Easily surround sound. Basically if your just using it for music 7.1 won't really add anything anyhow, cause its not like any cd's are coded in 7.1 sound. But however sourround also comes in handy for movies, but not many DVD's are coded in 7.1. But not like its hard to upgrade, just costs money. But i mean a 5.1 system for watching movies is pretty fulfilling and its not like you would have to have 7.1.