I recently added a sub to my system and I must say this behaviour is really unfortunate. These processors really need the ability to enable the sub for all audio when front speakers are set to large, and ideally provide the ability to control the sub crossover independent of the front speakers, and adjustable slope selection of 12 or 24dB/oct.

As it is there is little control over the integration of front speaker and sub beyond level and distance, which is rather poor for in-room integration. Many people want to use their large front speaker full-range, supplemented with a subwoofer, and that option just isn't available with the 976, you’re forced to high pass the front speakers to use subwoofer.

The only option available to use the sub with the front speakers set to large is to run the sub off of the left/right outputs, and use the sub woofers internal crossover, which defeats the purpose of having sub outputs on the processor at all.