I have been reading up on this Direct / Pure Direct sound mode for my Marantz NR 1609. Warning: What I am about to say may cause many of you to laugh, but .... Continuing.
I have my LG 4k Blu-Ray player and I popped in my Metallica CD this afternoon to just listen to some music. Set the AVR to Direct (and Pure Direct), and wow .. what I heard was complete and utter garbage. There was no Bass, No Treble, warbled Mids, and had to turn the volume up beyond 55 (which kicked in another gear of power consumption). I have SVS (Bookshelf) Ultras for my speakers - so I am pretty sure that if there was anything other than warbled mids, I would have heard it.
I know my Blu Ray player is not Reference, and I get that my system is designed for Movies. But wow, is there any thing I can set that will make it at least sound remotely close to "Stereo" sound mode? Or .. Do I just say screw it, put it on Multi Channel Stereo on move on with my day.
I am confident there is a setting, cause in my computer room, I have a stereo cable going to an amp that's hooked up to 2 speakers (pretty sure that is Direct), and that sounds magnitudes better.
Do you have a subwoofer? Most "pure direct" modes bypass it which would mean your speakers would be doing all the work. This would increase their power use a lot and the load on your receiver since bass is what needs the most juice.
Why not just set your unit to 2-channel or 2.1 (if you have a sub) and leave in the bass/treble adjustments as-is?
On some CD's that were mixed poorly, pure direct modes do sound like garbage.
I have a 1608 and while I've tried pure direct on it, I found the normal 2.1 setting to be a better choice for music. And quite honestly, I think that series of receiver sounds pretty decent for a 2-channel setup. Definitely much better than the Yamaha Aventage that I had in place before it.
Serious question, which Metallica CD. They intentionally mixed the bass track low on And Justice for All because they didn’t want their bass player to stand out for petty reasons.
My speaker setup: 5.1
Fronts: SVS Ultra Bookshelf
Sub: SVS PB1000 (previous model, but same same)
The CD was Metallica - Ride the Lightning (Just happened to be one closest to the DVD Player).
If I put the receiver (Marantz NR1609) into 2 Channel Stereo (or Multi Channel Stereo), it actually sounds decent. I am sure because of the processors kicking in and making "magic" happen.
If I put the receiver in Direct or Pure Direct ... absolute garbage. I am not even an audiophile.
I have no idea how to set the treble or bass on the receiver. But, I think at this point leaving it on Stereo is far superior to Direct.
I was just hoping maybe there was a setting that would allow Direct to not kill the treble, kill the bass, and scoop the mids.
Side Question: If I am watching a 7.1 movie, should it sound better in Pure Direct than say ... DTS-HD Master (Sound mode)
If it sounds better in Stereo mode why not just use stereo? Also I have no idea how surround content would react to Pure Direct, most of those modes are limited to stereo inputs on other manufacturers. If I had to guess I'd say you're experiencing a combo of speakers that routinely get to 4 ohms, a modest 50WPC amp and maybe some room interactions causing the problems. I'm not sure how you would expect a 50wpc stereo amp to be any different.
One last idea: You don't have any kind of sound "enhancement" turned on the blu-ray player, do you? Those settings for night listening or dialog enhancement will absolutely mangle music.
Good two channel stereo doesn't happen just because you slap a couple of speakers down in a room and press Pure Direct ... That is why so many receivers have room tuning software, to try to fix the room, since folks don't want to spend the time and effort to do it themselves.
While some rooms are definitely better than others, it still doesn't mean that decent sound can't be easily achieved from a good amp and good pair of speakers. I have a setup that has now been in 3 completely different rooms in my house (and even another house altogether) and in each one of them it sounded very good.
And I'll take my "room tuning software" in the guise of tone controls if we're referring to pure 2-channel.
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