How can you not have multichannel system

I guess I should add my "wall of sound" in stereo SACD, DVD-A and plain old stereo digital and analog does a pretty good job across the board. This does allow me to spend more money on the products and speakers then I would be able to buying surround. But also, I appreciate your involvement in your system, and that you enjoy it.

if the purpose of a stereo system is to recreate , as close as possible, the experience of attending a live music event, 4 pairs of appropriate speakers, e.g., electrostatics, may be preferable to 1 pair.

if one is concerned with the elements of music, pitch, timbre and harmonics, i fail to see how "additional channels" can reduce errors in reproduction of timbre.

spatial effects are not components of music. it would seem that additional channels can provide spatial cues, but a tenor sax should still sound like a tenor, not an alto.

Tvad...You don't like "audio tricks"? What do you suppose the phantom center channel of a stereo rig is? Everything except mono is an audio trick.

Tvad, not to argue so dont take it that way but when you say multi channel is a trick or illusion, we strive to find 2 channel recordings that create the illusion of a performance in a definable space with depth, air and other factors so why is that so different with MC material?
I am not a MC music guy but sometimes its done very well and I dont mean making it up by going Pro-Logic I mean SACD and DVDA multi channel tracks...........but many of it doesnt make sonic sense so I threw in the towel.
To me the only real multi channel I like is the ambience and sense of the space its performed in and accoustic music usually is what does this best, I feel no desire to hear a synthesizers buzzing around the room,,,,cheers

01-02-09: Eldartford
Tvad...You don't like "audio tricks"? What do you suppose the
phantom center channel of a stereo rig is?

You and Chadnliz are right. I never should have written the phrase "a
trick". I considered editing that post, and decided to leave it even
though I knew it'd come back to bite me.

Let me be more precise in my language. In my example I was trying to make
a point about a stereo recording played back in stereo versus the same
recording reprocessed into multichannel.

Consider a pure stereo recording (binaural) using only two mics, not
processed beyond the recording, and then played back in stereo. What you
hear is what the mics "heard". Now, consider the same recording played back
in multi channel after having been reprocessed. What you hear will not be
what the mics heard.

In this example, the multi channel version is a trick, and the stereo version is
true to the recording session.

The trick concept can be applied to any recording made initially as a stereo
release. In almost all cases, each mic was specifically placed to pick up a
specific instrument or voice...and almost always positioned closely to the
source. This would not be in keeping with a multi channel recording session
in which additional mics would be placed in the recording studio with the
sole purpose of recording room ambience from the back of the room.

Hope that clears things up.

Anyway, nits are being picked. If you like multichannel, go for it and have fun.