I've resurrected this old thread because I recently added a Cambridge Audio DacMagic to my system and I've got a couple of questions I'm hoping someone can answer. FYI, I will eventually use the DacMagic in a separate stereo system but for now the optical output from an Apple Airport Extreme feeds the DacMagic and then is connected to my 990's auxilary analog input. The DacMagic upconverts so I use Bypass mode as suggested above. I get more bass with this mode.

Just checking, but is the increased bass when using Bypass due to the subwoofer receiving full range signals from both the Left and Right channels?

Is there a way to define/determine how much this bass increase is in dB?

I have "small" speakers so I have set my subwoofer's crossover at maximum as my 990 handles all the bass management. However, when using Bypass should the sub's crossover be set near the left and right speaker's -3dB point?

I want to do an A-B comparison between the DacMagic and the 990's DACs when using the Airport Express to determine if there will be any impacts on audio quaility when I move the DACMagic to my stereo setup. The DacMagic gets some positive buzz because it reclocks the digital signal (apparently the Airport Express messes this up) to remove jitter that can degrade the sound. This may all be audiophile mumbo jumbo (and the 990 may reclock too) so I'd like to do a listening test. The DacMagic has a pass-through digital output that should make this test easy to set up. I believe I'd set the 990's digital audio input to Upsample mode (matching the DacMagic) and leave the Aux analog input from the DacMagic in Bypass. Correct? Is there a way to get the bass output equal without resorting to adjusting the subwoofer gain each time I switch between inputs?

Thanks for the help!