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Your experiences with Source Direct?

brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,113
in Musicians and Gearheads
The other day, I noticed a little red light was showing on my Marantz PM 5005 tuner amp.  I went to see what it was and it was the Source Direct button engaged.  I had forgot about that feature for quite some time, probably opting in the past to keep it turned off in order to enable the treble and bass controls.  I was playing a very familiar record and decided to just leave the Source Direct on and listen through the whole side.  When the side completed I was thrilled to have felt like that was the best listening to that LP ever.  I don't believe I had ever listened to it with Source Direct engaged. I will certainly be experimenting with this option more in the future!

In case you're not familiar with this feature, here are a couple of definitions for Source Direct: 
"The audio signal is not passed through the sound quality adjustment circuits (Bass, Treble, Balance). This provides playback that is more faithful to the original sound, but disables sound quality adjustment."
"Source direct bypasses the extra circuitry used for EQ'ing and tone control. In theory it should give you the most "neutral" and unmolested sound. It's supposed to be most direct. So, if you want the most direct and neutral amplification possible, then use source direct."

Anyone else here had thoughts about using Source Direct?  I would be interesting to hear your take.


"A pessimist is simply an optimist in full possession of the facts."
-Edward Abbey















Comments

  • Cropduster-80Cropduster-80 Posts: 2,034
    Mine that I just got has a “pure direct” and it basically shuts off all the other circuits in the receiver. 

    Sounds good, problem is it won’t engage the sub. If it did, I would use it 
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,113
    Cropduster-80 said:
    Mine that I just got has a “pure direct” and it basically shuts off all the other circuits in the receiver. 

    Sounds good, problem is it won’t engage the sub. If it did, I would use it 

    Sounds like the same thing as "Source Direct".  I hadn't though about a sub woof.
    But then, the only one I've ever had was an old English bench lab that looked a lot like this.  She definitely had a sub woof :lol: :

    Obedient Labrador Retriever Sitting on Bench Outside Stock Photo - Image of camera rest 171727676
    "A pessimist is simply an optimist in full possession of the facts."
    -Edward Abbey















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