My Dolby Atmos system, one that uses a Marantz receiver and Triad speakers, sounds better to me than my previous system (all Meridian) that used older codecs. Your Krell processor is about the same age as my Meridian processor. I bought my Marantz/Triad system at a fraction of the cost of my Meridian system. Maybe my setup skills got better, but I attribute a lot of the improvement in sound to the newer technology available in my Marantz receiver. Not just movies, but sports and newer shows are available with Atmos and sound great. Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and Disney+ all have shows with Atmos. The Mandalorian was a lot of fun to watch (and hear). I had a good experience going from an older "hi-fi" processor to a current "mid-fi" receiver with Atmos.
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.