Video Asylum

Posted by Audio Fan (i) on June 02, 2001 at 10:35:59

In Reply to: Re: Upgade from 2 Chn to HT posted by michael w on June 01, 2001 at 19:10:37:

Thanks for the links. I only read the Dolby article, which answered everything I wanted to know about DPL-II. It obviously addresses most of the flaws in DPL. The one flaw that may remain to interfere with surround music, as opposed to movies, is the reliance on phase manipulation.

As stated in the Dolby article, when a product is mixed for the surround mode it will be played back on, the results are predictable. When a stereo source is played back in surround, no one knows how it will translate. The more manipulation the decoder applies, the less predictable the sound will be. I've enjoyed listening to some stereo music in surround sound in the past. Electronica and classical symphonies can sound quite interesting. But I prefer to listen in a mode that features passive processing, in other words, the original Hafler mode or its variations (e.g. NAD EARS mode).

DPL simply degrades the sound when it tries to steer the stereo's natural ambient phase info. DPL-II should be better, but active matrix phase manipulation still seems to me to be the wrong direction for stereo music. It should be a wonderful for VHS movies. It's a pity it only came along after the introduction of discrete multi-channel DVD's.