Onkyo 606: To Direct or DTS

[onehothemi]

My main question is, according to Onkyo, setting the receiver to DIRECT is the best audio solution, when bitstreaming from say, a BDP-S350, directly to the amp for true audio reproduction. However I noticed settings under the listening modes as well, for DTS Master Audio, you can set it to DTS MA, or Direct, or a mirad of other selections. In your opinion what's the best setting?

Set to DTS MA or set to DIRECT?

After playing back and forth for a day or two, I have found this, keep in mind it's my own opinion and setup, but can someone else verify.

If you used Audyssey to setup your speakers, and or tweaked your speaker levels and settings, its seems as tho direct bypasses all these settings, going Direct ly to the speakers, almost eliminating low frequency and processing especially to the LFE channel, unless the movie has a heavily encoded .1 track, this has been causing me to have to crank up my sub, but also distorts audio to smaller surround speakers. and front speakers.

I want the most true reproduction of DTS HD MA and DOLBY TRUE HD. I think however the issue comes to how every movie, disk, and so on is different, so where's the middle road?

[supersix4]

mine(and I have a ps3) is set to dts-hd ma and everything is matched up to that but I use direct for the first setting ... I can't recall it off the top of my head sry.

[wdhays]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Direct is a 2.0 or maybe a 2.1 ONLY solution. -Meaning if you want your 5.1 or 7.1 audio downmixed to 2-channel, for some odd reason, then use Direct. It's really meant for 2-channel music, cutting off video processing, display lights, EQ settings, etc.

I set mine up a while ago, but I selected DTS MA for DTS Master Audio & DOLBY TRUE HD for DOLBY TRUE HD. Make it match in other words. Otherwise it will downmix.

[witheygull]

Originally Posted by wdhays

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Direct is a 2.0 or maybe a 2.1 ONLY solution. -Meaning if you want your 5.1 or 7.1 audio downmixed to 2-channel, for some odd reason, then use Direct. It's really meant for 2-channel music, cutting off video processing, display lights, EQ settings, etc.

The Direct setting on the 606 accommodates however many channels of sound a player is outputting, it doesn't downmix. It does bypass the Audyssey settings though.

[wdhays]

Originally Posted by witheygull

The Direct setting on the 606 accommodates however many channels of sound a player is outputting, it doesn't downmix. It does bypass the Audyssey settings though.

Interesting. So, to answer his question, he really has to decide for himself if he benefits more from the room correction or eliminating the unnecessary circuits in the receiver.

I guess that means that if he has all matched speakers & an acoustically treated room, then Direct would be better. Thoughts?

[saprano]

Pure audio does the samething. the surround channels and sub dont work as much, but the sound is silky smooth and clear.

[onehothemi]

Well, I spoke to a Onkyo rep today in Japan, who luckily spoke english and he explained everything in detail to me settings wise for about an hour on the phone, really REALLY NICE guy, die hard audio fan. I set everything to their perspective dts dolby true and so on via the menu, and he recomended to AVOID direct, unless you are using very high end speakers, individually powered or that contain their own crossover units. Direct works great if your speakers are all the same, their distances are all the same from the listening area, and can handle the bass reproduction as it completly shuts off the EQ, crossovers, and frequency control for each channel, for example other receivers have the speaker setting, small or large, speaker distance, db reduction or tune, and so on, the 606 has the ability to set the crossovers for each and every channel. If you use direct it will output the full frequency directly to each speaker for true 7.1 just like using DTS ma setting, sound however is massive, and the speakers will be pushed to their limits if you crank it up. He also said setting the unit to the DTS HD MA setting in the listening mode menu does not decrease the audio quality or change the processing, it just applies the settings, made thru Audyssey, and or manually in my case applying speaker distance, -db reductions for channels, treb and bass, and it sounds MUCH better! hope this helps

[DonRSD]

Originally Posted by onehothemi

Well, I spoke to a Onkyo rep today in Japan, who luckily spoke english and he explained everything in detail to me settings wise for about an hour on the phone, really REALLY NICE guy, die hard audio fan. I set everything to their perspective dts dolby true and so on via the menu, and he recomended to AVOID direct, unless you are using very high end speakers, individually powered or that contain their own crossover units. Direct works great if your speakers are all the same, their distances are all the same from the listening area, and can handle the bass reproduction as it completly shuts off the EQ, crossovers, and frequency control for each channel, for example other receivers have the speaker setting, small or large, speaker distance, db reduction or tune, and so on, the 606 has the ability to set the crossovers for each and every channel. If you use direct it will output the full frequency directly to each speaker for true 7.1 just like using DTS ma setting, sound however is massive, and the speakers will be pushed to their limits if you crank it up. He also said setting the unit to the DTS HD MA setting in the listening mode menu does not decrease the audio quality or change the processing, it just applies the settings, made thru Audyssey, and or manually in my case applying speaker distance, -db reductions for channels, treb and bass, and it sounds MUCH better! hope this helps

good post & info