# "Pure" and "Direct" Modes on Receivers...



## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

What is the deal with these modes? Today, I played around with my Onkyo TX-8555 stereo receiver's Pure Audio and Direct modes while playing some CDs, and honestly, I couldn't hear any difference between them and normal Stereo, where the tone controls are active...

I understand that these modes bypass the bass and treble controls typically, and the Pure Audio even shuts off the receiver's display and video circuitry for supposed "cleaner" audio transfer and delivery, but honestly, I couldn't hear much, if any, difference between Stereo (where I leave my bass and treble at the midway default anyway) and Pure/Direct. With Pure and then Direct, the bass was still punchy and active, and there wasn't really any "cleaning up" of the signal that I could detect -- are these modes supposed to be readily audible in terms of sound differences or are they basically just bypassing the tone controls? 

I'm thinking I'll just stick with the normal Stereo mode output and leave the bass and treble at midway...

Any thoughts?


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

I guess it all depends on whether you believe there is any difference in the sound produced by using the shortest/cleanest audio path, and whether you can hear the difference. My answer would be yes to the former and no to the later.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

It's supposed to be a cleaner path, rather then going through all of the circuitry.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

I understand what the features are there for, fellas, and what they're "supposed" to do, but perhaps it's a bit different with my stereo receiver...on surround AVRs, these modes are supposed to shut down video circuirty and such so there's a "cleaner" path for music signals. When I tried switching the Pure Audio and Direct modes on and compared them to the plain Stereo mode of my Onkyo stereo receiver, I didn't hear much of a difference, if any at all. Supposedly, there's supposed to be a "hiss" taken out of the tone controls (bass/treble) when engaging Pure or Direct, but I just didn't hear it...

Furthermore, Pure Audio shuts off the display of the receiver as well, which I don't understand the science behind nor find anything appealing about...

Thoughts?


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

A quality receiver will have a SNR to should make hiss all but inaudible at reasonable listening levels. Turning off the display, in theory, reduces RFI that introduces audible noise.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

eugovector said:


> A quality receiver will have a SNR to should make hiss all but inaudible at reasonable listening levels. Turning off the display, in theory, reduces RFI that introduces audible noise.


Thank you, Marshall.

Should it be concluded then that in my particular case, running the receiver in normal "Stereo" mode (with bass and treble completely flat, as I leave it) should yield satisfactory results, or identical results, as running the Pure or Direct modes?


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

I'd say, "trust your ears".


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
Pure and Direct Modes are mostly offered to cater to SACD/DVD-A aficionados where having the Signal go through D/A Conversion defeats the purpose of the Format.

The biggest issues with these Modes is most people do not have Full Range or anywhere near Speakers. With these Modes not using the Subwoofer, many setups will really be lacking the lowest octaves. For the fortunate few that have Speakers that go close to 20 Hz, it does offer the ability to have a very untouched Signal.
Cheers,
JJ


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

eugovector said:


> I'd say, "trust your ears".


So it seems.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Jungle Jack said:


> Hello,
> Pure and Direct Modes are mostly offered to cater to SACD/DVD-A aficionados where having the Signal go through D/A Conversion defeats the purpose of the Format.
> 
> The biggest issues with these Modes is most people do not have Full Range or anywhere near Speakers. With these Modes not using the Subwoofer, many setups will really be lacking the lowest octaves. For the fortunate few that have Speakers that go close to 20 Hz, it does offer the ability to have a very untouched Signal.
> ...


Thanks Jack,

This is kind of making more sense to me; however, keep in mind that I am talking about a _stereo_ setup using my stereo receiver -- not a multichannel AVR. Using the stereo receiver, I don't hear much of a difference between just letting the signal from my CD changer run in normal Stereo mode and switching between Direct/Pure Audio.


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## eugovector (Sep 4, 2006)

Even with a multichannel (more than 2) AVR, Pure/Direct mode runs in Stereo only, or at least that has been my experience. My experience has also been that running my AVR in Stereo vs Direct hasn't had an effect to my ears, but I have not tried SACD/DVD-A.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

eugovector said:


> Even with a multichannel (more than 2) AVR, Pure/Direct mode runs in Stereo only, or at least that has been my experience. My experience has also been that running my AVR in Stereo vs Direct hasn't had an effect to my ears, but I have not tried SACD/DVD-A.


Marshall,

When selecting Pure/Direct on a surround AVR, the mode doesn't go into Stereo -- it merely sends a source signal out the way it was recorded, and the subwoofer isn't involved; in STEREO, a sub and tone controls are active.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I would suggest focusing comments on specific units rather than trying to generalize. Different products have different meanings for functions like pure/direct. Some simply bypass part of the circuit, some shut down circuits not in use, some only operate in stereo, etc. Rather than making a general statement correcting someone, it would be better, and in the spirit of posting cooperatively that we require here at Home Theater Shack, give an example of a product that differs from his experience and describe the details.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

Well my Elite has three of these modes. The first is Stream direct which bypasses all unnecessary signal processing in order to hear the truest signal possible. Second is Direct which allows sources to be heard according to the settings made in the surround setup. Last is Pure direct which lets anolog sources be heard without any digital processing at all and it also shuts off the second zone. I have tried them all and besides the surround effects of direct I really don't hear a difference. At least non that I noticed.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

In my Onkyo 805 Direct mode also turns off the sub output and runs the mains full range, Im not really sure I like that feature as even though my mains go down to 36Hz I like the extra depth the sub adds to music. I usually just listen to music in stereo mode.


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## jliedeka (May 27, 2008)

My Marantz receiver has two Direct modes. At least one shuts off the sub. For some music I don't really miss the sub but with anything bass heavy, my speakers can't keep up.

With my receiver, noise levels are below audibility so shutting off extra circuitry doesn't do anything useful for sound quality. I stopped using those modes and consider them a marketing feature rather than something genuinely useful.

Jim


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Osage_Winter said:


> Marshall,
> 
> When selecting Pure/Direct on a surround AVR, the mode doesn't go into Stereo -- it merely sends a source signal out the way it was recorded, and the subwoofer isn't involved; in STEREO, a sub and tone controls are active.


You seem very sure of yourself here, but Marshall is right in numerous cases. Though I would point out that my HK has direct modes for 5 channel, 4 channel and 2 channel. They are labeled as such. Pure Audio mode shuts in my experience shuts down the front display and normally only works in stereo in my experience. 

Let's avoid being general on something that varies from receiver to receiver so much. Onkyo and HK do it differently in my time of using those receivers.


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## laser188139 (Sep 19, 2009)

Osage_Winter said:


> ... however, keep in mind that I am talking about a _stereo_ setup using my stereo receiver -- not a multichannel AVR. Using the stereo receiver, I don't hear much of a difference between just letting the signal from my CD changer run in normal Stereo mode and switching between Direct/Pure Audio.


When I looked up the manual for the TX-SR8555 last night, it appears that Direct/Pure only disables the tone controls (and front panel display for Pure). Although the receiver has a sub pre-out, the setup mentions nothing about setting a crossover; my guess is it depends on the sub's filter to roll it in where the mains fall off. Even though it has digital steps when setting the level for each input source, that alone does not establish that it does digital processing. It may use analog signal processing for all its audio signals. 

So it does not surprise me that you cannot hear much of a difference.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

lcaillo said:


> I would suggest focusing comments on specific units rather than trying to generalize. Different products have different meanings for functions like pure/direct. Some simply bypass part of the circuit, some shut down circuits not in use, some only operate in stereo, etc. Rather than making a general statement correcting someone, it would be better, and in the spirit of posting cooperatively that we require here at Home Theater Shack, give an example of a product that differs from his experience and describe the details.


I did not intend to "correct" him via a generalized statement with my post; it truly was not my motive. I was attempting to point out the fact that by putting a receiver into one of these modes does not automatically, as far as I was aware, drop the system into a "stereo" format as the sub is not _normally_ utilized in these "pure" modes, et al. 

But apparently, some tweaking of my replies are in order, due to varying implementations of these circuits and my intentions when analyzing and referring to them, so I am addressing that now. 

I did not mean to post un-cooperatively. :bigsmile:


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

tcarcio said:


> Well my Elite has three of these modes. The first is Stream direct which bypasses all unnecessary signal processing in order to hear the truest signal possible. Second is Direct which allows sources to be heard according to the settings made in the surround setup. Last is Pure direct which lets anolog sources be heard without any digital processing at all and it also shuts off the second zone. I have tried them all and besides the surround effects of direct I really don't hear a difference. At least non that I noticed.


Thanks for the input. 

Neither of my Onkyos have these varying degrees of stereo bypass modes.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

tonyvdb said:


> In my Onkyo 805 Direct mode also turns off the sub output and runs the mains full range, Im not really sure I like that feature as even though my mains go down to 36Hz I like the extra depth the sub adds to music. I usually just listen to music in stereo mode.


Right, Tony; that's, from my experience at least, how most "Pure" or "Direct" modes work, in that they shut down the subwoofer and send the signal just through the mains, but to me, this is still "stereo" but without low bass frequencies, unless you have truly full range speakers that can handle the frequencies.

It's all a bit cloudy because we're discussing the way these circuits are implemented in different kinds of receivers, and I was initially referring to my two channel model; but I will address these differences in a new post in this thread soon, as well as reply to the gracious member that went out of his way to research my model's online manual to get some answers...


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

jliedeka said:


> My Marantz receiver has two Direct modes. At least one shuts off the sub. For some music I don't really miss the sub but with anything bass heavy, my speakers can't keep up.
> 
> With my receiver, noise levels are below audibility so shutting off extra circuitry doesn't do anything useful for sound quality. I stopped using those modes and consider them a marketing feature rather than something genuinely useful.
> 
> Jim


Hello, Jim, and thanks for your thoughts sir!

I think you summed up most of this with your statements here, notably the second one regarding these features being more marketing than actually useful.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

lsiberian said:


> You seem very sure of yourself here, but Marshall is right in numerous cases.


No, I was not in any, way, shape or form attempting to sound "sure of myself" with this comment; please don't misunderstand. I was trying to point out that in _most_ of the cases, a receiver's processor utilizes these modes to shut off video circuitry and bypass tone controls, but the signal is still being played back in some kind of "stereo"; on surround AVRs, a sub is turned off by entering Pure or Direct (again, on most implementations) but what we're discussing here was the way these systems are implemented in a two-channel unit, specifically my 8555, and I think that's the essence of the thread and where it needs to kind of get back to.

With that said, I am going to reply to the member who researched the online manual for my model and begin getting thoughts a bit back on track...


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

laser188139 said:


> When I looked up the manual for the TX-SR8555 last night, it appears that Direct/Pure only disables the tone controls (and front panel display for Pure). Although the receiver has a sub pre-out, the setup mentions nothing about setting a crossover; my guess is it depends on the sub's filter to roll it in where the mains fall off. Even though it has digital steps when setting the level for each input source, that alone does not establish that it does digital processing. It may use analog signal processing for all its audio signals.
> 
> So it does not surprise me that you cannot hear much of a difference.


Thank you so much laser, for taking the time to look this up -- much appreciated. 

I completely understand what you're saying about what Pure and Direct modes do on my 8555; the front panel does in fact go out for Pure Audio, as I have tested it. And you're right about the sub pre-out on this model -- although there is one for the unit, it does not have digitally controlled internal settings like a modern AVR surround model would have. While I'm not ready to add a sub to this system yet, I am still unclear as to why, though, you feel that you're not surprised that I cannot hear much of a difference...can you elaborate a bit?

Here's the essence of the thread, in a nutshell, really...with modern-day surround AVRs which are normally utilized with a powered sub (or two) for home theater duty, these "Pure" and "Direct" modes tend to shut off the subwoofer and some other processing (tone, etc.) to send the stereo signal from a stereo source (CD, tape, phono, etc.) directly to the stereo channels as is on the recording -- this means straight to the two main channels without subwoofer. However, there are other factors at play here -- when feeding a surround AVR a multichannel signal, from, say, a Blu-ray player, and choosing the "Direct" mode on the AVR, the signal is sent to the multichannel speaker array supposedly "as is" on the disc. The sound quality of doing this is debatable, as I have found personally when experimenting with these modes -- for example, when I used to send multichannel PCM tracks down my last Blu-ray player via HDMI to my Onkyo 605, I switched between "Multichannel" listening mode on the 605 and its "Direct" mode and there was a difference; the Multichannel seemed to get the bass management back into the mix and it sounded better.

Now, when we're talking about a _stereo_ setup, as I was, this is something different as I am not running a sub, but rather two full range bookshelves in stereo -- my TX-8555 stereo receiver does not sound any different when I switch between Stereo (normal/default) and Pure/Direct with my two bookshelves. Again, keep in mind that there is no sub to shut down when switching to Direct or Pure with my two channel setup, so I'm wondering what is going on when I use these modes...


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## laser188139 (Sep 19, 2009)

Osage_Winter said:


> ... you feel that you're not surprised that I cannot hear much of a difference...can you elaborate a bit? ...


Because it appears in your TX-8555 receiver the only difference is that Direct/Pure disables the tone controls, and I would not expect any difference between disabling the tone controls and leaving them in their middle/neutral position. Now, if you adjust the tone controls to turn the bass way up and the treble way down, and you switch between Stereo and Direct/Pure, you should indeed hear a difference. 

As you say, in a multichannel receiver where Direct/Pure might disable the bass management crossover from mains to sub, and might disable the Audyssey (or other) room equalization algorithm, the difference should be night and day. 

Bill


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Osage_Winter said:


> Marshall,
> 
> When selecting Pure/Direct on a surround AVR, the mode doesn't go into Stereo -- it merely sends a source signal out the way it was recorded, and the subwoofer isn't involved; in STEREO, a sub and tone controls are active.


Strange, on my pure/direct mode my sub out is selectable.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

My Onkyo has direct mode and pure mode. I understand pure to be stereo via the front stereo pair in full range mode, and all non necessary circuitry turned off (although video pass through at the very least seems to still operate). Direct mode takes an input signal and simply plays it via a predetermined set of speakers dependant on the mode in use, which can be set to stereo direct, all speaker direct etc, and this can convert incoming mono signals to multi speaker output signals for example. I think there is even a mode to send a mono inpt signal out via only the centre channel IIRC.

Thats how I understand the 2 modes to differ, but maybe its something I need to brush up on. In any case, I dont use the direct modes and rarely use the pure mode anymore.


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## hearingspecialist (Mar 15, 2010)

With my Yamaha and its "Direct" mode, what I hear is a sound that has had the calibrated parametric EQ bypassed. There is a significant difference between the two, not the SQ but more the thickness of the sound and resonance of a unprocessed or un-equalized sound. Switching between "Straight" and "Direct" provides an audible difference. My towers are run down to 40hz with the Yamaha YPAO calibration, the biggest freq's experienced seems to be more on the lower mid to upper mid range sounds while switching between above mentioned settings.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

laser188139 said:


> Because it appears in your TX-8555 receiver the only difference is that Direct/Pure disables the tone controls, and I would not expect any difference between disabling the tone controls and leaving them in their middle/neutral position. Now, if you adjust the tone controls to turn the bass way up and the treble way down, and you switch between Stereo and Direct/Pure, you should indeed hear a difference.


Gotcha -- and absolutely agreed and what I was thinking... 



> As you say, in a multichannel receiver where Direct/Pure might disable the bass management crossover from mains to sub, and might disable the Audyssey (or other) room equalization algorithm, the difference should be night and day.
> 
> Bill


Indeed...

Well, with stereo material, like a CD, perhaps not _night and day_, but definitely and audibly different...:T


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

bambino said:


> Strange, on my pure/direct mode my sub out is selectable.


That may indeed be a Denon implementation; not certain. Most don't work like that though, from what I have seen/understand.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Moonfly said:


> My Onkyo has direct mode and pure mode. I understand pure to be stereo via the front stereo pair in full range mode, and all non necessary circuitry turned off (although video pass through at the very least seems to still operate). Direct mode takes an input signal and simply plays it via a predetermined set of speakers dependant on the mode in use, which can be set to stereo direct, all speaker direct etc, and this can convert incoming mono signals to multi speaker output signals for example. I think there is even a mode to send a mono inpt signal out via only the centre channel IIRC.
> 
> Thats how I understand the 2 modes to differ, but maybe its something I need to brush up on. In any case, I dont use the direct modes and rarely use the pure mode anymore.


Moonfly,

Thanks for your input in the discussion -- what you say in your first paragraph indeed makes a great deal of sense. Pure does indeed involve sending the signal to the stereo pair in a full range orientation and also shuts off the display panel for possible elimination of possible interference. With DIRECT, the signal is sent to the channels that have been designated "implemented" on the source software -- i.e. a stereo CD comes out of the two stereo channels, a multichannel soundtrack is sent to their channels but with no bass management and such; it gets a bit complicated beyond this, as I don't think my particular surround amp allows for "all channel direct" and such as you mentioned, but this is more of it in a nutshell...

I do not use any "Direct" or "Pure" modes on my surround AVR/amp -- the 605 -- but I did experiment with these modes on my 8555 stereo amp, and I didn't hear much difference between them and the normal stereo mode with bass and treble at their midway positions, as I discussed with laser...


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

hearingspecialist said:


> With my Yamaha and its "Direct" mode, what I hear is a sound that has had the calibrated parametric EQ bypassed. There is a significant difference between the two, not the SQ but more the thickness of the sound and resonance of a unprocessed or un-equalized sound. Switching between "Straight" and "Direct" provides an audible difference. My towers are run down to 40hz with the Yamaha YPAO calibration, the biggest freq's experienced seems to be more on the lower mid to upper mid range sounds while switching between above mentioned settings.


Thank you.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Osage_Winter said:


> That may indeed be a Denon implementation; not certain. Most don't work like that though, from what I have seen/understand.


Indeed.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

My dealer also pointed out to me that it was strange that the sub was on during pure/direct mode, must be a Denon thing as i can have it on or off.:huh:


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

As we have been discussing, that is a unique implementation of the Pure/Direct algorithms...


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Osage_Winter said:


> As we have been discussing, that is a unique implementation of the Pure/Direct algorithms...


Indeed.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

I think one thing is clear, these modes dont have a set standard of implementation, and can vary considerably according to the desires of the manufacturers. I think the only way to properly know what they do on your particular device, is get busy with the manual, and ask if there is anything you cant understand.

I think I am going to get my manual out and take a look at the exact explanations on my amp from Onkyo to try clear this up a bit for myself on my particular amp.

<EDIT>

This is what my manual says about the 2 modes:

*Pure Audio*
In this mode, the display and video circuitry are turned
off, minimizing possible noise sources for the ultimate in
high-fidelity audio reproduction. (As the video circuitry
is turned off, only the HDMI OUT outputs video.)
Note:
• The Pure Audio listening mode cannot be selected
while Zone 2 is on.
*Direct*
In this mode, audio from the input source is output
directly with minimal processing, providing high-fidelity
reproduction. All of the source’s audio channels are
output as they are.

That probably clears it up nicely for me without over explain it :T, the other variations I speak of (and there are a ridiculous amount of these) have different names and are different the direct mode, with added processing, so not actually very direct :doh:. I think this makes it nice and simple for me, and it shows its worthwhile going over this stuff again every once in a while :clap:


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Moonfly said:


> I think one thing is clear, these modes dont have a set standard of implementation, and can vary considerably according to the desires of the manufacturers. I think the only way to properly know what they do on your particular device, is get busy with the manual, and ask if there is anything you cant understand.
> 
> I think I am going to get my manual out and take a look at the exact explanations on my amp from Onkyo to try clear this up a bit for myself on my particular amp.


Well said. As is typically the case, the answer to exactly what a given mode does depends on what the manufacturer decided to do. Making generalizations is very difficult when there are no standards for the terminology nor for the implementation of the technology. Reading the manual for a particular product is always a good first step.

As a servicer, we run into "problems" all the time where users simply do not know what to expect from their equipment. It is very common for us to have to start in the same place the user should, with the user manual. Some things are not well documented, but most manuals have lots of information that never gets looked at.


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## hearingspecialist (Mar 15, 2010)

anyone else really love this stuff??? I enjoy trying to figure out why my rec does what it does and how interesting the changes are. I love my rec and its claibration settings and how that affects the different modes as we have been discussing. I wish we had a Cal group where we can meet and talk shop, my wife sure gets tired of me talking about stuff she has zero idea what i'm saying. Seems like our outlet is via the net but sometimes its great to talk to others in person and share our passions for sound.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

bambino said:


> Indeed.


You, by any chance, wouldn't have spent some time amidst the forums of AVS...would you?


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

It certainly passes the time , I think I'd just go insane if I didnt have the like minded people to chat about the hobby with. I'd just be huddled in a corner gripping my sub and rocking, re-sighting specs :rofl:


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Osage_Winter said:


> You, by any chance, wouldn't have spent some time amidst the forums of AVS...would you?


Nope, lurked for a bit then decided to join here because the people have a freindly attitude and the rules are almost somthing to live by in our day to day lives. Why do you ask?:scratch:


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

Most receivers will allow the AV amp to pass the signal through it's shortest path and cut out any DAC's or DSP modes so that it is used as a preamp only, thus allowing the signal to be full bandwidth from the source, I use Analogue Direct on my processor so that the speakers play what the source is giving and in my case for 2 channel playback the CD8SE gives an incredible sound but the preamp also has to be of high quality to allow the purest signal to be passed through.

I have to say though when using receivers I did not find much benefit, this was when I was running MA speakers quite some time a go, and the standard Stereo on the receiver was good enough for playback but as you move up the chain in higher end equipment you will notice these pure and direct modes when switching from there DSP and DAC's to just preamp only.


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

bambino said:


> Nope, lurked for a bit then decided to join here because the people have a freindly attitude and the rules are almost somthing to live by in our day to day lives. Why do you ask?:scratch:


Nothing really -- it had something to do with your "indeed" replies, as that's how I like to reply too, and there was a "mocking" issue with some members over there with regard to this...

You're right though about Home Theater Shack and the tolerance rules -- over there, it's a free for all that ends up spiraling into personal insult shots between members; similar things happen at Audioholics...:sarcastic:


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

recruit said:


> Most receivers will allow the AV amp to pass the signal through it's shortest path and cut out any DAC's or DSP modes so that it is used as a preamp only, thus allowing the signal to be full bandwidth from the source, I use Analogue Direct on my processor so that the speakers play what the source is giving and in my case for 2 channel playback the CD8SE gives an incredible sound but the preamp also has to be of high quality to allow the purest signal to be passed through.
> 
> I have to say though when using receivers I did not find much benefit, this was when I was running MA speakers quite some time a go, and the standard Stereo on the receiver was good enough for playback but as you move up the chain in higher end equipment you will notice these pure and direct modes when switching from there DSP and DAC's to just preamp only.


Thank you, John, for your thoughts and input.

Indeed, it seems that the level of quality of components make a difference here as well. I just found it curious that I did not sense any audible difference between "normal" Stereo and these modes on my _stereo_ receiver; either of these modes allowed the same playback of the source material with the same amount of punch and visceral slam whether in Stereo, Pure or Direct. I suppose it's like I think 'laser who said the bottom line is that if bass and treble controls on a stereo system are at their midway default positions, there will be little difference between Stereo and Pure/Direct -- but on a home theater setup or a system that has been audibly adjusted with parametric EQs and such, switching to these modes will yield a significant difference.


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## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Osage_Winter said:


> I suppose it's like I think 'laser who said the bottom line is that if bass and treble controls on a stereo system are at their midway default positions, there will be little difference between Stereo and Pure/Direct -- but on a home theater setup or a system that has been audibly adjusted with parametric EQs and such, switching to these modes will yield a significant difference.


Just for reference. If you tweak your tone controls, you will notice a difference as already noted, but in my case I increase the bass tone a couple notches. This mean the pure direct mode actually sound inferior IMO to me in my particular case. So for me, hitting the pure button is detrimental and pretty much defeats the object of it. Going of what others have said about not being able to really tell a difference, well I think at the normal AVR level, the systems simply arent sensitive enough for us to be able to notice any interference from the other circuitry, and I personally find the pure mode is more placebo than anything.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Osage_Winter said:


> Nothing really
> 
> You're right though about Home Theater Shack and the tolerance rules -- over there, it's a free for all that ends up spiraling into personal insult shots between members; similar things happen at Audioholics...:sarcastic:


That's why we're here right? :sn:


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

Moonfly said:


> Just for reference. If you tweak your tone controls, you will notice a difference as already noted, but in my case I increase the bass tone a couple notches. This mean the pure direct mode actually sound inferior IMO to me in my particular case. So for me, hitting the pure button is detrimental and pretty much defeats the object of it. Going of what others have said about not being able to really tell a difference, well I think at the normal AVR level, the systems simply arent sensitive enough for us to be able to notice any interference from the other circuitry, and I personally find the pure mode is more placebo than anything.


I think this is it in a proverbial nutshell, Moonfly. Well stated. I neglected to mention in my last post in which you replied to it with this above statement that I understand increasing/decreasing bass and treble WILL yield a difference in sound between the stereo (adjusted with bass and treble) and the Pure/Direct. Also, interesting point that this would defeat the purpose of engaging a "Pure" or "Direct" mode, as it would override the set tone control preferences!


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## Osage_Winter (Apr 8, 2010)

bambino said:


> That's why we're here right? :sn:


"Indeed".......


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