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

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.

Jimmy2615 - You bring up excellent points about MC. MC does require a little more intuative preparation than 2 channel and, yes MC is no good without a solid 2-channel starting point. But how many races have you see where the runner starts from the beginning and stands still shortly there after. Thats like a Nascar driver completing 10 laps and going home.

I am a true advicate of 2 channel. I've heard some of the best of what 2 channel has to offer. But if there is more to offer, then why are so many affraid to take consider that option. A thick juicy steak is great, but its even better when its cooked the way I want it. If you like your steak rare, then great! Thats how you like it, rare! You like it medium well, fine medium well it is. But should someone settle for rare when you can have it the way you want it. Then again, how do you know what you like unless you've tried it all.

I'm not saying that everyone should listen only to 2 channel or only to MC. I'm saying take the time to try correct MC and then make a decision. I've notive just by this thread that those who have listened to MC, have some likes and dislikes. But those who have never tried it are the ones that are completely dead-set against it. I'm almost positive that those are the ones who say "2-channel and nothing else. Thats the way its supposed to be." They probably didn't come to that conclusion on there own. There just repeating what some else said or what they read in Stereophile or Absolute Sound.

Also, IME I've heard excellent sounding MC systems in average size rooms, ie 15x21 and so on. Its far from the extreme as you might think.

A general question to the audiophile crowd. If I were to present a properly setup and configured MC system, in the same size as your current listening room, for half the price of your current system, and the only catch is for your to maintan an open mind about what your ears are really telling you, how many people would take the time to listen? Or has high end audio closed its doors only to what Dave Wilson says?

* As a side note, I have nothing against either Dave Wilson or the mentioned magazines and happen to consistantly read both in a monthly basis.

Let me help out a little with this thread,

First of all if you want a mediocre surround system, build it from the left and right speakers. Its not how you do it. You can sell it that way but you don't design it that way. The processor is almost as important as the speakers, yes really.

Strabo don't be so cryptic, what was your $6K surround system? And what is your $10K 2 channel system?
I think that could be quite enlightening to us and help us understand your experience.

BTW when people refer to rear and side channels as "Gadgets" and thinks their listening room can effectively be used to create surround...you're not going to be able to explain anything, you will just have to wait until they have an experience like your's CD.

I think with these kind of threads you get more information on the wrong way to do things than the correct way. Simply the wrong approaches mentioned above. They sound "logical" but they don't work out at all. Which is why the ones explaining all the obstacles to surround in the end say two channel. Hmmm, now that's the only thing that makes sense to me :)