I was under the impression that if he wants to go Atmos at any point then he absolutely shouldn't go for di / bi pole speakers as Atmos is pretty strict in using directional speakers.
Dolby also has recommendations the speaker angles relative to the listener, and the height of the surround wall speakers, and the distances involved, and recommendations about using diffusing and absorbing room treatment materials. In practise there are very few real world living rooms where these recommendations can be followed. It is even difficult in some dedicated rooms because either the room isn't big enough or finances don't allow, or both.
When you read through the Atmos spec you'll also find that in certain circumstances Dolby recommends the use of Dolby Atmos enabled speakers where they use upwards firing modules to bounce the sound off the ceiling because (and this is a direct quote) "
are naturally creating a more diffuse experience" and this is specifically to avoid the distraction of hearing them individually as point sources.
I know there's a lot written right now in mags and on the web trying to interpret the Atmos specs in a very rigid way. That's understandable because there are many writers simply working in theory rather than from experience and they have agendas generally based around satisfying their advertisers, or flogging gear directly or generating site traffic. Theory is fine if starting with an unlimited amount of space and money in order to achieve a perfect result. The challenge though for most of us is that we live in the real world where gear has to fit around certain limitations.
The way I look at it is that any home surround system is trying to replicate what happens in a large cinema auditorium which has the space for sound from direct firing speakers to disperse naturally and then scale that down to fit in a domestic environment. Sitting a couple of feet away from a direct radiating speaker firing straight at my ear isn't my idea of a successful translation.
I'll leave you with three thoughts...
Do you know of any of the magazines or websites that have done a comparison of Atmos based on monopole versus di/bi-pole surrounds in a typical space limited UK living room?
Has the DTS.X speaker spec changed? Last I read was that it wasn't tied to any specific type of speaker for the surrounds.
What if Aura 3D takes off?
