going to a surround-sound version of music is like making the original jump from mono to stereo - there's no doubting the brilliance of it.
many people who use seperates now own a unit capable of playing dvd/cds, but i'd argue both formats are near obsolete anyway (dvd is very old, despite its relative newness in adoption). the rise in formats such as mp3 (again very old now) show the way the market *should* be moving if they want the industry to survive, without relying on sueing everyone that uses them.
formats such as APE are completely lossless, yet still far smaller than a raw cd track - there's more again to support the ac3 surround tracks. why have a dvd sized unit to play an hour or two when a matchbox sized player can hold several times as many, at the same quality?
not too many artists have adopted surround sound yet, and until they work out ways to use it not many will. live sessions (such as the corrs - the first i got (purely for the sound, honest)) sound superb as it was recorded specifically for this system - unlike many of those available which as simply the original recordings with some poorly added audio features. without this support i don't see dvda taking off, and with dvds replacement (finally) nearing the light of day, i doubt it ever will. mp3 is starting to fade slightly (pretty much everyone who wants to use it already is, and many of them are moving to formats such as ogg vorbis for increased quality), and it too will eventually be replaced.