This whole discussion here is somewhat weird because everyone keeps thinking about shitty soundbars and headphones. Dolby Atmos and DTS:X on a home cinema system with decent and large speakers is amazing and noticably different than simple non-object based surround systems
That is honestly the problem with “home theater”. You have to have just the right space for them.
Gotta have the TV in the right space.
Gotta have the right room shape to accommodate read speakers.
With atoms you have to even have space for those “upper” speakers.
It’s rare to have a room in a house that not has the right floor plan for such installs. If your TV goes anywhere but exactly one place it becomes very hard to install “correctly”.
Somehow we’ve managed 5.1 in our apartment. I’ve seen a 6.1 properly set up. But most of the time I see fancy receivers pumping out 2.1 because their room simply doesn’t have accommodations for properly placed rear speakers.
I dunno. I guess my point is that most people really don’t have the floor plan for a 5.1 setup. And for those that do, many simply have no desire to set it up.
I assumed there was a good speaker setup connected to the tv in my roommates' house when I lived there. Turned out to just be a soundbar, maybe a sub too. People rail against these things but they seem great for being so compact to me.
