[qkrzazzang]

I haven't really considered 5.1 at all for my computer audio system, but I started to think about it now because I'm getting a pipe organ sample, and thought surround system might actually be good for this case as surround system would kind of give that similar acoustic as playing the organ in the cathedral. I have no experiences with 5.1 or any bigger so I have no clue if it will even be compatible with the sample player itself (hauptwerk). And I found out that some recordings don't support multichannels. What does this cause in terms of the sound output? Is it saying that the speakers won't play it, or it won't play through all the speakers? 
 
I still find that 2.1 might work better because the pipe sets of the organ are usually in one place, not all around cathedral or whatever the space is, but I don't think I ever saw 2.1 system with long speaker lines that can reach to the back of my room, which is about 13 feet, and also it might be painful to bring them back to next to my monitors when I'm just listening...

 

[cel4145]

Most music is stereo. If a source is stereo, 5.1 can be created using simulated surround through digital processing. I don't like it that much myself because it's a computer algorithm deciding how to break up the sound into multiple channels. Not the same as an original multichannel recording.

There are some blu-ray music performances that are recorded and mastered in multi channel surround sound that are meant to be listened to in 5.1. But if you are listening to CDs, regular CDs are stereo except for SACDs, and (a) you need a player that supports SACD to use that and (b) most SACDs are not in multichannel.