How can you not have multichannel system

Your comment makes no sense. If a concert had those speaker banks behind and around the audience, it would be a chaotic experience. You cannot take the scenario and reproduce it in the a/v room and say its the same.

Bojack wrote:

I see your point, Kal. What I was getting at was that most live shows do not have dedicated surround channels via speaker banks behind and around the audience.

That is true but, at home, you need those dedicated surround channels to reproduce the proper ambiance from that live show.

Kal

I have operated a four speaker stereo system
for years (2 Mcintosh amps, four speakers, one sub
Meridian cd player).

I have had so many people listen to a multi-channel sytem,
then listen to mine and always ask why music sounded so much better on mine.

IT"S FOR MUSIC and not just a couple of cd's.

i believe that listening to a symphony orchestra is a mon mode experience rather than a multi-channel experience.

listening to small ensemble music is also in mono mode.

in many cases the music is perceived as being in front of you not behind you. the enhanced spatial effects from more than two channels may be pleasant but it probably does not represent most live music where instruments are unamplified.

I agree with MrT that the psychoacoustics of a mch system at even a low level of performance can be addictive-- particularly to unsophisticated listeners. Many years ago I had a good 2ch system set for party-mode, with a second set of L/R speakers across the back wall powered by a receiver. All non-audiophile visitors said this was the best effect they had ever heard. This had nothing to do with realism.