Denon DVD 2900 I got, but no bass.

To simplify as long as you have full range speakers and the ability to alter levels of source ie TV CD DVD which distribute levels that are levely based different from each other, You will be fine. If you have full range speakers, the bass management issue is really not an issue, and is overblown.

I have a question in this regard, since I know nothing about the MC HT arena. I'm interested in getting a hi-rez universal player for my stereo set up (CJ-11a, Melos 222 pre, ProAc 1sc's which have a limited bass repro, tho satisfying for my small room situation). Does the bass management concerns I'm reading about affect my situation? I assume I will only be using the analog stereo output of the 2900 to my pre, will my bass reproduction be degraded? Or is this strictly a Multichannel issue? Thanks.

My pre can compensate for it, so Im sure it would work well in my set up. However down the line if the upgrade bug strikes, I think this issue may hurt its re sale value here on Audiogon.

Yepp there is an issue on this baby.
The SUB out is indeed -15db.
So you pre must be able to compensate for it.

A,.

My "el-cheapo" Pioneer DV45-A bass management works just fine on all kinds of discs.

I had the same "where's the bass" issue on DVD-A material with my Denon 3800. What I did was raise my 3800 channel calibration main/center/rear speaker levels to +7/+8, and left the sub level at "0". Then on my processor I had to raise the sub level to +8. Only at this point was I able to get a balanced sound level reading on all channels w/sub.

In general though, the Denon doesn't impress on bass. I did an a/b (using a CD) with the Denon and a Marantz 8260, for a friend, and when I switched to the Denon his comment was, "where'd the bass go?".

You must have a sub, sacd and dvd-audio do not have .1 channel like movies do, most players have poor bass management for the sub channel for music, the denon is not alone in this loss. I would get a outlaw audio ICBM if you have small or mix and match speaker system and be done with it if you end up being happy with everything else about this players sound. I have not listened to the Denon but have read about its bass management problem over at the AVS forum, there is a very long thread about it that you may want to read.

Go to WWW.AVSForum.com , under Digital hardware they have been discusing bass problems with the unit.