I have both; I'm not going to say that home theater is better as 2 channel. But I much prefer 2 channel for music rather than using my home theater setup for that. And that's if I'm using speakers. I still very much enjoy an intimate 2 channel experience with good headphones.
Very best,
Despite the fact that I've a 2.1 system, I would build a surround system for movies if it were practical for me. I like that surround bubble and all the steering sound FX. But I don't really see the need for surround sound with music. On rock and pop there isn't really much rear ambience or surround steering, unless maybe it's a concert recording, and even then it's not necessary for me. Talking Heads Stop Making Sense or The Doors sound great in stereo.
On symphonic, chamber, opera, and jazz most of the relevant soundstage is up front where the performers are staged (excepting just a few works like Mahler where horns occasionally play from off stage or the side of the hall). And many jazz studio recordings are engineered and mixed rather dryly anyway to make it sound like the performer is in your listening room (Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, or Ella Fitzgerald). Good stereo speakers can recreate the ambience of the recording venue and the width, layering and depth of the orchestra, or movement and layering of opera singers. Also, my speakers, on the right recording, will throw a soundstage floor-to-ceiling and all the way around the sides. So even a recording done in a church or something like Arvo Pärt's De Profundis has atmospheric ambience and reverberation.
The other day I watched a Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro blu ray. It was stunning in its capture of the hall acoustic and its imaging and placement of singers as they moved about the stage, especially in those signature Mozart vocal ensembles with multiple singers and vocal lines--I could hear all of the overlapping parts clearly, and the vocal tuttis didn't distort with "hash". Those sonic qualities are more important than surround channels for classical music. I listen for what I've heard as a symphony subscriber and the many symphonic, chamber, and opera performances I've heard in renowned American and European venues. 2 channel does just fine for that.
