I will try to paraphrase the thoughts of Sanjay Durani as they closely match mine on this issue. In a live concert, the singer's voice does not come from two places (left and right). Similarly, music does not come from between two points in the front (the spread of the left & right speakers) but comes from all around as a good deal of what is heard is the room and not the performers. So listening to 2-channel music in surround allows the recorded ambience to come from the proper directions rather than up front. Additional speakers simply help stabilize the soundstage. In the case of a source being recorded in 5.1, you have the additional advantage of listening to the captured ambience of the original soundstage rather than relying on matrixed surround channels from a stereo source. To the extent that additional channels can stabilize the imaging, listening to music in multiple channels seems to offer an advantage.
John
Last edited by ihifi; 09/24/08 02:51 AM.
