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If you do not own a set of full-range speakers then you will propably need bass management. Bass management simply means that some bass from front, center and rear speakers is directed to a subwoofer.
Normally this will not pose a problem because almost every surround amp. out there enables you to choose large or small speakers individually. This is a very easy task for the amp. because it’s very easy to manipulate the digital signal transmitted from the DVD-player when using the optical or coax connections.
The problem is that most DVD-Audio players will not transmit the DVD-A tracks through the digital outputs and should you be so lucky to own one that does, then you will have a hard time finding a surround amp. capable of receiving a digital DVD-A signal (needs a iLink input). Furthermore, the onboard bass management on most DVD-A players only works on the DVD-Video part (Dolby Digital and DTS) and not the DVD-Audio part (apart from the new Pioneer and Denon’s).
If your speaker set-up consists of small satellites and a subwoofer then you have a problem when it comes to playing DVD-A. The problem will go away as more players will support digital DVD-A/SACD ouput in the future but until then you will need to invest in a bass management unit that works on the analogue outputs like Outlaw’s ICBM
If you use you surround system for movies as well, then you could be in for some LFE sound level problems. When playing DD or DTS the LFE channel is often boosted up to 10dB. This means that you need to adjust the LFE channel each time you switch from music to movies.
My advice would be to purchase 5 full-range speakers. If you have full-range speakers then you actually don’t need the subwoofer for music. The first batch of DVD-A’s made plenty use of the LFE channel but it seems to me that the producers now are beginning to use the LFE channel only to support the main speakers.
I would have preferred them to omit the LFE channel entirely so that you could handle the bass management by your self in the future when the digital output becomes more widespread. I think that the current LFE implementation by the producers is a kind of compromise, which enables DVD-A playback on home-theatre-in-a-box systems without bass management.
I mostly turn off the subwoofer when listening to music because I have full-range speakers all around and because it’s very hard to integrate the subwoofer. It’s ok to have loud boomy bass for movies but when it comes to playing music you need far more precision.
So my conclussion regarding bass management would have to be: make sure you don’t need it and turn of the subwoofer.
Se also Denon DVD-2900 bass management | 
