set all speakers to large and subwoofer to yes in your pioneer and do all decoding, bass management (analog and digital) and level adjustments through the circuitry provided in the 950.

since cd is the least relevant of all the formats involved with these two items (the dv45a and the 950), you can try a set of analog rca cables (in addition to the digital connection) for the cd and switch back and forth to see which decoder you prefer.

sacd and dvd-a are decoded in the dv45a and sent out of the player in analog, so, no choice there, but bass management should be handled by the 950 or an icbm if you require more high pass options.

dd, dd-ex, dts, dts-es should be passed to the 950 to be processed and decoded.

any further options would require a better player, analog processing, one more amp/sub and...way more bucks.

the short answer to your question (paragraph 1) is...yes.

also, with this player and the 950, playing sacd and dvd-a with 5 full range speakers, a sub and equidistant spacing of all 6, with the 5 analog outputs of the dv45a into the 5 correspoding inputs of the 950 (analog bass management, off) and the sw output of the dv45a into a seperate preamp then the sub (to avoid double bass), that's as pure a signal path as your gonna get with these components...and it SOUNDS GOOD!

BTW: i just finished trying all of the available menu options with the dv45a playing all of the above formats through a 950 last week to come to the above conclusions. hope it helps.