What home setup do I want

[lab4]

Hello,

we are having a cinema/theatre room added to our house.

Rectangular shape, 5.5m by 4m. No curves, alcoves or arches.

I'm getting a 65" smart tv for the far wall. I'm stuck on sound for the room.

Atmos sounds great fun, but appears to be massively limited content.

5.1 or 7.1 is the standard but choosing a decent system is a minefield.

An atmos soundbar is another solution with rear speakers ie Yamaha YSP 6500

Currently I use B&W 685, 686 and HTM62 connected to a Yamaha DSP and Pioneer amp.

We have a plex box, netflix and amazon Prime as well as sky.

So my question is "what would you recommend?"

Netflix has no intention of encoding atmos sound tracks. Amazon hasn't said. We don't own a blueray player, but the films on the plex are HD content from various sources, potentially none with the set atmos soundtrack.

Would an atmos amp do some magic to make use of the system, or is it a dream? Leaving a 5.1, 7.1 system or a fancy soundbar and rear setup. budget is up to around £1300 for the sound side.

 

[lab4]

Ok, so from the sound of it (no pun intended) you all advise on a 5.1 setup.

Is atmos just a fad then? It appears to be with no one actually streaming content except for a few specific Blu-ray titles.

Presumably then a soundbar is meant as a cheaper alternative and less space-taking option as a proper center channel will do the same job?

Sorry to focus on the home theatre side, but I've spent years with B&W equipment for my office in stereo and the living room setup was by pure fluke.

So as most 5.1 systems now appear to consist of tall thin speakers, I'm dubious of their sound qualities.