Cinema sound: processors, amplifiers and speakers

Cinema audio splits into three purchases that are often made separately: the processor that decodes and routes, the amplification, and the loudspeakers themselves. Immersive formats complicate all three, because an object-based mix needs far more channels and far more amplifier capacity than a 5.1 room was built for.

It is also the upgrade with the best ratio of audience-perceived improvement to capital cost, which is why it tends to come before seating in a refurbishment that cannot afford both.