5.1 audio on 2 speakers PC

[Freodon]

I have an .mkv file with both 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks. I want to remove one of them to lower file size. Now, will 5.1 give a worse experience on standard 2 speakers setup than 2.0 track? Or is it better than 2.0 in every way?

[Cornucopia]

Hypothetically speaking, a mix optimized for 2.0 playback on 2 speakers should be slightly/somewhat better than a 5.1 mix automatically downmixed to those same 2 speakers. In practice, I doubt many consumers could tell the difference.
So, I recommend you drop the 2.0 and keep the 5.1 (assuming the program content is supposed to be the same).

Scott

[jagabo]

Usually, if you have both 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks the movie was originally stereo (maybe even mono) and the 5.1 track is some up-mix that's there to impress people who think bigger numbers are better.

[Cornucopia]

I think that depends greatly on the source. Most original releases I've seen this way have actual intentionally different mix balances (both good). It's just someone's re-post who tries to up-mix, and usually (as you said) for the wrong reasons. Up-mixing rarely works well anyway.

Scott