Surround vs stereo for music

Barfuls

After spending most of my life performing music, mixing & engineering music for a few years after that, and finally getting a day job in the audio buisness, I had built up quite a hobby with my home stereo. Dahlquest DQ 10's, dual Dahlquest subs, all CJ tubes, very expensive turntable, cables & such. I had the normal feeling of rejecting the very idea of music in surround sound. I think most of us do. I then got a chance to play around with a Fosgate surround preamp (which worked a bit like Pro-logic II), using some spekers & amps I had lying around the house. I played several pieces of music that I had played over my reference system & rejected how it made things sound "different" than I was used to. Then I put on a few pieces of music that I had mixed myself & was unprepaired for what I heard. It was different from what I had always heard in stereo alright, but it was MUCH closer to what I heard when I made the recordings in the first place. I had played them back on all sorts of stereos, including the one in the Sheffield mixing room & the presentation in surround blew away any of the presentations I had heard in stereo. This was on a system that was untweeked as well! I've been a believer since then. Now that I realize that the presentation is so much more real in surround, I no longer get any amusement listening in stereo anymore. I am totally convinced that upgrading a system to surround is the biggest improvement that a person could possibly give a stereo at any price. After several years tweeking many surround systems, I agree with DTS & Dolby Labs, that 5 matched (full range if possible) speakers is definately the way to go. If you listen to music on a system like this, I'm sure you'll agree that a stereo presentation at any price pales with this.

mantis

good points,
I work for a high end store as we carry Martin logans,Wilson audio,B&W,Dynaudio,Krell, Audio Research tube amps,Mark Levinston,Transparent. 2 channel music is most pleasing at all level's.
Multichannel music also sounds great,SACD and DVD-AUDIO do ao good job of creating great sound.But I'm a musician as well and I like both ways,not favoring one over the other.I enjoy everything that the market has to offer,some beter then other but at the end of the day....it's all good!!
Dan