I have a surround system consisting of a NAD receiver ($1,700 list) and 5 speakers ($4,100 list) so I'm hardly in the lowest cost club. I use this system for my home theater and it performs quite well. Like anyone would be, I was curious and played several 2 channel CDs both in stereo and in "simulated" suround. I also played one (count 'em one) DVD-A disk.

My problem is that at least at the price point of my surround system, the sound quality is nowhere near my main stereo. Now I spent a little over double on my main system so the comparison is not exactly fair, but when I built my surround system I tried hard to find ways to upgrade my two channel to multi channel. I did this in an attempt to avoid duplication of money being spent.

In spite of any appearances based on my system cost I am financially lower middle class. I have streched my budget over many years in order to own equipment as nice as I own. So the impetus to combine systems to save money was real. I was never able to find equipment that could cleanly combine my two and multichannel systems with same or simular sound quality (this was about 5 years ago, there seem to be somewhat more options today).

As near as I can tell, for equivalent sound quality, the price per channel is more or less fixed. So good 5 or 6 channel sound will cost you 2.5 to 3 times the cost of good 2 channel sound. I for one, can't afford it.