Stereo or Surround Sound?

Stereophile has an argument (should say an article but don't want to) as to what is better for music listening: 2-channel or surround sound reproduction:

"Two-channel audio is like a painter's canvas. Instead of three dimensions, it has only two, stretching from left to right and from front to back. Just as a good painter can make an image seem lifelike and three-dimensional, a good stereo system (with good recordings) can similarly make performances jump from two dimensions to three. I'm a genuine stereophile because systems that accomplish this difficult feat never fail to amaze me. Each step in the playback chain makes this goal elusive because there are only two channels of information storage, two channels of amplification, and two speakers. It's two-dimensional, all the way down the line. This is hardly breaking news, but it shows that audiophiles who endlessly adjust speakers, room treatments, or cables are not necessarily tweaking for tweaking's sake or obsessing over some vague ideal of "good sound." Such fidgeting can help solve a real problem of audio engineering and psychoacoustics: how to get the illusion of three dimensions from only two."

I'd suggest you take your time and read more ...