Hey, thanks a lot for clearing this up gonk, I'm assuming that with stereo sources everything behaves the same way minus the .1 track which would not be present. I'm actually quite happy things were designed this way, it made the most sense to me when I started thinking about it.

I wasn't intending to do external crossovers to replicate what the unit does inside, it just occured to me that it'd be the same thing. If anything I think having huge full range front mains would be great if space/placement wasn't a problem. Settings speakers to "small" and directing some of the bass destined for the other speakers almost seems like a hack, or at least not how DD was intended for theaters (even though it's a great option for HT setups)

If it's of any interest, I posted here awhile ago when I first got my 990 about the video transcode to component from s-video. Outlaw actually sent me another unit, I tried it and it really wans't much better but at least I had peace of mind that mine's not defective. It's not a big deal, I hooked up an extra cable to the tv for those few times I won't be using a component source.

On a happy note, I'm really happy with the audio performance of the unit, I've decided to use all digital inputs so all the bass management problems aren't of any consequence now. As you found (and I realized later that you actually wrote that 990 review I read), I like the upsample mode for stereo sources, not sure why it sounds so different but it does, maybe it's a bit brighter too but it sounds a lot more open and airy than just stereo or bypass. I don't have the best speakers hooked up to it, maybe I can convince my cousin to bring over his new Martin Logans to do some more critical listening.