[Captain Humble]

I have a Denon 3802 and am trying to prove a point to a friend who installs systems for Ultimate Audio.

He is telling me that a CD played in DIRECT MODE is a processed signal and therefore the bass management system is active in this mode.

He says that a CD played in STEREO MODE is an unprocessed signal and therefore bass management is out of the loop when played in STEREO MODE.

I'm telling him he's got it backwords.  Unfortunately the manual doesn't address DIRECT MODE other than to say that tone control is only active in STEREO MODE which I offered him as proof that DIRECT MODE should be a straight unprocessed path from the CDP to the amp.

What say you guys?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Eric]

I don't own Denon but it sounds backwards to me. I know on my B&K processor it is. Do you have a sub that comes on when it receives a signal? If you do, try direct. If the sub does not come on, you know you are just feeding the signal directly to the amp unprocessed

[Captain Humble]

Eric,
I've got a ACI Titan II LE sub.  It doesn't come on automatically.

[Eric]

The other thing you can do is try it in direct and listen to the sub to see if there is any output

[mgalusha]

CH,

I have a Denon AVP-8000 pre/pro and direct mode is just what it sounds like - direct with no processing and no ouput to the sub. Stereo mode does route signals to the sub.

At least this is the case on my Denon. It's a fair bet that most of them behave in the same manner. Direct mode sounds much better for music IMO than stereo or any of the other processor modes.

Mike G.

[Rob Babcock]

Bass management is active w/direct mode.  The tone controls and DSP are bypassed, but the sub output is active.

[Captain Humble]

Thanks guys.

That's exactly how it sounds to me.