I'm not sure how many purists are out there in Outlaw Land who still enjoy pure, unadultrated 2-channel stereo.

After living with the 970 a few months, I can tell you that there is a noticeable difference in soundstaging between bypass and stereo modes. I guess this is a testament to the how little the signal path is manipulated in bypass mode. My thanks to Outlaw for this option.

Converesly, it appears that in stereo mode the digital bass management circuitry has a noticeable impact on imaging. In particular, soundstage depth is reduced and proper centering of vocals is altered. This has become much more
noticeable since I upgraded from my aging Snell Type C floor standing speakers to a pair of Quad 11L monitors.

For example, a recent experiment with a CD of female vocals (Sade, Love Deluxe) showed that while in bypass mode, a pinpoint image of Sade's voice was rendered perfectly between the two speakers. Close your eyes, and you could picture her singing right there.

However, when switching to stereo (not 5-channel mind you), the perceived size of her head widened substantially and the vocal image was no longer well anchored to the center-point between the front speakers. Even my wife, no audiophile, could clearly tell the difference and prefers listening to CDs and LPs in bypass mode.

For most music, running in bypass mode gives me what I'm looking for -- good two-channel performance from my 970. But for those times I want a little more ommph in the bass, I wish I did not have to trade off good soundstaging when I engage the subwoofer.

I have experiemented with various crossover settings to see if this will have an impact. While these experiments did show at what frequency the subwoofer and monitors blend the most seamlessly, they had no impact on soundstage/imaging performance.

Is this an area where firmware upgrades could offer some improvements?