After listening to multichannel music I've found that I often don't like what they do with the mixes. I'm not especially fond of sound coming from way off to the sides or behind me. It's good in video games where you have to keep track of opponents outside your field of view. With music they often do a stereo wide mix, which either very meagerly uses the center channel, or doesn't use it at all. What I'd really like is a 7 channel system with all 7 speakers across the front, and recordings made with that in mind. Short of that, I'll just stick to 2 channel recordings and employ some crosstalk reduction. 2 channels on 2 speakers without crosstalk reduction is actually pretty bad, if you ask me. It's become a HiFi tradition but there's nothing technically correct about it, and it suffers unresolvable tonal problems for the phantom center. It's interesting that audiophiles who are otherwise exceedingly keen to hear differences in DACs and cables are capable of completely hearing past this problem. It's true of passive crossovers too. These are cases where it seems the roles get reversed. The objectivists will admit that these problems are highly audible, while the subjectivists will claim they are not, or at least suggest that they are not in any way audibly offensive.
Do NOT Blow Your Entire Budget on Two Channel Audio
Yes, two channel audio is here, and is not going away. However, object based audio is delightful, widely available on Tidal and Apple Music, and should be in the listening room of every music lover on the planet, not just "audiophiles. If you plan to be a music fan a year from now start building your object based audio system today. You will need:
1) A receiver/processor capable of Dolby Atmos.
2) A subscription to Tidal or Apple music.
3) A Firestick, ATV, or Nvidia Shield.
4) A minimum of 7 timber matched speakers and a subwoofer.
Once you experienced stereo would you ever go back to only mono? No, you would build a system capable of either mono or stereo. Now that object based audio has arrived do the same thing. Build a system capable of mono, stereo, AND object based audio. When Elton John heard Rocket Man in an object based format for the first time why did he demand to convert his entire catalog to Atmos? If you don’t know, then you need to go listen to Rocket Man in a good Atmos setup ASAP.
So, take your budget, DIVERSIFY, and get a good Atmos capable receiver or processor. Object based audio is NOT last decades surround sound or home theater. It is for MUSIC first, if you need a recommendation on how to allocate your budget feel free to post a question. Most importantly, you don’t NEED two systems, one for music and one for movies. A good object based audio system can play two channel music just fine. A two channel system on the other hand can’t play object based audio without a proper processor or receiver.
Greg Penny talks mixing Rocket Man in Atmos.
https://youtu.be/ggzfcUKDqdo?feature=shared