Topic: Pro Logic II is pretty damn fun if you ask me.

[ActorJ]

Well, I have been slowley accumulating my home theatre components, thanks to a great contract that pays well, if slowly. Had the new TV a few weeks, and yesterday I went out and got my reciever and speakers. Today I have been playing with it, and having a blast, and as expected the DTS-ES 6.1 tracks, and Dolby Digtal EX tracks sound fantastic, but that's a given. What is even more fun is Pro-Logic II.

Today I decided to plug anything I could think of into my receiver and see what Pro Logic II could do for the sound. I tired everything from my NES to my Gameboy Advance. I am going to break it down system by system.

1.) GameCube. Of course this is going to sound great, since it was designed with PLII in mind. Zelda's sound was completely enveloping, very directional, and the bass was fantastic. Next to impossible to tell from a true 5.1 track.

2.) SNES. Oh my god. I had no idea what this system was hiding. When I played it with regularity years ago it was hooked up to a basic TV through RF, the sound was catchy, not too beepy, and many games had classic tunes, but I certainly never felt the desire to crank it up. Well, The first thing I noticed was the great varaition in sound quality game to game, somce games had almost monoural muffled sound (which if course is how ALL of them sounded through RF) but others had epansive stereo with very clear samples. Final Fantasy 3 and Chorno Trigger have somegreat songs with drum tracks, that put my subwoofer to work. It's like a whole new system. If you're reciever has Pro-Logic 2, defintley try this.

3.) NES. Call me crazy, but I tried it. Aside from the fact that the insturments consist only of beeps and bloops, this was really rather impressive as well. Great stereo effects I never knew existed, and who knew the NES had bass?

4.) PC. My computer has a really basic soundcard, so I used a cable with RCA jacks at one end, and a mini plug on the other to rig this up. Then I popped in Baldur's Gate II and had fun hearing crows all around me in the marketplace. I played some oldies like Leisure Suit Larry 7 and was very impressed by the quality of the music. Naturally I had to test my MP3 and while the pl2 music mode producded the same exansive soundfield as with CDS, all it really served to do was show how awful MP3s really sound. Mp3s are great for portable devices, and for playback over PC speakers, but my opinion is that on even a modest sound system like mind, their flaws become very apparent.

5.) GameBoy Advance. Took that same cable and put it in the headphone jack of my GBA, and tired a few games. Wow. Headphone sound pretty decent with many GBA games, and I figured I would get that same heapdhone sound through my speakers. Nope. It completely opens up the sound, brings out the bass, and make many game music totally unrecognizable as Gameboy games. Try Mario Kar Super Curcuit and just listen to the title screen. Or Wario Land 4 for the LFE effect when you jump into the portals.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I ask you: is Pro Logic II fun?

You reply: Pretty damn!

BANZAI!

[Flames_of_chaos]

Its fun unless your speakers blew out wich happen to me and there went alot of money.

[aoi tsuki]

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Great stereo effects I never knew existed, and who knew the NES had bass?

Unless you have an NES with stereo output, there's no stereo sound on NES. Pro Logic II won't change that. Also, for your MP3s, Google up Enhancer 0.17 (latest version). It should be on Winamp 2.x's plugins page. It makes those 128kbps MP3s sound more like 192kbps. Best DSP plugin i've heard, it's easy to use, and it's free.

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Its fun unless your speakers blew out wich happen to me and there went alot of money.

My uncle did this to mine playing Rogue Leader. They're not quite blown but there's a lot of static on highs and lows.  

[ActorJ]

your right about the nes, it is mono, my mistake. dont quite know what i was thinking. probably thinking if GB original was stere that nes was. comments abou bass stand though, it really makes a huge difference.

how on earth did you people manage to blow your speakers? you must have been dishing out some serious abuse. what kind of speakers and reciever do you have?  

[aoi tsuki]

i picked up an Onkyo HTIB with an HT-R500 receiver. The speakers are huge, and while they have generally good output, speakers are usually the weaker component in HTIBs. My uncle was playing Rogue Leader, and he forgot to turn the volume down when he got through. When i switched the receiver to another input so that i could listen to MP3s through my PC, it blasted music at defeaning volume. It's a problem with my tv; the sound output is much weaker than just about any other device i've hooked up to the receiver, and so i've had to adjust levels between devices. i've got all my levels pretty well set now, but i still occasionally turn my tv up.

In any case, it's a good excuse to get better speakers.

And if you haven't already, you *must* play Metroid Prime on your receiver. Once you hear it through your receiver, it'll be dead to you without it. Make sure to select "Dolby" in sound options.

[Shorty McNostril]

What's the difference between pro logic 1 and 2?  My system has pro logic one and games still sound brilliant on that.  

[honda_insightful]

I've had my computer/game console hooked up to my Stereo for the last 10 years!  Anyone who plays through a TV speaker is a brain-dead idiot IMHO.  SOUND is one of the most important pieces to truly enjoy any televsion show, movie, or game.

The NES doesn't sound all that great by itself, but if you use an emulator, you can turn on pseudo-stereo effects to enhance any game (it works best on Final Fantasy 3-Japan).

My favorite sound comes from the Commodore=64.  It has the best music quality of any 8-bit machine (because it uses a synthesizer chip).  I actually prefer that electronic sound of older computers/consoles (C=64/S-NES/N64/PS1) compared to the pre-recorded orchestral sound of the current-gen Cube/Box/PlayStation 2.

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Pro-Logic 1 vs. 2: There's not much difference.  PL2 provides two rear speakers instead of one.  No big deal.

[HANSOLO]

the only defference is that if u have just pro logic on your reciever then it will only produce 4.1 sound but if u have pro logic 2 it will produce a pure 5.1 sound..........dont forget u will get 6.1 with a HD cable because i have tried it and it works

[Bill Aurion]

Sound surround is definitely something worth investing in...I think I've finally bought all the stereo equipment that I can fit in my small room and I've been loving it...