Now is that good advice? I'm sure I'd be plenty happy and satisfied with that approach..............now. If I were someone just starting out, I don't know if that is good advice or not. I've seen people who bought well, bought once and lived very happily with their gear for 20 or 30 years. The other approach, the one I've lived is that you don't know what you want at first. Even if I ended up with exactly what someone with knowledge suggested to me I don't know if I'd have the confidence to be satisfied with it as much.
Good post!
I don't really have an answer for "what would I do if I did it all over again?"
I enjoyed the journey of discovering what I liked. I really did love owning electrostatics. It was owning box speakers that made me go "wow" upon hearing Quads for the first time. And it was owning electrostatics that made me go back to appreciating box/dynamic speakers again. I really have enjoyed owning box/dynamic speakers of various types. I love owning omnis. I love my floor standing speakers, and my small mini monitors.
I don't know that I'd have appreciated any one of these as a "buy it and stop there" purchase.
Whereas my father-in-law is an engineer and in to audio to the extent of wanting to listen to his classical music with good sound quality. He bought some big Monitor Audio speakers in the early 80's and...that was it. Never thought about changing them.
I'm not built like that. I love sound, can't help noticing the differences between speakers etc, and I like to experience different presentations.
Now beyond that if someone is smitten by the music/audiophile bug, I'd suggest go ahead and make the change to multi-channel. Don't go very far in gilding the stereo lily so much. It is mostly a waste of resources or if not a waste small returns.
I depart from you there.
I find it FAR easier to achieve a sense of "believable" coherence and presentation, 3 dimensional imaging etc, with stereo speakers than with multi-channel (and I have both). I had thrown my little Spendor S 3/5s up on stands, about 6 feet away, and within moments I was experiencing amazing "walls melting away" dimensional, spaciousness and a sense of immersion with a specificity and palpability to the sonic images.
Surround sound just doesn't add that much more, for me, in terms of a sense of immersion, and I generally find the 2 channel presentation more seamless and believable.
I think someone starting out can realize these qualities much easier, cheaper and faster with a pair of stereo speakers than jumping to the extra expense and effort needed to get a truly seamless surround system up and going.
There's a reason why multichannel music never really caught on.