You're right!!! Now please move on. have a nice day

I don't have time to browse through all the publicity swill on this latest Dolby Labs "breakthrough" (sigh). Does anyone know from the material posted so far what involvement Jim Fosgate had in this? (The inventor of DPL2)

boblinds:

It has something to do with making your system sound better, faster, louder, cleaner, meaner, and able to lift at least a couple of "vails" from your soundstage. It will turn even the worst movies into masterpieces...including some of the ones I've worked on! You'll like it...

BTW, has your kitty clawed up the grille on your subwoofer yet???

Bob, Dolby collaborated with Jim Fosgate in order to expand PLII to PLIIx. At the time PLII first came out, Fosgate had mentioned publicly that PLII (like any matrix decoder) was capable of going past 5.1. While adding rear vs side vectoring to the surrounds, Fosgate also made a couple of further refinements.

The first tweak involved a very subtle change to the Centre Width steering control, which may or may not be noticeable to most users. The other change should be more audible. PLII Music mode has a mild shelf filter applied to the surrounds to make them sound a little more subtle than the PLII movie mode (which doesn't roll off the surrounds). Some listeners had complained that this caused the surrounds to appear comparitively dull in Music mode. So now when you're in the PLII Music mode, engaging the Panorama parameter will turn off the roll-off filter. This should make the surrounds appear a bit more detailed and aggressive, which goes hand in hand with the function of the Panorama adjustment.

Since Jim Fosgate was making these refinements anyway, for his all-analogue tube-based processor (which I think is due out late this year or early next year), Dolby asked him to add them to PLII. So, if the Outlaw 950 is upgraded to PLIIx, then its standard PLII modes will also be updated to reflect Fosgate's changes; subtle though they may be.

Best,
Sanjay

Thanks for the info, Sanjay. While I don't think this is a must-have upgrade, I think it makes a lot of business sense for Dolby to enhance their DPL2 to 7.1 support. The extra refinements also make it somewhat more attractive than just getting stereo rear surrounds, as well.

Obviously the rapid acceptance of 7.1 home systems caught Dolby Labs by surprise. I now remember seeing posts by Jim Fosgate in which he mentioned the ability to go to more channels; but, if I recall correctly, Dolby just wanted 5.1 at the time.

Soundhound, even though you tried to implant a post-hypnotic suggestion into my cat the last time you were here, she has not clawed my SVS subwoofer yet. However, I have to admit, I saw her with her feet up on it the other day. Needless to say, I hollered "NO!" loud enough so that folks in Torrance heard it.

[This message has been edited by boblinds (edited September 08, 2003).]

Bob, Agreed. All the competition had already gone 6.1 (Circle Surround II, DTS Neo:6) or 7.1 (LOGIC7). By their own admission , they are a "latecomer to the 7.1 environment". PLIIx makes their offerings more competetive.

Best,
Sanjay

Okay, what's all this talk about the kitty scratching at the SVS? I own one and my cat has never so much as even looked at it. Don't you know that the fabric has been treated with a scratch repellent for anyone who connects it to an Outlaw 950? SVS is even planning on a WAF chemical treatment for anyone who is using PLIIx. What a company!

Neither of my cats have bothered my SVS. The Maine Coon has been known to sit on top of it when it wasn't seeing much heavy use (which I guess speaks well for the strength of the port grille -- Hagrid's still got some growing to do, but he's already close to 15 pounds), but they don't seem interested in messing with the cloth cover. Also, I don't recall ever seeing Hagrid perched on top of the sub when it was really chugging...

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Just a quick question? Yamaha has a 8.1 reciever and I was wondering if they know something the rest of us don't?? Is 8.1 in the near future. I'm getting ready to upgrade from my 5.1 Yamaha and would like any input you might have??

Thanks
Lasher

Yahama has two new flagship receivers, the RX-Z1 and RX-Z9 . Both have the standard 6.1/7.1 formats to produce a surround back channel -- Dolby EX, DTS ES, Pro Logic II, and DTS:NEO6. The RX-Z1 is listed as an 8.1 receiver -- they appear to be providing a single rear center channel (similar to the rear center channel on the Outlaw 1050, although the 1050 uses a Zoran chipset rather than Dolby EX or DTS ES because neither were available for licensing at the time) rather than the two surround back speakers that have become more typical recently. The surround back speakers are generally mono, anyway (except for a few cases like Logic 7), but most people have reportedly preferred to use two surround back speakers when possible. In addition to that rear center (which gets them to 6.1, of course), they have retained an old Yamaha proprietary processing mode that creates two "front effect" channels. This has been around on some higher-end Yamaha receivers for years now, and is not indicative of an industry-wide development. The RX-Z9, by the way, is listed as being "9.1" -- it provides two surround back channels instead of the single rear center of the RX-Z1.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review