Atmos or DTS:X or Aura3D content sounds absolutely incredible, with a proper setup. And yet, most atmos mixes aren't very good. Even movies with good atmos mix

Atmos or DTS:X or Aura3D content sounds absolutely incredible, with a proper setup. And yet, most atmos mixes aren't very good. Even movies with good atmos mixes for cinema often have a shitty mix on streaming or BR with only the surround soundscape expanded into the overhead channels. And that's not a surprise — if you know the overhead and surround speakers are dedicated speakers of high quality, e.g. in cinemas, you can put dialogue and important audio onto these channels. But if the atmos and surround speakers might just be reflected from the ceiling or tiny satellites you obviously can't use them for audio that's essential for understanding the plot. And for music it's even worse, while some music was originally mixed for quadrophonic or 5.1 listening — kraftwerk 3D, pink floyd's dark side of the moon — most atmos mixes are just upmixed from the stereo mix and provide no benefit whatsoever. And so the way most people interact with atmos — cheap soundbars reflecting channels off the walls and lazy upmixes of pop music — provide no benefit whatsoever and just result in disillusionment. The same has already happened with 3D films (Avatar looked spectacular in 3D, but obviously if you watched 3D-converted films on a cheap TV it sucked) and is happening again with HDR content (properly mastered content on a mastering monitor or even a good 1000nits Rec.2020 OLED looks absolutely spectacular, but converted content on a 400nits IPS sRGB panel obviously sucks).