One other option even less expensive - looks like the new 970 also supports analog bass management. At least under the analog specification section it states "bass management". That pre might offer a solution.

The 990 does not have analog bass management on the 7.1 input; the 950, 1070, and 970 have an option for an 80Hz analog crossover on the 5.1 or 7.1 input. A stereo analog input can get bass management with any of the above units.

The 990 absolutely should be able to provide you with all the bass management you need for a passive sub (I'll paste in some notes about the 990's bass management below, borrowed from my 990 review). The way things changed when a center was added sounds like a quirk/bug that I would suggest giving Outlaw a call about. With the center on, can you turn the surrounds off? If so, what does the sub do?

990 Bass Management Options:

• Digital Bass Management: This covers most sources, including any digital input and any stereo analog input that is not set to "bypass." These sources are processed exactly as you would expect. Small speakers have their signals rounted through the high pass and low pass crossovers as defined in the "SPEAKER X-OVER" menu, with the low frequency data redirected to the subwoofer. In the event that the subwoofer is disabled, the mains must be set to "large" and will receive the LFE channel and any redirected bass. Additionally, tone control and speaker time delays are applied by the DSP along with any requested or required surround mode processing.
• Bypass Mode with analog input: The 990 retains the ability to provide a bypass of all digital processing for stereo analog inputs. In this mode, the 990 skips all digital processing and passes the left and right signals directly through volume control and on to the amps. In a bit of homage to the Model 950, perhaps, the analog bypass offers bass management that behaves similarly to the 950's. The full range analog signals are sent to the speakers without alteration, and if the mains are set to "small" a copy of the signals is converted to digital and processed through the bass management to produce a subwoofer signal. As with the 950, if the mains are set to "large" the sub is not used. Because the DSP section is bypassed, tone control and time delay are not applied in either case.
• Bypass Mode with digital input: The "bypass" option is available for both analog and digital inputs, which at first glance struck me as odd. When bypass is used with a digital input, only the digital bass management is applied (high and low pass crossovers, if the mains are set to "small"). Tone control is bypassed, as is (obviously) any surround mode processing.
• 7.1 Direct analog input: Three years ago, the Model 950 offered a unique feature in its multichannel analog bass management. It had a switch that would enable or disable an 80Hz high pass filter on all five full range channel; a permanent low pass filter in each channel routed low frequency data to the subwoofer. The Model 1070 receiver has been shown to possess a similar switch, although full details on how that switch will behave are not yet available. The Model 990 lacks such a switch, opting instead for a different approach. By default, it converts the data to digital and applies the full digital bass management settings. If all speakers are set to large, no bass management is applied and the signals are left in the analog domain all the way through the unit. Either way, the DSP section is bypassed (similar to the bypass mode for digital inputs), resulting in tone control and time delay not being applied.

Hi gonk,

With the center enabled I can turn the surrounds off, but the subwoofer changes from "yes" to L/R+Sub. I'm not sure if the other sub choices are also available, I'll check tonight.

Yes, bullet number two sounds like it should do what I want, I haven't thouroughly investigated what happens with the sub when setting the surround mode to bypass because I was under the impression there was no additional processing in that mode. I'll check it out.

What do you find out of the ordinary relative to the way things changed when I enabled the center channel?

Well, when you turned the center on your sub choices started behaving as they should - I was wondering if they would stay that way when the surrounds were turned off.

Cool -- Nice work on the review. So the only question is why doesn't it work that way now ?

Merlin said "Relative to the full-range signal coming from the sub, I spoke with Outlaw and was told this is by design because some people run full range ".

Wonder where the confusion comes from on this, as clearly you tried it and it worked fine. Now, it seems to be working differently. Maybe some seeming unrelated setting it causing an issue.

With this setup:

Front L/R: Small
Center: Small
Surr L/R: Small
Surr Back L/R: None
Subwoofer: Yes

I set the surround mode to Bypass and still got full-range out of the sub.

gonk,

I'm trying to determine if my system is acting different from yours.

When you have your setup as above, do you get any choices for Subwoofer other than "Yes"?

When you have either of the following setups:

Front L/R: Small
Center: None
Surr L/R: Small
Surr Back L/R: None
Subwoofer:

OR

Front L/R: Small
Center: Small
Surr L/R: None
Surr Back L/R: None
Subwoofer:

Can you change the subwoofer mode?

I'm assuming you use a powered sub with it's own internal xover. If so, is it possible to bypass the sub's internal xover, then try playing an analog 2ch source with the surround mode set to stereo.

Thanks!

My powered sub actually already has the internal crossover bypassed, and while I don't regularly listen to any analog sources I have used them on occasion without any full-range to the sub. On the other hand, I've got the 990 set up as a 7.1 system. I'm getting the same issue you are with subwoofer settings when either center or surrounds are off, but I didn't have a chance to try leaving it in that state and playing an analog source. I've got a green building meeting tonight after work, but I'll try to do a comparison between my current arrangement (7.1) and your setup with an analog source in stereo mode.

Gonk:

How about showing what a great Outlaw you really are and suggest a green power button for the "green" building.

Are you doing LEED stuff?

- Now there's an idea.

Yeah, there's a local LEED group getting put together and I'm the mechanical engineer in-house with the most LEED experience so I've been tapped to get LEED certified.