Will,

When I use the 5 stereo mode without the sub, it still sounds the same from those towers. As an experiment I asked my friend to bring in the rotel 1066. I tried my carver preamp, onkyo 575 and the rotel. All three can produce the fullness that the 950 is missing. Even the measly 75W channel onkyo. I haven't tried listening to movies without the sub, I will try that tonight.

I agree with HT, opting to use a sub when the towers are more than capable of producing the sound is pointing to a different problem. I also don't understand how the reviewers can rave about the musicality with this type of sound. This too leads me to believe that there must be some kind of defect.