Don’t let this hold you back from experiencing Dolby Atmos

• You should upgrade your receiver
• Atmos is great, but do it right

Surround sound isn’t cheap to set up, and if you’re looking for a leap from your sound bar, you’d be shocked by how much you have to buy. This includes a receiver, several speakers, a subwoofer or two, and the space to put everything. It’s not uncommon for people to spend thousands of dollars on a setup, and even more if they’re looking for the best of the best.

It’s for that reason that many people hang onto their equipment for years and even decades. In my experience, speakers can last a very long time if you take good care of them, and they can even last a while if you do nothing to them. The popular saying goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but I will say you’re missing out if you don’t have Dolby Atmos. Atmos is still in its relative infancy, and if you’re still using a receiver from the early 2000s or even 2010s, you’re leaving quite a bit on the table because it most likely doesn’t support the format.

You should upgrade your receiver

Just because it works doesn’t mean it’s not holding you back

Your receiver can last a long time, but you should upgrade once in a while when new technology comes around. There’s a good chance your old receiver can’t even utilize Dolby Atmos thanks to its age. Yes, surround sound, even basic 5.1, sounds great, but you should upgrade to something that can use Dolby Atmos if you’re serious about your sound. If you have a receiver, chances are good you are somebody who cares about audio, so you shouldn’t hold yourself back.

Now, I don’t blame you for not upgrading because new equipment isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, and your old receiver is probably still kicking. I have a Denon S760H receiver, a relatively budget-friendly option that still costs upwards of $700. Receivers can get far more expensive than that, but I settled on this one because of Dolby Atmos and the fact that I didn’t need anything more than a 5.1.2 setup. You can get far more expensive than that, but I wouldn’t recommend doing so if you don’t plan to build out your system to support it. Surround sound is something you can gradually grow over time, but not everybody has the budget or space to do so.

Before picking up my Denon, I used an old Sony receiver that didn’t have any of the modern formats, but it worked just fine for surround sound without any extra bells and whistles. It wasn’t until I started doing more research and wanted to get more from my setup that I upgraded to my current one. Luckily, I still have a use for my old receiver as it has a record player plugged into the Phono jack, so it’s not like it’s collecting dust, and my records don’t need Atmos. Audio may constantly be evolving, but I’m fine with regular stereo sound with music for the most part.

If you’re unfamiliar with Atmos, I recommend checking out a Dolby Cinema if you have an AMC Theaters location near you, or checking out a demo of it. It’s currently the best audio format available, and if you have the technology for it, I wholeheartedly recommend that you set it up. I will warn that if you don’t have the necessary equipment, listening to what Atmos can sound like and then going home to a setup without it will not be a pleasant experience. It’s what happened to me, and it led me down a rabbit hole of spending. If you can, you should bite the bullet and get an Atmos-ready receiver if you’re a first-time buyer. You know how the saying goes: buy once, cry once.

Atmos is great, but do it right

You can mess it up quite easily

Dolby Atmos has become sort of a buzzword in recent years, and many products have started advertising it. The biggest culprit I can think of is Apple Music. Dolby Atmos is available on Apple Music, and it gives everybody a taste of the format, but it opens up a lot of issues since you can listen to it on less-than-ideal hardware. Atmos is at its best when you have the speaker placement to get the most out of it, so listening to an Atmos mix through your phone is far from ideal. Yet, this is the way many people listen to it, and then I see them complain about how the mix sounds bad.

The same logic applies to other areas, soundbars being an example. Don’t get me wrong — a soundbar blows TV audio out of the water — but it isn’t the best way to experience Atmos audio. Again, Atmos needs the soundscape that a soundbar or phone speakers just can’t provide, and while you might be getting an Atmos mix, you’re not getting the full experience. This really is a matter of you getting what you pay for, and that’s why it’s important to do research beforehand. There are all types of ways to get your hands on cheap Atmos, and you can even use upfiring speakers that bounce off your ceiling if space is a problem. These aren’t as good as having actual height speakers, but everybody has to start somewhere.

Not every receiver can do Dolby Atmos, and the ones that can aren’t cheap. However, it’s something worth splurging on, and if you’re hanging on to an older receiver, the time is now for an upgrade. Dolby Atmos is becoming the norm more and more each day, and a wide selection of 4K Blu-ray discs comes with Atmos mixes. Having Atmos is better than not having it, and even if you can’t get the best performance right away, it’s still nice to have something capable. Future-proofing is a big part of technology today, and having a receiver that can handle Atmos is a big deal. With receivers lasting decades, you might decide to one day upgrade to Atmos, and you’ll be glad your current receiver can do it instead of having to go out and get something new.