Just a fast word of encouragement for everyone out there: My 990 just got dropped off by the carrier and is now on my living room floor! Unfortunately I have to work today and won't get to play with it until this evening but I thought I would let others know that the first units have hit the beach.

Very cool! I'm looking forward to hearing some real world feedback!

Hi Audioholic,

Did you get an email that said they shipped it?
I ordered in the first batch (but not till Monday -- Who checks their email on Mothers Day? I know, apparently a lot of people) but I haven't seen credit charges (of course me CC company is usually late posting them) and I haven't seen a ship email yet.

Darn. I hate waiting :>)

Congrats on being one of the first, Audioholic!

I just received my final invoice and all my shipping info in an email. Looks like my 990 arrives on the 'morrow. Unfortunately, the cables are coming Friday followed by the 7100 on Saturday and finally the LFM-1 next Tuesday!

With any luck, I'll have sound by this weekend!

Hi Cerebus,

I ordered on Sunday night (after paying appropriate respects to my wife and mother of course), the bank showed that the charge hit Monday and I received shipping info today.

I'd expect that you'll see your invoice and shipping notice today or tomorrow.

I hope we all have some fingernails left after this excruciating wait!

I just received mine today as well. I didn't expect to see it until next week, but it shipped from MA so it was basically overnight for me. Sure glad I didn't pay for overnight shipping!

I'm at work, but I'm going to plug in the USB to my PC and listen to the headphone circuit at least.

Sounds like it's time to start watching the office door - I had mine sent to work...

Well, it took a lot longer than I expected to get audio out of the headphones. I actually had to RTFM on that one - you have to hold down MUTE for 3 seconds (5 seconds if via remote) to switch from speaker outputs to headphones.

I have audio playing from my PC through the USB and out the headphones. There are some unexpected limitations, like it does not appear that you can do upsample mode on the headphones. In fact, the only way to change the processing on the headphones is through the menu system (which, by the way, only works through a monitor! Unlike the 950, you can't do it on the front panel anymore. This is probably due to the custom display, which only has one alphanumeric display line on it.)

It would definitely be nicer if you could choose between DH1, DH2, DH3 or STEREO from the front panel or remote.

Another limitation I've noticed is that you can't rename the audio-only inputs (CD, AUX, TAPE, etc.). You can rename the video inputs, however.

That stuff is fixable with firmware updates, though, so I'm not too worried. It's possible they're tight on RAM/ROM in the system though, maybe that's why some of these corners were cut.

Despite all of that, it does sound pretty good so far, based on my minimal testing.

I should have mine up and running as soon as FedEx gets here in the next hour or 2. Of course I'm upgrading from a Yamaha pre/pre section into good amps, so I'm sure the Outlaw will beat it. At another point I'll have to give it a go against my modded Spectral DMC-10 preamp and Entec number cruncher D/A.

I met Scott at the NY Stereo show and asked if he though the d/a section in the 990 would beat my entec since the entec is probably 3-4 years old. He knew of the unit and thought it was good and might be as good as or better than the 990 internals, which is surprising considering how digital technology advances.

I'll post back what I find.

Prefect, on the 950 you could toggle through modes from the front panel "SURR MODE" button. The 990 looks to have a similar button - will it let you toggle through surround modes? Maybe in conjunction somehow with the navigation pad?