The soundfield remains pretty heavily oriented toward the center, but it has been opened up quite a bit. Many sounds come from the front right and left channels, and we also hear occasional activity from the rears. No one will mistake these tracks for recent efforts, but the effects work quite well. Even more pleasantly surprising is the good quality of the sound. Dialogue appears very clear and reasonably warm and natural, with absolutely no intelligibility problems.
Music seems a bit flat but generally nice, and effects come across quite well for the most part.
Although some distortion can interfere with effects, they're usually very clean and they even boast some good bass at times. While Volume 10 again closely replicates the qualities heard on the first eight DVDs, Volume 9 differs somewhat. Oh, it was still good for something remixed from decades-old mono tracks, but I found it to be a relative disappointment. The quality also seemed a little flatter and lacked as much life. Volume 10 rebounded from that malaise and provided sound on a par with the first eight DVDs.