About to order my 950/7100 and planning on picking up Denon 2900 while the outlaw’s are in route. This is my first step into separates, andmy current system is pretty simple/outdated (Yamaha Receiver/CD, Sony DVD player, etc.).

That said, in anticipation of my soon to arrive equipment I downloaded the manuals and have been attempting to figure out how to get everything setup. I was hoping that some of you could offer your thoughts on the following questions. Sorry of they are elementary or not clear, I did my best to figure out what I could before posting.

1. As I understand it the crossovers apply to all inputs except for the 5.1 analog or if you are operating in Stereo Bypass mode. My speakers have the following specs, next to which appears the crossover setting that I think I would want to use.

Main’s – 44hz – 22khz Set crossover to 60hz
Center – 75hz – 22khz Set crossover to 80hz
Surrounds (4) – 60hz - 22khz Set crossover to 60hz

I was also planning on setting all to small and turning the Bass Management on, as I have a sub. Obviously hearing it will be the test, but does that look right? The only way I would want to adjust would be up (without potential speaker damage) based on those specs correct?

2. When hooking the 2900 up I believe I will need to hook up both the Digital Coax and the analog 5.1 into the 950. I know the Digital Coax would be used for watching DVD’s and the 5.1 would be used for SACD or DVD-A listening. However, which would you use for CD listening? I think the answer might be either one, depending on which DAC you want to use (Digital coax = the 950 and 5.1 audio = the 2900). If so, are there advantages to using one or the other? If you use 5.1, do you lose any of the formats? Do both provide 2 channel stereo?

3. Stereo Bypass also has me a little confused. I think using this would be similar to the 5.1, but would not flow through the crossovers or the Bass management provided on the 5.1 inputs. I have seen posts where people seem to be using this to utilize the DAC in their CD player. Doesn’t this potentially expose your speakers to lower bass than they can handle? What would be the difference between this and using the 5.1 input from a DVD/CD player when listening to CD’s, just the bass management?

4. I read a few (rather long) posts about having to bump up the sub output 10db from a 2900 when setting up for DVD-A/SACD? I am really confused on that one. Would this apply to my situation? How would you configure for this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Benzo