I do not listen to multichannel music, but I have noticed that my surrounds diminish the coherence of the front image during movies, even though my processor, like most, delays the signal sent to the surrounds to compensate for variations in the speakers' distances to the listening position.
Because of this, during a recent change of my listening room configuration, I decided to eliminate the surrounds, so now I listen to movies in 3.1. I am an avid movie watcher (1000+ titles on my shelf), but I can honestly say I don't miss the surrounds.
This is, of course, an extreme solution. Knownothing offers very good advice about how to better integrate your surrounds for a more coherent presentation. I would certainly try that first.
Because of this, during a recent change of my listening room configuration, I decided to eliminate the surrounds, so now I listen to movies in 3.1. I am an avid movie watcher (1000+ titles on my shelf), but I can honestly say I don't miss the surrounds.
This is, of course, an extreme solution. Knownothing offers very good advice about how to better integrate your surrounds for a more coherent presentation. I would certainly try that first.