Atmos adds a height layer, sounds above you and not just around you, and my ranking for delivering it is in-ceiling first, high wall-mounts second, upfiring modules third.
The height layer is what makes rain fall from above rather than from the front wall, and lets a helicopter actually cross over your head. To render it, the AVR needs speakers that put sound above the listening position. In-ceiling speakers do that directly. High wall-mounted speakers, angled down at the seats, do it nearly as well and avoid opening the ceiling.
Upfiring modules are the third route. They sit on top of your front speakers, or on a shelf, and fire upwards so the sound bounces off the ceiling and arrives from above. The manufacturer's claim is that this creates a convincing height image. Is it plausible? Yes, under conditions, and the conditions are the whole story. The module depends entirely on the ceiling: flat, hard, reflective, and within the height range Dolby's guidelines describe, and it works reasonably. High ceilings weaken it because the bounce path gets long and diffuse. Sloped ceilings send the reflection somewhere other than your seat. Absorptive or textured ceilings just swallow it. A ceiling fan in the reflection path is not on Dolby's list, but it is on most Indian ceilings.
What does that mean in practice? In a room with a plain 9 or 10 foot flat ceiling, upfirers give a real, if softer, height effect, and a well-placed 5.1.2 with upfirers still beats a plain 5.1 for film. In a room with a high or coffered ceiling, I would not spend the money on modules; go to wall-mounts or in-ceilings, or stay at 5.1 and spend on a better sub.
If your ceiling permits wiring, do it properly once. Two in-ceilings on a plan cost less than modules that end up in a cupboard. Send us a photo of the ceiling and the room height and I will tell you which of the three your room supports.
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