I was thinking about this a bit more and I just realized that the for the next Bryston SSP there will probably be no choice of not going with Atmos. The new Dolby decoding chips are Atmos and since Dolby has also put to pasture Dolby Pro Logic there will not be a choice there either. So deciding not to get the new Dolby Surround for example but rather stick with ProLogic II x or z, this just won't be possible, it will be Dolby Atmos/Dolby Surround with TrueHD support. The question left for the SSP manufacturers is how many output channels do they wish to support/accommodate as Atmos does not care how many channels the system has, it's completely scalable and backwards compatible for the object based formats, i.e. Dolby Digital and TrueHD.
I was thinking it would be nice if manufacturers would leave this (i.e. the choice of out outputs) in the hands of the consumers. Granted this wouldn't be something many would do but I think Datasat might actually be able to accommodate something like this. So the Atmos consumer layout goes up to something like 26.1.10, I know there is still one LFE channel and up to 10 heights, I just can't remember off hand how many main channel beds there are, it's something between 22 and 26 I believe. So lets say manufacture x offers as standard support for 7.1.2 with say 2 additional sub outs for bass management, so that's 12 outputs built into the SSP as it ships. For expandability add on output modules could be made available with say 6 or 8 outputs per module, preferably balanced and unbalanced. These modules would simply connect to the main unit for it to see all the available outputs via perhaps a proprietary connection/cable. This way we as consumers build up the unit as we need it. Those that don't need extra channels beyond those offered by the main unit do not end up having to spend more for something they don't need while those that want/need the extra channels don't pass by the manufacturer because it wasn't able to accommodate the system they have and pay the extra for the needed module(s). Seems like a win/win to me.
Also for room EQ Lexicon had a nice approach offering separate SKU's for their MC-12's, one with EQ and one without. That might be something for Bryston to consider.
Food for thought anyways.