605 - MultiCh vs Direct

[Croweyes1121]

After reading through all of the discussions on this topic in the forums recently, I opted to go with MultiCh on my new Onkyo 605. The consensus seemed to be that setting up your Audessey through the Onkyo was the way to go, as it takes your room dimensions, listening distance, etc. into account. I used the Onkyo for a while with this setting and was, for the most part, satisfied. About a week ago, however, I began listening to some 5.1 SACD's and a vinyl LP through this mode and the resulting sound seemed, for lack of better terminology, "plugged up". I'd remembered playing back the same SACD's before on another receiver and being blown away. Out of curiosity, I switched the receiver over to "direct" mode and viola! There was the spaciousness and transparency I was missing with the Onkyo! I had truly confused the "tighter" sound of the MultiCh mode with a more satisfying soundfield when the reality was the opposite. To my ears, MultiCh sounded far too closed off and muffled, though there was a bit more "punch" to it in the low end. I compensated for this by adjusting my speaker settings just a bit and upping the volume on my subwoofer slightly. The sound I get out of this receiver now is nothing short of spectacular and it's what I wanted to begin with. I had one of my audiophile friends over for a before and after comparison on the SACD's, and we are both in complete agreement that direct sounds much more transparent and washes over the room instead of merely "filling" the room, as it did with Audessey employed. I have had the same experience with BD titles as well. For any of you who initially found direct mode to be too shallow-sounding, I assure you that all it takes is the slightest bit of tweaking to fix the issue. Anyway, I know all of this is totally subjective, but I just wanted to add my voice to the direct column. I'm far happier with this mode - even if I'm in the minority.