Immersive Audio and How to Achieve It

My second system is a traditional 5.1 surround sound.  It wouldn’t meet the criteria for immersive by today’s standards, I guess.  I would like to experiment with a true Atmos setup.  However I have a drop ceiling and I just can’t see using ceiling speakers at this relatively low height, and I would need a new processor or AVR.

And I might sell the house in a couple of years as we downsize, and I just can’t see investing in a system that may have a short lifespan.  However I root those of you who do so on.

  I also disagree with the premise in the OPs first paragraph.  I choose my seats at the Chicago Symphony with care and could care less about moving around and dancing 

Just read the Giles Martin interview in the current issue of Sound and Vision, concerning his Atmos remastering of The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, and specifically his comments about the song God Only Knows.  I haven’t heard the outcome, so I reserve judgement, but he rather sheepishly admits that the height channels have no place in the song but he couldn’t resist the temptation to fiddle with them anyway.  He makes it sound relatively unobtrusive, by his standards anyway, but it does make me uncomfortable with the whole process of introducing changes in a way that the original artist couldn’t conceive.  Now perhaps the end result is worth it, and it isn’t like he permanently altered a master, as the two channel mix is still out there, but the gimmickry bothers me.