I'm thinking of picking up a used 950, and I've read about its various bass management options. I'm not interested in "stereo bypass" mode at all, but after reading the manual it's not clear to me if there is a plain "stereo" mode that still does digital bass management. Is there such a mode?

There is such a mode. I used it routinely for CD listening when I had my 950. There are four "surround mode" buttons on the remote (just below the number pad), and the fourth is "STEREO" - it scrolls through true stereo (not bypass), 5 stereo, and 6/7 stereo if you have surround back channels.

Great! Thanks.

One more question: just so I'm not making wrong assumptions, if I set the front speakers to small and turn on "stereo" mode (not stereo bypass), bass management still sends the low frequencies to the sub, right?

That is exactly correct.

I have just bought a used 950 also. Is there a way to use stereo mode as just stereo, with no bass management? I believe (if I read the manual correctly) that by setting the speakers to large, there is no bass management, but then I would have to set them back to small to use bass management for movies. Is this true?

Chuck