Interested to hear from anyone who’s compared analogue input with and without direct mode enabled, both for stereo and processor mode with a surround system.
I’m guessing without it enabled there may be a “delay” as it’ll take the route it would if it was going through Dirac which may cause issues / a delay relative to the rest of the system irrespective of if Dirac is enabled or not.
If that route does have a timing difference, it’ll maybe also cause similar issues in a multi-room setup?
Really interested to hear others opinions, but almost above that if you notice any difference in sound of one vs the other.
I am using Direct mode for most devices (vinyl through Gold Note Phono Pre, CD50 player through Digital Coaxial and external DAC and streamer through RCA) as I fell out of love with what Dirac was doing to the music.
Only place I’m not using it now is with Roon direct playback. I’m testing another streaming Dac tomorrow with a view to look at another purely analogue amplifier for the main system and moving the SA30 to the man cave system where I have a 50/50 listening split between the two rooms.
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Must admit I’m the same with Dirac, what it gained in some areas it lost in others so overall I preferred to turn it off.
I’ve also back to backed direct on / off recently, the soundstage is wider with it on which is nice in some ways but it generally sounds “thinner” and not as punchy.
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I’m glad it’s not just me in that case, even if it’s just a sample of two 
I purchased a Gustard Audylitic DR70 R2R streaming DAC just before Christmas and it’s been in and running a couple of days playing back Roon, UPNP and HQPlayer content (mainly what I use) and it sounds great into the SA30 with the direct audio setting engaged. It feels like the SA30 has a new lease of life. It’s making me think about sticking with the SA30 for longer. The wife will use the built-in streamer and DAC and I will mostly use the external streamer.
The DR70 is an amazing little device, especially for under £370 delivered direct from HK via Amazon. Currently running it with an iFi iPowerX 15V SMPS (that I had spare for use with the iFi Zen Stream) and it sounds even better.
I’m currently very happy with my setup 