Brass2002, to reply to your question one year later... :) Have had the HTS 7.1 for several years now and it is excellent. Very recently acquired an S1200U-3D and has only been tested, not fully integrated in my system. The analog sound is quite different from the HTS, but far superior I believe. I used a separate Krell 280p (with HT bypass) for stereo, which has a more detailed and controlled sound than the somewhat mushy HTS analog preamp. The HTS analog sounds good and 'warm' but lacks detail compared to newer / more sophisticated options. The S1200 in first impressions even beats the 280p for stereo. A more modern and sophisticated sound, with more detail. Hope that helps. As for movies/surround (for which I used Oppo analog output into HTS) it does not matter that much honestly; the HTS is excellent there as well. As someone else said, the Krell bubble is the best and far superior to anything from Marantz or Yamaha that I have tried. Whenever I watch a movie/series, I am always impressed by the sound quality and immersion, even after many years with this system.
Does it worth a upgrade to Dolby Atmos?
It seems Dolby Atmos is getting more steam recently. I have a 7.1 set up with Krell S-1000 processor and C-J multichannel amp. The sound quality is great. S-1000 doesn’t support anything beyond Dolby Digital. I am wondering if it worth to upgrade to Atmos processor (eg. Marantz AV770x, Anthem AVM60 used ). I don’t want to sacrifice theater sound quality ( I have dedicated 2-ch system for music listening. so I don’t care 2-ch performance). I have 4 ceiling spks and i can add 2 floor level surrounding spks w/o issue. That will give me 5.1.4. I have used Onkyo, Rotel, Krell Showcase and HTS before S-1000. HTS or S-1000 are big step up from Onkyo and Rotel. Will Marantz have same performance as S-1000 on home theater listening? I don’t want to spend over $2500 for the upgrade. Thank you.