I'm posting this in the general forum, not the tech, cos I don't want to know anything about how it works.

I'm curious if any of you have listened to 5.1 surround mixes of old albums, and what your opinions may be. I myself have never heard one, but I've noticed that the record companies have made some odd choices when picking albums to remix. Another Side of Bob Dylan, for example.

Am I the only person who thinks this is fucking with history? If an album was mixed to mono or stereo, keep it that way. If an artist wants to mix to 5.1 in the first place, then fine, and I suppose the format could be used to recreate quad mixes coked-out musicians with too much time or money made back in the 1970's. But otherwise, 5.1 surround mixes seem silly and needless, not to mention an abuse of a musician's legacy.

I prefer to think that a stereo set of speakers is a better representation of listening to an actual performance.

I have never gone to a concert where the artists have surrounded me whilst I listen to their music from all directions.

Also, I shudder to think how difficult it must be to mix. Room acoustics would become even more important and variations between different 5.1 setups is likely to be greater than stereo setups.

Have you seen how shit most budget 5.1 setups are? Most consumers will probably have their subs turned up too high too.

Pretty foolish with rock albums.

However, the SACD format allows for up to six channel mixes. Some great things that have come from this include:

-Old RCA and Mercury classical recordings from the late 50's & early 60's were recorded on 3-track 1/2" and 3-track 35mm magstock. Are now being reissed in original left, center, right format - and sound fuckin' incredible.

-CBS, Nonesuch, EMI/Angel, etc... classical recordings from the 70's recorded on 4-track 1/2" & 1" issued as quad recordings. Are now beiing reissued in left, right, rear R, rear L format. Pierre Boulez's famous recording of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is one such example.

-New 5 channel DSD recordings of classical works recorded using soundfield, modified Decca trees, and expanded Blumlein arrangements are being put out. Also very cool.

Home theater? Fuck home theater! and those stupid mini satellite speaker/subwoofer combinations. Give me five matching monoblocks and five matching speakers/stands. Yeah, baby....

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IMHO it's simply a way to repackage and resell you something you already bought on vinyl and then cd. Who sits in the sweet spot in their living room and listens to music, even in stereo? That's what you would have to do to appreciate the 5.1 mix. Fine for movies, terrible for music. And as someone pointed out, when you see a show, isn't the band in FRONT and not all around?

Fuck 5.1