How can you not have multichannel system

...because the vast majority of music I like to listen to has not been released in surround, or even high-resolution digital (pick your flavor) for that matter. Of course I have surround for movies, but that's a different story. -jz

Music recorded for 5.1 or more by recording engineers who understand the media will sound best.
Rechanneled stereo will sound like colorized movies look.

If I can ever build a HT room, it will be for movie/sound in 5.1 or better. My current room would be a nightmare to convert, having 8 sides and a vaulted ceiling.

Like Eldartford, I experimented w/'4 channel' back when you had 'derived' and the various Matrix schemes....QS, SQ, which I suppose were just phase shift. I never bought any of this gear, but using by brothers stereo cob'd one together by wiring the back channel speakers in series from + to + on there own amp. When I listened to a proper LIVE album, you were right in the MIDDLE of the crowd.

I forgot to mention, and many people don't know, that there is a large body of "antiphonal" music...composed for two or more choirs or orchestras front and rear as well as side to side. Mono and stereo playback equipment is completely incapable of properly reproducing antiphonal music. Much well-known music is actually antiphonal, but is unknown today except in a "mixed-down" form. I have one SACD "J. S. Bach, The Four Great Toccatas and Fugues played by E Power Biggs on the Four Antiphonal Organs of the Cathedral of Freiburg" that clearly illustrates the benefits of multichannel. Once you hear this music played in antiphonal manner you will never again be satisfied with a stereo rendition.

Timrhu...Your question... "what listening perspective do you get with multi-channel playback?" Some DVDA discs let you select your perspective..."Stage" or "Audience".

Well, I read the various replies and appreciate Eldartford's well-written replies, but continue to be amazed at the lack of understanding, willingness to understand the process of producing multichannel sacd (dvd audio) discs. If any reader wants to grasp or learn how multichannel music is recorded please run a google search, 'sacd remixing'. The first two or three hits give a good primer on the subject. But to those who insist that sacd multichannel music of previouly released discs is just a matter of using 'voodoo' to extract three additional channels from the stereo should not even venture forth any opinions. Ignorance is not a virtue. As to the writer who asked me about the difference between the stereo and multichannel Blood on the Tracks album, I am waiting for a universal player to replace my current one that decided to skip on sacd multichannels (its a plot), and I will spend some time listening between the two and report my impressions as to what music is present in the rear channels.