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So I got the Denon S730H setup and rented a few UHD blu-rays from the local store for testing. The first movie I tried out was Atomic Blonde. This movie is DTS:X MA and it displayed as such on the AVR's screen. It sounded great but I'm still not sure whether there is actually any difference between DTS:X MA and DTS MA in a 5.1 speaker setup. Everything I've read says DTS:X and Dolby Atmos are object based instead of having specific audio channels but they also always talk about height speakers so I'm not sure what it does when you don't have those.

I also rented Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Logan on UHD blu-ray. Both of these are Dolby Atmos titles. When I watched Guardians the AVR screen just displayed Dolby TrueHD. I pressed the info button on the remote and it also just said Dolby TrueHD there. I confirmed that I did have the audio set to the Dolby Atmos track in the blu-ray menu. Even though I didn't have time to watch the whole movie, I popped Logan in and it did the same thing. I also tried the Dolby Atmos test bundle through Vudu on my Roku and the receiver displayed standard Dolby Digital Plus instead of Atmos.

At least with the Denon S730H it appears that you have to have height speakers or you get the Dolby TrueHD core instead of Dolby Atmos. I found this thread at AVForum where they seem to come to the same conclusion. As soon as the OP there tells his receiver he has height speakers even though he doesn't Atmos displays on his AVR screen when he watches Atmos content. Obviously you wouldn't want to leave it set this way though.

This article from Crutchfield seems to confirm what I am seeing too. This seems like it should be a pretty huge advantage for DTS:X over Dolby Atmos but almost every UHD blu-ray seems to be going with Atmos instead for some reason.

Dolby makes specific speaker recommendations for Atmos to achieve optimum performance. This includes a standard 5.1 or 7.1 surround speaker system, plus at least one pair of "height" speakers. The height speakers can be either in-ceiling, or upward-firing Atmos enabled speakers.

DTS:X has no official requirements for the number of speakers or their locations in your room. Simply arrange your speaker system to best fit your space. Then let the receiver's auto-calibration and object-based surround processor sort out the details. It will determine where to best send dialogue and sound effects.

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Regardless of all of that I'm very happy with the Denon so far. It was easy to get up and running and it lets me have 4K/HDR movies and games without having to give up my lossless audio. That was the main goal. DTS:X and Atmos were just a curiosity since this is my first receiver that supports those formats.

I bought the pioneer Andrew Jones up firing speakers for my Yamaha system, work pretty good for heights...

dfergie said:

I bought the pioneer Andrew Jones up firing speakers for my Yamaha system, work pretty good for heights...

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If I do add Atmos speakers this is probably the way I will go. I'm sure real height speakers would sound better but I don't see myself hanging speakers on the ceiling of my living room. For now I'm happy with my 5.1 setup.

I committed to Klipsch many years ago, so my setups are based around classic Klipsch stuff.
My family room setup is the one that has been upgraded to 4k, so when I decided to add the Atmos height speakers, I looked at the ones that sat on top of the mains and fired up. When I looked closely, I found them to be RB-14 bookshelves in a funky up firing case. However, the cost was 3 times that for actual RB-14s.

So, I bought a pair of RB-15s (bigger midrange speaker) and some cheap wall mounts. Got better speakers in an ideal location and saved $150 over buying the upfiring ones. They sound great and look clean in the theater. Here is a picture of the family room setup.
Samsung 65" UHD 9000 series TV
Denon AVX4300H receiver
Samsung UHD player
TIVO Roamio DVR
Toshiba HD-DVD
Klipsch KG-4 Mains
Klipsch Academy center
Klipsch RB-15 heights and surrounds
Klipsch 12" sub

"You can never have too many speakers..."

(heh-heh, Toshiba HD-DVD player, just like the one I have...)