@mb1audio I kind of had this discussion in a thread with Kal Rubenstein of Stereophile.
To my ears the biggest benefit to multi-channel sound is the addition of the center channel. It fixes a problem of your head blocking certain frequencies. Have you ever noticed that a violin will sound bright on the sides, but duller near the center? This is exactly that problem. I don't really care about surround content though. :) Try listening with headphones and you'll hear this problem goes away.
If you have an Oppo or similar try Neo6 music mode.
As I recall, a lot of the early classical "stereo" recordings were actually 3 channel, so there's some interesting reading to do on the attitudes and recording practices as well.
To my ears the biggest benefit to multi-channel sound is the addition of the center channel. It fixes a problem of your head blocking certain frequencies. Have you ever noticed that a violin will sound bright on the sides, but duller near the center? This is exactly that problem. I don't really care about surround content though. :) Try listening with headphones and you'll hear this problem goes away.
If you have an Oppo or similar try Neo6 music mode.
As I recall, a lot of the early classical "stereo" recordings were actually 3 channel, so there's some interesting reading to do on the attitudes and recording practices as well.