Do not use direct. Check your owner's manual, but for my Onkyo it completely bypasses your subwoofer. From the Onkyo Owner's Manual:
"Direct
This mode delivers pure sound with minimum sound quality adjustment and filtration. The sound recorded for the right and left front channels is output to the right and left front speakers only and not output to the subwoofer."
If you have some full range fronts, and don't use a sub, then by all means use direct, but those M22's are limited range, and you do have a sub so you are not getting the full frequency response out of your system.
