Direct or Stereo

[BobSD]

Just setting up in my wife's room a 2.1 setup. Have not added the sub-woofer yet. just listening to the difference in Stereo and direct, I really do not hear a difference, is it my ears. should direct be more sharper?

 

[BostonMark]

No

Just setting up in my wife's room a 2.1 setup. Have not added the sub-woofer yet. just listening to the difference in Stereo and direct, I really do not hear a difference, is it my ears. should direct be more sharper?

If the recording is in stereo, then a direct signal would be in stereo! There would be no difference.

 

[deedubb]

Direct should bypass any type of processing and give you a purer sound. Most people probably can't tell the difference.

 

[Adam]

Bob, as deedubb said, direct just bypasses any processing (including any equalization or tone controls). So, if the receiver is set up without any extra equalization and has any tone controls set to zero, the direct mode will sound the same.

 

[Cruise Missile]

Once there is a sub you'd notice. Direct also disables any bass management.

 

[j_garcia]

Bass management would be the big difference as Crusie mentions. If using only a digital connection, there literally may be no difference aside from dropping bass management and processing - if using analog and the player has better DACs, then you might notice a difference. Direct presumes your processing is going on outside of the receiver.

 

[timetohunt]

While most of the responses provided to you were generally correct. There are plenty of exceptions depending on the equipment. There are scenarios where you could be in a type of direct depending on the manufacturer and still get subwoofer output. So what exactly is your gear?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

While most of the responses provided to you were generally correct. There are plenty of exceptions depending on the equipment. There are scenarios where you could be in a type of direct depending on the manufacturer and still get subwoofer output. So what exactly is your gear?

Yeah, I auditioned a flagship Outlaw Audio pre-pro once. Even in Direct mode, I was able to use bass management.

It's a well known fact that the more processing you use (DSP, Tones, EQs, Bass Management, etc.), the more Distortion & Crosstalk you get. However, like everyone says, the amount adverse effects are usually insignificant here.

I don't think I could tell the difference between Stereo vs. Direct vs. Pure Direct either as long as the Tones, EQs, and DSPs were turned off.

 

[Tod]

It may be the amount of "correction" the receiver thought it needed to do for my room, but there's an audible difference between direct and stereo with my Yamaha. Pretty much like they all said - depends on the settings. Mine does disable bass management though, so I normally just have a splitter going with the speaker line outs to the amp and sub and let the sub manage itself. Which seems to work fine.