So is this statement correct:
1- Bypass mode only used the DAC and upsample uses both the DSP and the DAC?

If so, would any sound issues with Bypass mode be attributed to a defficiency in the DAC process?

Jeff's question is about how long it takes the 990 to lock on to a new digital audio signal - such as when channel surfing on digital cable and moving between channels that use different formats (or simply moving between channels when the cable box drops and reactivates the signal). The 950 took around 2 seconds to lock onto and begin playing the audio signal in those cases. It sounds like the 990 may have remedied this.

That reads a bit oddly to me. Bypass mode is passing the analog inputs directly to the left and right channels, with only volume control applied - by definition, there is no D/A involved. Since the sub is involved, the 990 is presumably behaving similar to the 950, which means the analog input is converted to digital and bass management applied to generate a subwoofer signal (assuming the main speakers are set to small), but the signal going to the mains never leaves the analog domain.

Upsample would presumably (based on the way the manual reads) only be applicable when using digital inputs, although it may also be applied by default to incoming analog signals that go through A/D conversion.

It was a long time ago (almost 15 years) so I could be mis-remembering the type of capacitor. (Maybe he was replacing ceramics with electroyitics???). This particular professor had actually worked as an AMP designer in the real world, and was pretty good at that Black Magic they call analog circuit design.

Can you remember why Tanalums are so bad? A Residual DC voltage shouldn't make much of a difference to an AC signal, and I find it hard to believe inductive effects are prevalent at 20Khz.
Is it current leakage? Just curious. (Mostly because I am pretty sure it was tantalums he was using...)

Gonk,

That is exactly what I meant to say. This is really my only gripe with the 950. Other than this, the 950 does everything that I need at this time. I haven't gotten into HD TV yet, so the video features aren't needed by me at this time. After getting the 950 I've spent more time listening to music and less time watching video. Even if the 990 does fix this issue, I don't know whether or not I will place my order based upon this one feature.

Jeff

Hi Gonk,

So you are saying Bypass only works with analog in from the CD player? I have an Onkyo that allows a "pure stereo" mode where the DSP does NO manipulation of the sound. I guess I assumed it was similar. My question was more oriented towards combining zero DSP manipulation with upsampling on the 990 and seeing if they were mutually exclusive.

Unless they've changed something drastically since the 950, bypass is more specifically an analog bypass, and therefore only works with analog inputs. "Pure stereo" would be the "stereo" mode - you can toggle through stereo, 5 stereo, or (if you have surround back speakers) 7 stereo, and "stereo" eliminates any DSP. This should be true of any "stereo" mode, in my opinion.

Be aware that the DSP must be used in order to convert the digital signal to analog, so a Bypass mode for digital would be the Power button. :p

Why would that be true? The P-965 supports Pure Audio mode (bypass) on stereo digital inputs that feeds the PCM direct to the DAC and then applies a 80Hz crossover in the analog domain. In Pure/Bypass mode the DSP and all video circuits are turned off.

I should know better than to do this after missing a night's sleep. DSP, DAC, I'm surprised I didn't read it as DOD and ask why the pentagon was involved.

I'll leave the post up as a cautionary tale for posting while impaired.