Last weekend was a multi-channel marathon for me. I listen to a number of my SACDs M/C on my HT set and was able to draw a few important conclusions for the experience. Overall multi-channel offers the classical music listener a significantly enhanced experience over stereo.

The recordings I auditioned are all large-scale classical works of excellent (or better) sound quality in stereo and, as I discovered, also in M/C.
  • Haydn: 'The Seasons', (Rene Jacobs), Harmonia Mundi HMC 801829.30 -- fabulous music, M/C sound, and performance
  • Holst: 'The Planets', (Dennis Russell Davies), Chesky SACD234 -- decent but relatively disappointing M/C sound
  • Shostakovich: Symphonies 5 & 9, (Valery Gergiev), Philips 470 651-2 -- perhaps the best M/C sound and great performance
  • Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9, (Ivan Fischer), Philips 470 617-2 -- excellent overall
  • Bruckner: Symphony No.9, (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), RCA Red Seal 82876 54332 2 -- excellent sound; good performance as far as I can tell, but I understand why Bruckner is nobody's favorite composer: turgid neo-Romantic bombast
  • Higdon: Concerto for Orchestra; 'City Scape', (Robert Spano), Telarc -- very good sound but surround effects perhaps a bit exaggerated; Concerto for Orchestra is an interesting, fun piece, 'City Scape' not so much.
My equipment:
  • SACD player: Samsung DVD-HD841
  • Receiver: Panasonic SA-XR25 "digital"; note that this device does an analogue to digit conversion on all input -- there is not "direct" or "pass-through" function
  • Front speakers: Paradigm MiniMonitor, V.3
  • Center: DIY Vifa 6.5" woofer + BG Corp Neo3PDR tweeter, vented
  • Rears: Boston Acoustics A60
My specific conclusions are as follows:
  • For classical music, M/C offers a significantly different, enhanced perspective on the performance. One moves from the back of, or an entrance way to, the hall to an excellent orchestra seat.
  • M/C reproduction particularly enhances the sound of "power" instruments such as tympani and brass.
  • A restrained use of M/C is better, that is, it's best used to capture the concert hall ambience than move a portion of the orchestra to the back or sides.
  • The benefits of M/C can be enjoyed even with equipment of modest quality; in fact, assuming budget constraints, it makes sense to trade off some quality to obtain M/C capability.
My future plans will be altered in these ways:
  • I'll always purchase the SACD over the CD version of the recording -- not for microscopic improvements in resolutions, etc., but for the multi-channel.
  • I will shift my overall equipment upgrade emphasis to my "HT" setup from my stereo setup. I'm really looking forward to building DIY replacements for the Paradigm since my DIY centre easily traunces the former in smoothness and resolution.