How can you not have multichannel system

...because the vast majority of music I like to listen to has not been released in surround, or even high-resolution digital (pick your flavor) for that matter. Of course I have surround for movies, but that's a different story. -jz

Agree with Dgarretsson. And although running a stereo recording through a surround processor is not the same thing as listening to an actual surround mix on the disc, one of the few processors that gets it right in my experience is Meridian's Tri-field mode. But then you are already into big bucks with that rig..

From a practicality standpoint, it's much more difficult to implement now that Blu-ray is out. I've recently noticed much more interest on Audiogon discussions regarding the multichannel analog ins on processors. It seems that many people, myself included, have spent good money on good receivers/processors that we'd like to continue using because they are awesome in every respect but are limited to processing the older DD/DTS codecs and have only one set of 5.1 or 7.1 analog inputs.

That leaves us to choose between connecting a 5.1 SACD player or a 5.1 Dolby True-HD/DTS-MA Blu-ray signal decoded in the player and sent to the analog ins on the processor. Yes, I know you can buy a 5.1 analog switcher, but that's about as elegant a solution as using a RatShack passive video switcher to connect your two VCR's plus Laserdisc plus Satellite tuner to your early '90's era TV that had only one composite video input.. Remember those days? LOL!!

Just when you thought it was safe to take the plunge into a new format, they choose not to include SACD/DVD-A. I hope Oppo gets it right with their new player because I did an online chat today with Sony and they have no plans to include SACD in their new stand-alone players like the (otherwise) awesome looking BDP-S5000ES. It's a darned shame, really. -jz