imo.

[criddell]

I don't think anybody is saying stereo music sounds crappy. It sounds as good as it ever has - really great! But some of us think a good ATMOS setup sounds even better.

[bob1029]

The point I was trying to make is that the room is way more important than the speakers or DSP engine.

You could spend 7 figures on commercial ATMOS hardware and still have a $500 setup sound better depending on the room.

[greggsy]

Room treatments are technically straight forward, but they come at a cost of interior design and practicality. Many people see it as but if a dark art too, so they’ll take a technical implementation any day because it has been designed to accomodate a wide range of scenarios, and takes the guesswork out.

[Sebb767]

Placing 5/7/11/n speakers plus a number of subwoofers also comes at the cost of interior design and practicality ;) It's just (usually) easier to do than proper soundproofing and easier to adapt to non-optimal room designs.

[nitrogen]

Stereo can't provide a true rear or side image for more than one person, and it can't do vertical. Phantom center is great for one person in a good room with eq matched speakers, but for multiple listeners the extra speakers really do matter.

[im3w1l]

For me, even stereo adds very little over mono when it comes to music. For movies 5.1 seems quite sufficient. As for gaming, every tiny improvement they can make is something I'd be interested in.

[patentatt]

Amir over at ASR [1] tests single speakers and then will often do a short subjective listen at the end of his reviews. Sometimes he'll mention how enjoyable a single speaker can be and fill the room with music. For myself, I'm rarely in 'the sweet spot' and so most stereo effect is pretty much lost on me anyways. So yeah, I'd agree that there is very much a diminishing return the more channels you add.

[1] https://www.audiosciencereview.com/

[gigaflop]

For gaming, stereo headphones seem to be best, imo. I've had the same pair of Crossfade LPs for several years, and they give great (as far as I can tell) spatial awareness in games, without any special features.