Rachpoil

Thanks Islander for your information. Yes, i probably will have better sound using DTS and DD when listening to movies that support these than Pure Direct. But as far as music is concerned i find that Pure Direct offered considerably better sound than Straight. Fortunately the subwoofer is working and sounds ok when using Pure Direct. Even my games had better sound and all surround speakers were working individually. I only needed to set the Windows 10 speakers to 2.1 when listening to music and 5.1 when playing games. But strangely that useless SB ZXR would not have the subwoofer work even using analogue multichannel. When using HDMI i noticed that the only time the subwoofer would not work was when i used any WASAPI in foobar 2000. An advantage of using a dedicated HDMI cable for the sound is that i no longer need to open the AVR to have video. An other big plus is that i now have sound in Linux Ubuntu. Since 2012, Creative never made their useless SB ZXR work in Linux. Think i will sell that ZXR this weekend and put that money toward replacing the remaining z906 speakers.

Man! Thank you so-much I_G for pointing me to that Pure Direct option the AVR... it worked wonders!!! The best description i can give is that instruments, bases and singer are no longer competing against each other... they are all in harmony!!! I used Direct Sound in foobar 2000 from the video card HDMI port to the receiver and it gave the best results. Also disabled all Windows "sound protection" and "sound enhancement" from Windows 10 and "I think" it made a positive difference. And also that z906 subwoofer concoction play very well with your 80hz recommendation on the AVR. Only problem is that i can now tell witch MP3 were done at low quality... Man I_G if i could buy you a couple of rounds i would haply do sow! And sell that useless $200 SB ZXR to offer you a good snack!!!

Yes, it's a 2008 model. But last year i did the same thing to my friends brand new LG TV and again it made a good difference. We both have Nvidia cards so don't know if it's a Nvidia thing.

Well, i will sleep less silly tonight : ) All that time i thought optical was as good if not better than HDMI audio. Thanks for explaining the difference so well. The problem may be on the TV/monitor then. I use a Samsung TV as a PC monitor and remember i needed to set the HDMI input on the TV as PC (it was DVD before). That option made a huge difference for screen clarity when using the TV HDMI port for the PC but it may not play well somehow when the AVR is in Pure Direct mode. Will try to set the TV HDMI back to DVD when listening to music. If i can't fix the AVR/TV video issue i will connect the PC directly to the TV (AVR to TV is only useful for the AVR onscreen setup menu) and use an other HDMI cable from the video card dedicated for audio; oh and use that for onscreen set-up while at it. But i always try to avoid using redundant cables if i can help it. Thanks again for all your help, really appreciated!

Was very curious about that option so went and looked for that on my break. From what i read (not the official Yamaha site) it appear that Pure Direct intentionally shut down the AVR panel and most if not all sound processing circuits to eliminate as much electrical interference as possible. That mode seem to work only with HDMI and analogue (not optical) inputs. I don't think it also want's to shut down HDMI video output. That issue is maybe due to using DVI to HDMI from the PC. i also was using optical when it tried it. Got me even more curious! Will try standard HDMI to HDMI when i get back home.

Thank you so much Innocent_George for your recommendations and giving me a direction to start with. This will be very help-full! Really got lost last night with all the available settings from all the components. Never really played with the crossover and the "Pure Direct" mode, thanks for mentioning them. When i tried pure direct it shut-down the AVR panel, sound and video output to the monitor but i will definitely look at what is needed to have that working. That mode is making me very curious the way you describe it.

Humm. This thread is pretty quiet. Is it because my questions makes no sense at all? In short what i like to find out are the "recommended" settings (if any) as a point of reference so that all the components work, as much as possible, in harmony and then from there make small adjustments. And yes, what i intend to do next (unless 4 ohms speakers is a big no-no on a 6 ohms AVR) is get a real sub-woofer. That Yamaha AVR and z906 subwoofer concoction is far from ideal but surprisingly works well enough for now.

Sorry if all this will sound confusing and if its a big post... will try my best to explain all this without giving a headache. I'm new to better quality music listening so hope all this is not difficult to answer. I'm slowly moving from a Logitech Z-906 system to a more conventional one. Here is my current 5.1 setup: - Yamaha HTR-6160 - Klipsch R-14M main front left/rigth - Z906 subwoofer (6 ohms, at 52 Hz, at 10% THD) connected on the A/V subwoofer pre-out going to the Z906 sub's stereo RCA input - Z906 Rear left/rigth and centre (each: 67 watts, 4 ohms at 3.85kHz, at 10% THD) Yamaha A/V is connected to a Win10 PC using a Sound Blaster ZXR (optical + analog multi channels) and a Nvidia video card (DVI/HDMI). I'm trying to get the best settings for listing to 2.1 stereo music. I also play games but i'm more concerned about music quality. Anyone know the best setting i could use one the A/V receiver, Windows 10 and Sound Blaster software? I tried so-many different setting that i don't know anymore myself what sounds better lol think i also need a reset. Here are my main questions for music quality. - A/V receiver: It can support 6 ohms speakers but the Z906 rear L/R and centre speakers are 4 ohms. Can this damage something? Heard mixed stories on that. - Windows 10: What is best 16-bit bit depth or 24-bit? And sampling rate 48kHz, 96kHz or 192 kHz. Most of my CDs have been ripped to MP3s at 320kbps but also have others mostly at around 192kbps. - A/V and Windows: Should the R-14M be set as small or large speakers? And z906 satellites to small? - Windows: What usually sound best WASAPI push, WASAPI event or Direct Sound (using foobar 2000) - SB ZXR: In general, is it better to use SPDIF, Optical/Speakers or Analogue/Speakers - A/V receiver: When using DTS or DD the music sound canned. Can this be fixed or is it better to use PCM/Straight - If i missed other important settings that should be set please let me know Thank you very much for any help!