Multichannel music is still not that good. Though I did hear 1 demo that was very good. So good that it made me want a pre-amp that was clean on all 5.1 channels. It requires a hell of a lot more work to do correctly and only a few labels are probabely going to be willing to do the extra work. The rest, I expect are going to use a lot of gimicks that are going to make true audiophile run for the front door. One Bryston 5 channel amp was very favorably reviewed in Stereophile and is a class A amp in the recommended components issue now.
Home Theatre - Hoax or Substance?
Being a dyed in the wool 2 channel advocate,I do wonder about Home Theatre or Multi Channel. Have recently auditioned several multi channel units. None of the sound like music. Too much woof,woof,tweet,tweet,boom,boom. Auditioned a Bryston multi channel that was just awful.And I know Bryston makes great two channel equipment,although I dont own Bryston at the moment.