It's a mixed bag for me. I find myself preferring two-channel to the surround format as a whole. Some of the surround mixes are gimmicky and don't add anything to the musical experience. There are notable exceptions. My favorite so far is the Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." The songs are given a unique interpretation in the surround format. Yes, it can be gimmicky, but in a good way--highlighting the fun one can have in surround. Other mixes I like are "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John, "Sea Change" by Beck, "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd, and "The Downward Spiral" by NIN. These mixes seem to be done with care creating a nice soundstage and seamless presentation. I don't find myself buying multichannel recordings anymore. Also, I can't stand the faulty hybrid disc format. I have a Ben Folds disc that sounds incredible for the first minute or so in the standard cd format, but then it gets choppy. I listened to it again last week and the multichannel format is just missing something. Maybe it's just me.
Ken, to answer your original question--I can't hear much difference between the two formats. If you want to split hairs I will say I like SACD better because I own a lot more those over the other.
