Anyone? Mixes wide/summing?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Hey someone explain this to me. It's an old story & I'm sure it's a basic
digital audio concept that still confuses somewhat. I'm sure it's probably
operator error. I'm not putting the blame on PT - insert a DAW of your choice,
I'm just conducting my own "tests" with PT.

I open up a session, import about a 30 second 48/24k BCW Guitar Audio File pan
it to the left about half way, listen to it. I bounce to disk Interleaved
Stereo & also Split Mono. The files come back with a different peak gain level.
I understand the summing law thing sorta. Somebody explain to me why the
bounced file is NOT going to sound different than listening to the original
file in PT played in real time. Seems to me the difference in gain is going to
affect what you're hearing, including your perception of WIDTH?