Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Is the 861 a dead end?

Atmos has 2 versions .
Theater : with multiple overhead drivers and software to place a sound anywhere on the ceiling using one or more drivers .
Home theater : 4 drivers offering little more than emersive surround sound bubble .

Then there is another couple of (expensive) options for home theater . Take a look at trinnov altitude and data sat etc.

To be honest , if I was Meridian , unless I was going to build something that could be leaps and bounds better than them or at least match them with better looks and lower price I wouldn't bother .

The public still haven't decided to go with a 4 channel overhead , and the mass-market manufacturers haven't yet decided if 4-channels is what we will have .
So no real point jumping in that melee .

As long as you have spare outputs (or room to add them) It would be pretty simple to add a 4ch atmos plug-in , as all you need is updated HDMI input and software to decode the info that's allready there in the surround channels

For example , my Emotiva will use the "room 2" stereo pair , and I think the classe sigma will do the same but be limited to 5;1;4 .