A few words on explosive sound … having lived in the Middle East on the fringes of, and occasionally right in the fabric of, short battles, I have: had a mortar round hit the ground exploding about 50 feet away while I and my family were in the car; driven through a mile wide valley on a dirt road at night suddenly to find myself very near six to twelve mobile artillery (they are similar to “tanks,” but have less armor and larger guns) arrayed in the field near the road as they began a steady outgoing barrage (in the midst of the ‘flash and thunder’ all around, I didn’t stop to count how many pieces of artillery were firing); spent time in a bomb shelter several meters underground listening to the low rumbling of explosions coming through the ground; seen and heard what appears to be a thunderstorm a few miles away on a cloudy night, but was actually an artillery duel; plus other occurrences that would take many words to describe. I’m certain some who have served in the military have even greater experience with this.

In any case, I feel that the SW2-AOTC sound was less authentic, but better at conveying the intensity of a nearby explosion. To make it more real, the experience would have had to stun the audience and at least temporarily leave them with ringing ears and partial hearing loss. As in the theory of gunshot sounds in some films (if you need to see a pistol firing, use a rifle sound; if you need to see a rifle fire, use a shotgun sound; etc.), the SW sound seemed to be built of several layered sounds that do not occur together naturally, but do give a desired impression.

The LOTR-TT explosion was very close to the feeling/sound of a distant explosion. For LOTR-TT, I heard and felt the sudden rumble of an explosion at a distance, but without the higher intensity concussive sound that would ‘slap’ you and make your ears bleed had you been ‘closer’ to the explosion. IMO, this was closer to explosion-at-moderate-distance authentic.

As often happens, sounds that attempt to be ‘actual’ do not make as much of a theatrical impression as those that are enhanced for greater audience impact.

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Regarding Dolby vs. DTS, on the very limited number of DVD’s I have heard that have both, the DTS gave me a better impression in some cases, while in other cases the two seemed roughly equivalent, which leaves me with a mild preference for the DTS. I would like to see more releases with DTS available, just so that a comparison can be made and the track that you favor can be used.