"Frankly, I don't know how anyone should design AV preamps for DVD-A/SACD. As I understand it, there isn't any standard for how the recording engineer routs bass in the recording."
I hear this quite often and don't necessarily agree. Sony has said that MC SACD was designed to allow the artist (or producer, or somebody...)to make a recording using 2, 3, 4, or 5 channels (including a .1 if inclined) depending on how they want to use to get the result (sound) they are looking for. Artistic freedom of choice. (You can find SACD's in most all of these configurations). Speaking for SACD recordings, I believe Bass isn't supposed to be routed anywhere in the recording- it's where it is in any particular channel and is of course dependant on what instrument or sound is coming from that particular speaker- as the producer wanted. All speakers are supposed to be configured as large, so Bass management wasn't/isn't supposed to be a problem. However, until we get the signal passed from the player to the processor in the digital domain, it will be somewhat of a problem--- in theory. I could set all my speakers as large, but choose to set them as small and use the 950's MC analog bass management and pass all freq's below 80 to my subs. In practice, it works very well. Sounds just fine. I can't localize frequencies below 80 Hz anyway.
"I think the Outlaw analog management solution is only optimal if you have a X.1 speaker system based on an 80hz crossover."

Optimal, it isn't, nor do I believe that it was ever intended to be. (The Outlaws have said they never planned it to be an ICBM.) Adding something similar would have really raised the unit price. If you had to pick a single crossover point, 80 Hz is a good place to set it [see THX]. My Sony player uses 120Hz as the crossover point- I like 80 better, so I use the 950 for BM. You're right, the ICBM is optimal. But the 950's multichannel bass management is way better than nothing, which is what most pre/pros give you. Thanks for the rant! Best wishes...


[This message has been edited by steves (edited December 18, 2002).]