I do not own the Denon, but I believe that the easiest (and the most legitimate) way of listening to music through the front L/R speakers only is simply to set the surround mode to "stereo" or "direct." If a receiver has both these settings, usually the "direct" mode will turn off the subwoofer and all other signal processing by the receiver so that it acts like a pure-analog stereo integrated amp. The "stereo" mode usually engages the sub, so it works as a 2.1 setup.
By the way, in my book, the only dumb question is a question unasked...
