I've always been a 2 channel guy when it comes to music-maybe even a snob when it comes to DSP modes and multi-ch music. I've always written off DSPs (hall,stadium,concert...blah,blah,blah) as just hokey gimmicks to impress the uninitiated and I still feel that way.
But...
After reading
Alan Lofft's article on PL 2, I gave it a try just for grins. Guess what?....I like it very much.
2 channel in old pro logic sounded like crap but PL2 sounds great with terrific imaging and spaciousness. IMO, there is just enough material in the surrounds to convey space but not so much that it is distracting (like much of what I've heard from multi-channel SACD/DVD-Audio where it is not uncommon to hear musicians coming from the surrounds)-no drum licks or trumpet players etc. coming from behind/along side me, thank you very much.
But for the fact that it puts ambience material in the surrounds, the front speakers (in PL 2 mode) sound much the same as in 2 channel mode meaning that I don't feel like I've lost any of the magic of the music.
I haven't measured db level but I notice that in PL 2 mode there
seems to be a slight increase in db level (perhaps due to the matrixed material from the surrounds). It also seems to make older not-so-well recorded music more tolerable somehow (psychoacoustic perhaps?). Thanks to Alan for shining the light on PL 2 for me, I'm having fun with it.
Any thoughts/comments on Dolby PL 2?
