[scratch]

I remember having to make one in school for educational purposes, we made it stereo by making the same amp twice on the same pcb, but other than for fun I don't really see them o the market anymore seems like the world is ruled by, surround sound.

[neutron]

To the best of my knowledge a lot of car sound systems are 2 channel systems, plus if you truly want to enjoy music you don't really need surround sound, a two speaker setup will do the job quite well.

[jvc]

I don't use 2 channel anymore. As I said in another thread, surround sound has spoiled me. Stereo sounds like it's missing something, to me. I like being surrounded and immersed in the music. But that's just me. A lot of people still prefer 2 channel for music.

[doremi]

Depends for a movie surround sound is definitely the way to go, it tricks your ears into believing you are actually there, but for music I think a 2 channel rig would do just fine, not to mention you could get more quality for the same price.

[beat]

I guess if you are on a really tight budget and you can only afford an amp that has stereo output it's a viable option, but with prices being quite similar I don't see a reason not to go for surround sound.

[davidkay]

I have a modest surround setup for movie watching, but I do all of my music listening on my two channel rig or my headphones. With room treatments and high quality equipment, a pair of speakers can throw an incredible soundstage that stretches to every corner of the room. Indeed the best sound I've ever heard was coming from just a pair of speakers.

If I had $10K to spend on speakers, I would much rather have speakers that cost $10K/pr than five $2K speakers. Surround is very popular at the consumer level, but it never caught on at the high-end. One big reason is vinyl. Vinyl is in stereo (yes I know there were Quadraphonic releases, but that went nowhere), and to send the output of a high-end phono preamp to a digital surround processor kind of defeats the whole purpose. Multi-channel analog linestage preamps do exist, but they can only control a source that's already in surround, like an SACD player. Feed them stereo, and you just get stereo.

The latest thing in high-end music listening is high-res 96/24+ music from computers or music servers. You'll notice that none of it is in surround. FLAC has the ability to support a high-res surround recording, but nobody is doing any. There have been a couple of odd ball Blu-ray music releases, but I don't see that ever catching on in any significant way. As long as the music itself is in stereo, two channel will stick around.

[MusicalTablet]

My box still has a 2 channel system, I haven't got round to upgrading it to surround sound yet as I mostly use my headphones, or if I am watching movies the HDTV. I need to invest in some better sound gear when I have a bit of money to spare after Christmas.

[doremi]

If you want the bare minimum you can pick up a halfway decent surround sound system for 50-100 bucks, it should be quite adequate for watching movies in my opinion.

[nyfinia]

You need some coffee?

[jvc]

Originally Posted by nyfinia

You need some coffee?

Huh? What are you talking about nyfinia?