I bet most (but not all) Meridian 568 (and perhaps 861) owners would be happy with the front, center and left channels upsampled, but having the ability to at least have non-upsampled content coming out of the sides, rears and subs. Perhaps some would complain, but if you said the above upgrade would cost $1000, but if you want upsampled all the way around, it would be $2000, you'd have Meridian inundated with 568s for the $1000 fix. Of course, as my wife likes to remind me, I've been wrong before.

5.1 (plus a center rear channel!) is all I need. I too don't have room for properly configured sides.

Frankly, I wish the 568 had been a successor to the 561 rather than the 565, or put another way, an intermediate offering between the 561 and the 861. I need three rather than two analog inputs (TV, VCR and FM tuner) and two/three room capability (501 in the living room and 551 in the bedroom). The cost of an extra analog input and two/three room capability is a 562V.2 (or a 501, 501V, 541, 562 or 562V) and I don't need the video switching.

561, DSP5500s, DSP5000C, analog sides and rears