This is exactly the point I'm trying to make - the stereo mix does sound the same as the surround mix on my system, which I'm sure is set up incorrectly. My expectation is that since the 5.1 mix was done from first-generation multitrack tapes it should reveal what was on the mulitrack tapes before they were mixed down to stereo. The album was recorded on a 16 track console and to free up tracks for more overdubbing, whole groups of tracks had to be "bounced down". That is, if you have a guitar in one track, keyboards in another and vocals in another, all three tracks can be 'bounced' into one. In doing so, fidelity is lost each time a track or group of tracks is bounced down. By the time the mixdown to stereo is done, a great deal of what was recorded will be inaudible. In other words, the more overdubbing done during the recording process, the less of the original recording (ie what was one the multitrack tapes) one is able to hear.
If you read interviews with the members of Yes and Eddie Offord, the producer, it's apparent that there was an enormous amount of of overdubbing. In the following interview Eddie Offord says that it took 1000 tracks to create the intro for Close to The Edge !!
http://www.nfte.org/interviews/eo234.html
