I collect surround sound recordings in 5.1 DTS CD format. I have a big Sony CD changer that takes 300 discs and it is hooked up to my home theater with an SPIDF cable.
Practically there is a lot of great content out there in 5.1 format, and the speaker setup for this is relatively affordable and practical. Atmos needs an insane number of speakers and the trick where they fake the height channel by bouncing it off the ceiling doesn't work everywhere: my main A/V room has a cathedral ceiling for instance.
I'm not sure that the object-based model is really right for music, many of the best surround mixes for music aren't about putting an instrument in a particular place as much as they are about starting with a 2 channel mix and adding ambience. A lot of what is special about sound in space is the way sound reflects off things and and a 5.1 mix can greatly improve and literally "put you in the world's greatest concert halls".
Also Atmos is being pushed for substandard environments such as headphones, smart speakers, etc. I just don't believe Atmos rendered on headphones is going sound as good as a 2-channel mix for headphones.
It doesn't. And to make the matters worse, most of the "Atmos remakes" I listened to are utter trash and disrespect to the original sound designer/team. Some mixes bring out subtle details I haven't heard before, but in most cases even those sound like they're literally due to higher volume/different position.
I have a Hololens 1 and the other day I made a Microsoft Edge window that was hanging in space over my wood stove (scary!) and logged into my Jellyfin and played some music.
The object-based audio on the HL 1 is awesome and unlike any headphone surround system I'd seen, completely convincing. (Usually I'm like "it sounds like I have a head cold, that must mean the sound is above me") I turned my back and moved around the room and always perceived the music as coming from a point where the web browser was hanging.
This isn't a great way to listen to music though because even a very modest stereo music system doesn't sound like it comes from a point but creates some feeling that it fills the space. It's great from the viewpoint of hearing an alert sound and knowing which window it came from (given that I can have a few windows open in different places of my house) but doesn't realize the reality that plain old stereo delivers.
Practically there is a lot of great content out there in 5.1 format, and the speaker setup for this is relatively affordable and practical. Atmos needs an insane number of speakers and the trick where they fake the height channel by bouncing it off the ceiling doesn't work everywhere: my main A/V room has a cathedral ceiling for instance.
I'm not sure that the object-based model is really right for music, many of the best surround mixes for music aren't about putting an instrument in a particular place as much as they are about starting with a 2 channel mix and adding ambience. A lot of what is special about sound in space is the way sound reflects off things and and a 5.1 mix can greatly improve and literally "put you in the world's greatest concert halls".
Also Atmos is being pushed for substandard environments such as headphones, smart speakers, etc. I just don't believe Atmos rendered on headphones is going sound as good as a 2-channel mix for headphones.