[GeorgeHudetz]

Greetings - first post here.

I purchased an AVP-16 used off Audiogon with the intent of setting up a dedicated surround music room.  Well, the dimensions of the room are a bit small for that (9x13) so I'm just doing 2 channel for now.  So far I'm pretty happy, but I have a question about bass management.

I'm feeding the AVP-16 with analog signals from a CD player via the CD input.  Actually it is a NAD T-585 universal player, but I'm only using it as a 2 channel device, and not using any of it's bass management features. 

However, I do want to use a sub with my monitors, and I have discovered that I can set the mains to small in the AVP-16 if I first set the active input to something other than CD-ANG.  So, for example, set the input the DVD-COA, run through the menus to set the mains to small, then change the input back to CD-ANG and presto, I get a signal to my subwoofer (using the sub-out of the 7.1 channel output section) even though I'm using the CD-ANG inputs.

So far, so good.  But it seems I have two choices for the mains - the L & R outputs of the 7.1 section, or the Main out.  Is there a difference between these outputs from a bass-management standpoint?  If I'm not mistaken, the main out is supposed to be the more pure signal path, and some basic listening tests indicate that the main outs are not bass managed, while the L&R 7.1 outs are bass-managed.  Is this correct?  Just looking for validation of my observation.

Thanks,

George

[sac8d4]

Per the manual... For non LFE encoded source such as analog signal, or CD (S/PDIF), the subwoofer generates its signal based on the current crossover
frequency; left and right channels remain full-range.

I have never tried hooking analog through the main out, but only 7.1 out and i would asuume it of being a more direct path, as you noted...

Have you considered using the NAD as a transport (by means of digital coax), the nuforce DAC might sound better and you gain the function of turning off the video circuit?

[GeorgeHudetz]

Thanks for the reply.  I'll double check the manual - should have done that to begin with.

I've experimented with a coax connection to the NuForce, but have defaulted to analog for two reasons:

1. To my ear, the NAD is a little smoother at converting hi-res DVD-A signals than the AVP-16, and
2. I also listen to SACD, which cannot be sent digitally via SPDIF.

Note that for normal redbook conversion, I find the differences between the NAD & NuForce, from a conversion standpoint, to be minimal.  I could go either way.  But hi-res stuff just seems to play back better over my Onix Ref1 monitors (which are very detailed) when converted in the NAD - it just sounds a little smoother.  The T-585 is NAD's top of the line universal player, so it should have good playback.