I used to be a big fan of Yamaha's front effects channel DSP modes (once echo is properly tamed by shrinking the room size setting), but lately I've found it ruins the surround mix. It always messed up rear dialogue (ex: "Strange Days"), but on recent releases it's affected any type of non-traditional dialogue (ex: narration on "Adaptation") and sound field cohesiveness (ex: "Star Wars Ep. 2").

Since I know the DSP hasn't changed, either my tastes have evolved, or the film mixes themselves have changed. I strongly suspect that film mixes have actually gotten more sophisticated over time, with better mixing equipment and better human understanding of multi-channel.

I should be testing a THX Ultra 2 receiver soon; it will be interesting to see how that post-processing affects things and whether that is preferred over straight DD-EX.

-avi

P.S. Yes, Jeff, we need to get together; I've been traveling.