In reply to:
Do you know if listening in STEREO mode on the 45TX (not DIRECT) applies any types of equalization changes to the music? I ask this because I notice a slightly different sound in DIRECT vs STEREO. And no, I did not have any of the tone controls or MCACC eq. turned on while we were listening in STEREO mode that night.
If you are using analog inputs from a CD player, Stereo mode is most likely still re-digitizing the signals and performing digital crossover work before converting back to analog. "Stereo" mode can still heed your speaker settings and hi-pass filter your mains while providing a low-passed signal to the sub.
Many amplifiers don't even have a direct mode: they are always digitizing your analog inputs, no matter what. Last I checked, ALL Yamaha receivers digitize all inputs. One generation back, all HK receivers did it: I emailed the company. Fortunately HK ended up giving a true bypass feature for the current generation.
Many people are unaware of the huge sonic penalty of an extra analog->digital->analog step. My Yamaha CD player has very good DACs, and I lose all the benefit if I were to to go Yamaha DAC -> Receiever ADC -> digital processing -> Receiver DAC. While I do have an optical output, I believe the Yamaha DACs are much better than the DACs on most receivers below $1500. This is a rough estimate of course.
-Cooper
