No Subwoofer Output in Direct Mode - SPDIF to UMC-200

[Wartybliggens]

Short version: UMC-200 "direct" mode taking signal from optical cable does not employ bass management as I thought it's supposed to (neither does stereo mode or "all-stereo"). How do I set this up for the bass to cross over to the subwoofer but otherwise not do audio processing?

Longer:
Besides the surround setup I usually use (Oppo BDP-95 player passing through my UMC-200 as preamp to the XPA-5 amp and a subwoofer), I have my computer hooked up to the UMC-200 via an optical cable (also HDMI to the screen). I use this for streaming music, and ClassicsOnline HD lets me choose the SPDIF optical out. I had this configured badly in the beginning: the sound card (Creative X-Fi) was doing processing itself (stereo to surround), then the UMC-200 was doing processing as well and it came out mud. Once I figured that out, and sent only the pure stereo signal through the sound card and changed the UMC-200 to "Direct" mode, it sounded good, but the subwoofer is never used. I would like it to cross over to the subwoofer but not otherwise use processing. It seems that this should be possible. What am I doing wrong?

I'm also curious what's really happening in the above scenario, in which the ClassicsOnline HD application uses clunky software from Orastream to stream the files. Is the original digital content making it to the DAC in the UMC-200 (however 'variable' the bitrate), or is it being converted then un-converted somewhere in the middle, and perhaps losing quality? I ask out of curiosity, since if I really love something I will end up buying it anyway, especially when it comes to surround titles.

[Gary Cook]

The UMC-200 only processes in the digital domain, it has no analogue bass management capability.


Cheers
Gary

[bolle]

Apr 6, 2016 1:47:14 GMT -5 Gary Cook said:

The UMC-200 only processes in the digital domain, it has no analogue bass management capability.


Cheers
Gary

But this doesn´t matter here, since the OP is using digital Signals all the time.

Wartybliggens: I use a quite similar Setup without Problems: HTPC connected via HDMI to an UMC-200 for movies and also Music. You have to use "Stereo" or "All Channel Stereo". With "Direct" the Signal is directly sent to the amps by the UMC, so 2-channel Signal in sends the Signal to FL and FR only. With "Stereo" or "All Channel Stereo" the configured crossover frequency is used and therefore also the Subwoofer. Also the delays set for the Speakers are used and any EQ, if configured in the UMC. But you don´t get any surround processing, just 2.0 to 2.1, which should be what you are looking for.

[Wartybliggens]

Apr 6, 2016 3:38:31 GMT -5 bolle said:

Wartybliggens: I use a quite similar Setup without Problems: HTPC connected via HDMI to an UMC-200 for movies and also Music. You have to use "Stereo" or "All Channel Stereo". With "Direct" the Signal is directly sent to the amps by the UMC, so 2-channel Signal in sends the Signal to FL and FR only. With "Stereo" or "All Channel Stereo" the configured crossover frequency is used and therefore also the Subwoofer. Also the delays set for the Speakers are used and any EQ, if configured in the UMC. But you don´t get any surround processing, just 2.0 to 2.1, which should be what you are looking for.

Thank you bolle.
You are correct! Since for me it didn't work in Direct, Stereo or All Stereo, I looked at my speaker settings again and realized that the Front L/R speakers were set to "Large" - I thought they had been set to small all this time. Dammit! Well, problem solved. And it's true that in Direct there is no bass management. What's strange is that I saw an Emotiva person in another thread say that even with Direct, bass management is still used. Guess not. Now I'm using "Stereo" and it works great.

The reasons I never noticed my front speakers were set to "large" are:

• Normally for discs I let my Oppo do all the processing and use the UMC-200 as a preamp only.
• When the ROKU is the source, there is processing, so the bass management kicked in.

Thanks again.