Harbinger of the future of 2-channel?


I just looked at the Sunfire website and noticed that Sunfire no longer makes 2-channel amplifiers. The minimum number of channels you can purchase from them is a 5-channel amp.

I remember when Apple came out with the I-Mac. It did not have a floppy drive. Even though I hadn't used a floppy in years, it still made me a little nervous that the machine didn't have one. It turns out that Apple was right on the money by eliminating the floppy. Email had rendered it useless.

Is home theater pushing 2-channel closer to the brink?

Does anyone think that the bulk of amplifier mfgs will follow suit and concentrate on multi-channel amps? I see that Audio Research has a new multi-channel preamp in its lineup.
128x128mitch4t
Stereo was a huge improvement over mono.
Three channels are a big improvement over two.
Five channels are an improvement, some of the time.
Seven channels, well maybe.

Reactionaries can always mix down to stereo, or even mono.
Sunfire didn't check with us before reaching a decision not to sell two channel! Audiophiles represent a small segment of the population so Sunfire must be appealing to the masses to sell more boxes.