Surround sound is nice in whatever way you can get it. Both 5.1 and 7.1 are very good, and I have no doubt you’d be happy with either of them. If you can do a full 7.1 system with Dolby Atmos on top of it, it’s the best of all worlds. However, many people aren’t given that kind of luxury, and I find myself in a similar boat. I have a 7.1 receiver in my living room, but I don’t have nearly enough space to get seven speakers packed into my living room in a way where I’d see any benefits from a 7.1 system.
The nice part about having a 7.1 receiver is that I can calibrate two of those speaker ports to work with Dolby Atmos instead. The nature of Atmos is that I can take up far less space, and it actually gives me a bit more customization over my setup. I could be lazy and opt for upfiring Atmos speakers that sit on top of my front speakers. I’m sure that sounds fine for some people, but I decided to get a pair of small satellite speakers to see how they sounded. A few years later, and those same speakers are still there, but I should eventually upgrade to some better speakers.
Atmos sound is worth the investment
It opens up a whole new world
I have a big collection of 4K Blu-ray discs, and something that many of them have in common is a Dolby Atmos audio mix. To be fair, many of them have 7.1 surround sound, too, but Atmos is typically the one that’s pushed in advertisements. Atmos is also something that many streaming services offer as a bonus for subscribing to the highest tier. Atmos is near ubiquitous these days, and it’s well worth building a proper setup for it.
If you’re lucky enough to have a 7.1 receiver, you might also have the luxury of being able to turn it into a 5.1.2 setup, with the two representing two Dolby Atmos speakers. Depending on where you put those speakers — front heights, upfiring, or ceiling — you can save a lot of space. My couch is currently positioned in front of a window, and if I were to put 7.1 surround sound speakers in my living room, there wouldn’t be any room for that. I’d have to reorganize everything, so getting arguably better sound is also the easier option for me.
You have a lot of flexibility with what you decide to do. Atmos speakers, while great, don’t get a ton of action over the course of a movie. That’s part of why I went with small satellite speakers for a first go-round and still haven’t upgraded them. I also like how you can sort of place them wherever you want and still get good audio, provided you calibrate them. Each of these methods has a different sound, and it really varies by person. Many people swear by in-ceiling speakers, but that’s obviously not possible for everybody. The best compromise there would be front heights, and upfiring speakers would be the easiest.
Having both is best, but it’s not always possible
That’s a lot of speakers
If money and space aren’t an issue, then you have no reason not to go all out and build a real home theater. The possibilities are near endless if you have no budget concerns, and you can reap the rewards of having both full 7.1 surround sound and an Atmos setup. This would cover all of your bases, but that’s obviously not a reality many people live in.
For a lot of people, it comes down to choosing between Atmos and 7.1, and I’d pick Atmos every day of the week. There’s just a lot more versatility offered, and even if you’re playing a 7.1 mix through a 5.1 system, you’ll still get good audio. The nice thing about all this is that you’re getting great audio no matter what road you go down. I don’t think you’d ever find somebody complaining about a 7.1 audio setup. While Atmos would be missed, it’s still a highly immersive experience that blows regular TV audio out of the water.
Atmos and 7.1 surround sound both shine in gaming, too. I don’t do a lot of gaming with surround sound, but I’m always impressed when I try it out. Hearing voices come from all around me is so cool, and spinning my camera around makes the voices move around accordingly. Movies and TV shows can offer a similar experience, but it doesn’t always compare to video games. My advice to anybody on the fence about surround sound is to just pull the trigger. You can start small with a simple stereo setup and go from there if you’d like. Surround sound takes time to perfect, and you don’t have to do it all at once if you don’t want to. Whether it’s 7.1 or Atmos — or both — its’s well worth it.
