Pick your poison...2-channel or multi?

Philnyc - I have to disagree with you on one minor detail. IMHO, Mediocre MC systems have now become just as good as "High Quality" 2-channels systems. High end MC systems are on the same playing field as High end 2-channel, when kept within the equal budget limitations. Of course, if you exceed the budget of even $14k, or a $30k high end budget for that matter, I'm more than sure you could assemble a system that would rival a MC system within the same budget perameters. I'm beginning to realise that there are many recordings, especially those of a grand scale, that are recorded originally in MC. This is where the most if not all of your delays and room/location ambience comes from. However, most mixes are done in 2-channel. It's restructured to fit in 2 channels, but that doesn't mean it was originally ment or intended to be there. Your not gonna find a recording done with only 2 mics, one on the left and one on the right. But instead of hearing it in it's proper perspective, it's held to the front soundstage. More and more mixes are done in MC now. They may not be released in MC, but they are mixed.

I'm starting to see that most audiophiles think rear channals are only intended for movie effects. IMHO, this is quite the contrary. So much information is compressed to the front soundstage in 2 channel. Imagine, for a moment if you will, you have orchestra seating at the Myerhoph Symphany or take someones experience of Jimi Hendrix at '69 Woodstock, and compressing it to 2 speakers in front of you. I mentioned that some scenario to a audiophile friend of mine...his response was "That's (2-channel) was the way it's supposed to be." Try telling that to someone who was there to see Hendrix live!!! It's tolerable if your in an auditorium or in a stadium, but if your in you 17x25ft living room, how can it accurate reproduce your experience with speakers? It can't compare. But if you can take all the benifits of 2 channel...accuracy, imaging, etc., and reproduce that live feel??!! No, your not back at the original performance, but certainly won't get there with 2 channel either.

By no means am I a 2 channel basher or anti-audiophile belief system, but so many audiophiles have been closed minded to MC...by choice. There are great times to be had in MC, but we're too scared to break the mold. Not because our ears may tell us something different, but because "I won't have Conrad Johnson's or Wilson's in my system" or "I won't be able to say I have an all tube system."

If that's how you choose to listen to music, then by all means enjoy. There's just more to the material than you think. Once MC sound reproduction becomes produced, setup, configured, and marketed more effectively, 2 channel may become a thing of the past. The average consumer just hasn't experienced MC the way it was originally intended...with the same effort and energy as 2 channel.

When you go to a concert is the music playing from all directions or from in front of you? I realize that you have sound waves bouncing off walls in a concert hall but, I have walls in my room for the waves to bounce off too. I can see having some of the crowd noise and such in a live recording coming from the rear but, that's it.

I try to make my system sound as close to live music as possible on the budget I have.

I vote 2 channel.

2-channel

Eldarado - You have a valid point. The music is coming from in front of you, and possibly from the sides...depending on how close you're sitting to the source. But does your listening room sound like a concert hall? Can your listening room replicate...60% of the locations where your music was recorded? If so, whats the secret. I would love for my 12x15 living room to sound like the concert auditorium my classical pieces were recorded in.

Maybe I'm a little misguided. I've had the priviledge to sit in on a recording session or two. IME, Mics are specifically set up in the farthest portion of the room to record the ambience of the room when the instruments are played, as well as the instruments played in the room in order to achieve the intended echo attack and delay. The recording location is meticulously picked out for the purpose, among others, of ambience. If the entire recording staff...as well as the production staff...intentionally had these mics setup in their specific locations...BEHIND the would-be listening position, they why do I wanna ONLY listen to them in front of me on my stereo? If the purpose is to replicate the ambiance of an unusually large room, why do I wanna replace that with the sound of my 12x15 living room walls? Thats not what was intended, why do I wanna change it? If that were the case, it's pointless to record at a live venue in or in a studio any large than your musicians can fit in.

Please excuse the enthusiasm, but I know what my ears heard. Does anyone else hear what I'm hearing? I do need insight on this, because obviously, I'm a little lost...or am I?

I think a good MCh system evolves once you have a "good" (whatever that is, to each of us) stereo system. If the 2 Ch system is too harsh in the highs or has boomy bass, or uninteresting mids, an expanded MCh system might give a more impressive venue but still have all the irritants. And this at much more cost. And the amplifier(s) for MCh is a greater cost at perhaps lesser quality. Moreover, it is EXTREMELY difficult to set up a MCh system in the average room correctly, as opposed to the flexibility of a stereo set up. SO... I say, given a large room with adequate flexibility for both set ups and careful component/speaker matching, the MCh system can offer more in music. But for 10k? I might just have to go stereo.
I'm not on the fence - I enjoy my MCh system greatly but also often listen to it in 2 Ch; and for 10k I think it would be hard to put together a quality 5 channel system.