I recently auditioned an amp that took out (DC) one of my speakers. Living in New Zealand means terrible repair services and so I had a long period where one of my systems had just one speaker. I found that concentrating on the music was much less necessary for musical enjoyment, and that I was in fact a far more relaxed listener. Then I realise that the interest in the stereo gave way to musical enjoyment. I went back to stereo when the other speaker arrived back. But I can't help thinking that multi-channel is a trade-off, between spatial reality and musical sound. By "musical sound", I guess I mean my ear-brain did not have to work so hard with a single sound source and so there was much less in the way between me and what the artist had to say.
Long Live 2 Channel audio......???
5, 10, or even 20 years from now; Will the 2 Channel audio be around and survive? We music lovers, audiophiles use to say; Never would I merge home theater with my dedicated hi-end just audio system. Is it becuse of space, convenience, dollars, or lack of time to relax and close our self in the room and just listen to music. I have both systems and plan to keep it that way. Home theater is great but still nothing can beat a state of the art 2 channel audio system when you want to enjoy the music.