It may sound like common sense but buying a turntable is not that simple.
Listening to vinyl on surround sound.
I firmly believe you listen to the music or any other media for that matter the way the recording artist and audio engineer listened to it.
A basic surround sound setup would be a center channel and a left and right.
While these machines are an affordable solution for many they may not be able to be connected to a receiver or external speakers.
Surround sound on the other hand is a system with 3 or more speakers.
I m not claiming 5 1 6 1 or 7 1 multichannel sound is bad.
In a surround music mode sounds recorded to the far right or left front will be pulled more to the sides and rear creating a holographic soundstage in the shape of a horseshoe.
That s why snare drums cymbal splashes and other loud instruments have so much more punch in vinyl recordings.
That said surround sound systems more commonly come in 5 and 7 channel setups.
If they mixed the album in 2 channel listen to it in 2 channel.
Audio for a surround sound system has to be sent though a mixer so that it can create a sound field.
Vinyl can still push music to the limits of its dynamic range 55 70db but it often shies away from doing so in order to maintain sound quality.
Probably the most interesting music listening in surround sound comes from recordings where at least some sounds are mixed hard to the left and right.
In fact i think the quality of movie surround mixes has steadily improved over the years.