Bass Mgmt. with 950 & Pio FD51 Blu Ray

I currently do not own a 950..although years ago I did and I cannot recall if the 950 will support my need here.

I have the Pioneer FD51 Blu Ray player and I am using the analog outs for audio.

The analog's come into my Denon 1907 receiver. I am only using the Denon as a volume control and I cannot seem to engage the Bass Mgmt. on the Denon via analog. Does this make sense that I wouldn't be able to ?

I have speakers set to LARGE on the Pioneer so I know that the full range is making it to the Denon. Once the signal leaves the Denon it hits my Amp.

I am wondering if I can leverage the 950's Bass Mgmt. via analog such that I can set x-over's? Do you set the speakers to SMALL on the 950 and then set x-over's to your liking?

It is typical for receivers' and processors' multichannel analog inputs to act as an analog bypass - which in turn means that the bass management (which is done in the digital domain) does absolutely nothing for that input. In other words, it makes sense that your Denon 1907 isn't giving your FD51 any bass management via multichannel analog.

This issue is exactly why the Model 950 (and the Model 1070/970 as well) has a toggle switch on the rear panel. The toggle controls an 80Hz analog bass management system specifically for the multichannel analog input. There's no ability to control crossover points or manage which speakers are large or small (they're either all large or all small, and the small crossover is 80Hz).

The Model 1070/970 does offer the option of converting the multichannel analog input to digital so the processor's standard digital bass management gets applied. The Model 990 also does this, as the 7.1 analog input is converted to digital and piped through the bass management unless all speakers are set to "large" in the 990's setup menu.

If you wanted to be able to control crossover points on a channel-set basis (fronts, center, surrounds) while remaining in the analog domain, you would need Outlaw's old ICBM-1.

Makes total sense. Thank you Gonk for the explanation here. Very helpful.

Anyone selling an ICBM out there?

They're elusive, I'm afraid. I'd watch audiogon to see what pops up.