Wanna take it to the next level? Buy MORE speakers!

With regard to holographic sound I once own a very rare piece of equipment that was used to master the first Starwars movie. It was a Bedini with a couple of nobs that could expand or center the sound. Carver then mass marketed a holographic generator. When you hear holographic sound in a recording it just studio glitz. I like it, but it’s not organic. A live recording might sound “real” because it’s also capturing the wall reflections. Most modern cinemas have front speakers and side speakers. Some even have transducers in the seats. I don’t like that set up, but it’s just entertainment. Two speakers of different types might complement each other and will give more SPL. I’ve had fun wiring up old speakers in series or parallel, but I’ll try to stack them vertically to try and maintain a stereo image. Speakers all over the room is not my cup of tea. Recently I wired up a pair of Philharmonic bookshelves to the bass crossover of my Vandersteen 3a and had great results driven by an Atma-sphere MAI-mk III and bi-wired through an anticable ZERObox. In this case my solid core wires were too short to stack vertically and the monitors sat at ear level slightly in front of and to the center of the 3a z.

2 channel and surround are different

They are not different. The ultimate hope of a 2 channel rig (as you spend more and more and more) is that it hopes to provide the soundfield, spatial nuance and detail characteristic of a correctly setup multichannel rig.

For instance, as you spend more and more on a purist dac, there is code hidden away in fpga with the hope of creating the above mentioned, restricted by the challenges of achieving so with 2 speakers.

You will hear all kinds of detail in a multichannel rig (that you simply never heard in a 2 channel rig) by virtue of how some multichannel codecs uunpack your favorite stereo recordings....there are multiple speaekers assisting with this. Try an upmixer that comes with a multichannel processor that’s worth its salt and the right amount of correctly setup speakers. It should become obvious.

When 2 channel guys are in hot pursuit of cost no object "3D", etc, it continues to be a bit laughable for the same reason....Spending more and more up the wrong tree will continue to provide a gimped outcome. I could put up my multichannel rig (i didn’t even spend that much on it) against ANY cost no object stereo rig and it will run circles aound the latter. It would probably lose, however, to some guy’s ultra high-end multichannel rig, i suppose...but, some guy’s 2 channel? nah, it ain’t losing...

Some of you guys are not really strapped for cash.....try something different than what you’re used to, research the newer technologies and tweak it out...

I've listened to pretty much every configuration (5.1 through 13.4.4) and while it provides a cool effect it doesn't move me in the way that even a mediocre two channel system does. Movies? Sure - give me that immersive feeling with planes flying overhead, the sound of bullets ricocheting through the side, rear, and atmos speakers - it makes sense for this kind of foley info to come from all sides. For music however it just sounds gimmicky and fake. I'm speaking for me of course and shouldn't influence even a single member of this forum. I also don't have much interest in others telling me what I should and shouldn't enjoy. Like ketchup on hot dogs or black licorice. Someone making a face and pretending to be disgusted doesn't impact my enjoyment one whit. Plenty of people here describe the process of procuring, cleaning, and listening to a record (including having to get up to flip it after 22 or so minutes) to be a horrible, exhausting experience. I can't get enough of it, and the joy of hearing music come from a spot where a speaker isn't still seems magical to me. There is an evolutionary reason our ears are shaped the way they are and two channel setups are optimized to take advantage of that physiology.

 Not really a contemporary thought.

Remember the  double Advent?

@deep_333 

Why don’t you spend a minute or two describing to us “two channel guys” your awesome multi-channel rig. Obviously you have achieved this nirvana you describe.