Give it 5 more years. But also, stereo will be around for at least 20 more years. By then the Atmos type systems will have matured to a much easier plug and play and sound better. The problem is that Atmos sound mixes are much more involved than sound of the past. Object audio is a serious leap ahead in technology and will take some years of expensive work to get it to "awesome". The biggest thing is that the manufacturers have to now come up with an Atmos 5.2.4 or 7.2.4 system that is all wireless. This cuts out the wires and allows for very, very easy set up. I imagine it is coming but probably not in my lifetime. (That is not that long!)
Jumping to another issue. I have a new sound bar that is Atmos and I have to say it is amazing. The sound it puts out for movies beats my dedicated Home Theater set up. It was so easy to plug in and set up. Took about 1.5 hours and I was done. The home theater with a full system was a pain in the butt and has been tinkered with for years to get better sound. The comparison is stark. I can see why everyone is going to the bigger, more expensive sound bar Atmos systems. They truly are amazing. Oh, and they do not cost an arm and a leg either. $900 to $2000 gets you top of the line sound bars. Again, very easy set up which is almost the most important issue for purchases. Now if I had access to Atmos music that is mixed right, the sound bar would most likely make it sound very good. Currently I have no Atmos music I listen to so it is all up-mixed with varying success. As always YMMV and the all important IMHO.
I’ve got a Sonos Arc coupled with a sub and two series Five surrounds—which are very large drivers. As you know Atmos setups are object instead of speaker oriented, so they don’t correlate with the 5.x.x or 7.x.x standard—and according to manufacturer specs the imaging is achieved by driver placement, obviating the need of multiple free standing speakers (although I suppose the more you have, the more realistic and powerful the overall sound would likely be).
And like I said, some masters, like Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and the Beatles’ “Abbey Road”, sound fantastic in atmos format. To my ears a substantial number of more contemporary albums just don’t—they sound anemic and disjointed, like the power and punch was sucked out of the center of the mix. Some instruments sound too detached and overemphasized in the mix compared to their stereo versions, and I have to believe that this is a consequence of choices made during the atmos mixing process.
I suspect that at these early stages, many engineers are going for dramatic spatialization endpoints in the service of demonstrating the effects that can be achieved with the new technology. For those of us who have the original mixes burned into our DNA, these “stunts” can be jarring, almost like our favorite records are being turned into IMAX film soundtracks.
The Beatles recordings were all about studio wizardry, and were never known for their visceral punch, so I’m not sure the effects are as noticeable. But for more “modern” rock recordings, the novelty of stereo panning has been long abandoned for the fullness and energy obtained by keeping the drums and bass in the center, and several of these Atmos mixes sound like a regression to the hard-panned past.
I think that’s a monumental mistake, and like I said, I hope these mixes are revisited once the novelty has worn off, and future Atmos mixes go for subtle spatial enhancements that preserve the essence of what the tracks were meant to sound like from the beginning.