I now have my AVR-X1800H set up for test with REW, if you have any specific thing that can be tested this way just let me know and I will do it. Unfortunately the X1800H does not offer the 2 channel stereo playback menu, so any features associated with that cannot be tested, by me. I really should have kept my AVR-X4400H, that I was sure I tested the way the stereo, direct, pure direct mode, and crossover settings and they all seem to work as expected, again, can't do some of those things with the X1800H (say for $400). If I can sell the X1800H I would just grab a X3800H for playing around.There are both 2-ch and multi-channel modes listed for both direct and pure direct. I would expect both 2-ch and surround to operated as defined.
UPDATE: I just noticed the manual indicates both analog and PCM input default to the same stereo sound mode. So they should be processed/not-processed identically? Now I really want to test this all myself!
X4800H 2ch playback menu