I don't know whether that's true, but even if it were, who's going to create a soundtrack with such demanding hardware requirements? To date I've heard only low level ambient sound from the height channels, but maybe that's all it needs. So far my impression of Atmos soundtracks has been of a more seamless sound field rather than a sense of multiple mono channels, but that could simply be a difference in the mix.
That’s the thing about object oriented. You don’t have to create 32 or 64 channels. You don’t create a mix. You create a sound field and the system will generate the channels. That’s why the same Atmos signal can be used with all the various home Atmos speaker setups. From binaural through 2 channel Atmos to the 24/32/48/64 channel setups.
At least from ambisonics the more channels you have the larger the sweetspot or the higher the frequency response that will convey the sound field. Atmos probably has some differences. I’m not sure what exactly the benefits are when you add more channels but in theory they can be as high in number as practically achievable. Ambisonics has been with us since the 70s so it’s not new but the practical home implementations are just now coming into being.
SOTA would probably mean wiring up a bunch of speakers. But practical home application means they would all be wireless. For me personally I won’t get involved until possibly you can set up multiple “sound bars” wirelessly on various points on the ceiling and walls. That may represent a practical form of SOTA. You’d still need to wire up power but at least you don’t need multiple signal wires.
Such sound bars would be multi channel and multi driver possibly beam forming plus ambience. Possibly each bar would only get a sub signal which it must decode. The current pair of wires for each discrete channel isn’t going to make this easy for most people.
IMHO there’s a lot of thinking that needs to go into this from where we are.
I guess for those with a Trinnov AV and the budget for whole room wiring and room treatment- that would be current SOTA. I suppose actual SOTA will always be out of reach of the majority of people. However something needs to deliver a 90% of that solution to the masses and that’s where a lot of development is yet due. It may end up being basically beamed binaural and maybe it can read your head position with cameras. It might be wireless soundbars plastered all over the room. But 64 discrete little spheres would be out of reach of most and probably overkill. I would agree with you on that.
If you’re getting a believable sound field from 7.2.4 then that’s all you need. Also yes I doubt the height channels need to be full range hi end speakers. They need to be decent enough and the more separated sources of sound there are the better. That’s where all the 32/64 channel talk comes from. Now what exactly for in Atmos i’m not clear I was under the impression from ambisonics that it increases the sweetspot size.