Good old 2ch versus multi-ch, what to do?

Betat only YOU can decide.
These forums are great for advice but they work better for filling in gaps rather than a cast in stone recommendation.
Try to demo a good CD player and SACD player in your system.
For what it's worth I came to the very conclusion you suggest in your last post-buying the very same player you mention.
Using both advice from Audiogon members and home demo's and my own logic I decided against investing further in SACD-I still have a SACD/DVD player in my system.
However there is a pro-SACD group also who haven't replied to this thread.
You might well find the positive things in SACD that I didn't and others do.
A quick search on SACD will show various debates-however sadly Audiogon decide to delete some threads for reasons best known to themselves meaning that you endlessly end up making the same points in an effort to help people.
Freezing threads that have run their course would mean no more input (if they are considered contentious)but having them in the archives would serve many purposes.

You can do some SACD searches here-abouts and get quite the range of opinions. I was talking the other day with a fellow audiophile when I remarked that most of my friends prefer two channel in my home theatre and he said something i need to think about.

"when you have five channel you don't have to turn the volumn up so much...you can still talk and listen at the same time."

Well, it sounded real deep at the time, anyway.

Forget multichannel, if you want the "sound is all arround you" gimmic just pop Roger Waters Amused to Death into a good two channel system and get the multichannel urge out of your system.

Although I have a multi-channel SACD player, I only
listen in two-channel. I use 5.1 surround sound for
movies, but never for music listening. Is it possible
to reach audio nirvana with two-channel SACD? Absolutely. Before I had the Dac6, I had a Sony SCD
XA777ES CD/SACD player, which also has multi-channel capability, but I only played it in two-channel
and it sounded great on both CD's and SACD's. I bought it on Audiogon for $1,600 used. Since the Dac6 is not a realistic option for a lot of people, I usually find myself recommending the Sony -- it was a damn nice player. I gave it to my younger brother for his birthday and he absolutely loves it. And, he only listens in two-channel. I recommended the Sony to another friend,
he bought one, used, on Audiogon and he called me a few days ago, ecstatic. And, he only listens in two-channel.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE SURROUND SOUND AND A LOT OF SPEAKERS TO ENJOY SACD.

TWO-CHANNEL SACD SOUNDS GREAT!

Sorry for the shouting.

Thank you.

Oh, and between your DVD-A player and the Sony, you
will have all of your bases covered and will get much
better music play-back than with any Universal Player
you will buy for the same amount of money. A universal
player is NOT the way to go to get superior music play-back. You pay a premium for having them stuff every-
thing into one box and you pay a price in compromised
sonics when they shove everything into one box.