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

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.

I used to have an $6k MC system and now have a (roughly) $10 stereo.

To me, it's no contest, Stereo. If I had a bigger budget I'd have a $15k or $20k stereo. A good stereo in a treated room can do everything that the same priced MC can do, ambiance/reverb/echo behind and around you, or instruments placed above or behind the listener.

The trick is to work on the room and good quality masterings.

I'd much rather give up some wall and corner space for acoustic treatments than floor space for equipment and gadgets.