Quote from Jeff Mackwood "Any review of something like the 990 should simply say whether any unexpected noise, distortion, or frequency irregularities were heard (or more likely measured - although the original 950s were an exception) and then get on with a description of all the great gee whiz features and processing modes etc."

I basically agree with Jeff's statement on Musicality. However, I do no agree that he has the right to tell anyone how their review should read.

Paratrooper,

Point understood. I should have said something like "Any review that I would write..."

Jeff Mackwood

ps. If there's one thing that been great about the 990 so far, it's that it's revitalized what had become a pretty quiet Forum of late.

ps. If there's one thing that's impressed me the most about the Outlaw Forum, it's that, with but very few exceptions, its members remain rooted in good solid A/V fundamentals and avoid getting caught up in the temptations of snake oil and the like.

Further apology.

I was of course quoting from and commenting on DOBEMAN's original post - not travk13's later post.

Jeff Mackwood

ok jeff now i understand .. you initially ment dobe s review.. i thought cuz of the post after mine you ment mine ..yes i will agree if you hood say a music hall25 cd player up to a 950 and 990 on the analog out of the music hall to the cd input on either the 990 or 950 and use direct bypass to the same amp you will not notice a diff.. u r using the music hall s dac for both and just using the unit as a gain control ...

Jeff Mackwood,
When I gave my brief review of the 990, I gave a honest option of what we were hearing. You need to go back and read my brief review. Maybe you scanned over it to fast and really didn’t interpret it correctly.

"We auditioned the CD's, sacd's and played with all the different modes offered for listening. We all agreed that the 990 was a step up from the 950".
This is still true. I have listened to the 990 for many hours and still enjoy listening through the different modes offered and still like the sound better then that of the 950.

"We found it to be quite! silent, the sound was clean and clear".
Maybe the sound floor is a large contributor to what we were hearing and what makes it sound more musical

."I like the up sampling mode for some of the music. The bypass mode for pure sound is always my first option".
The up sampling mode was enjoyable listening, and enhanced some of my earlier cd's. The statement I made about BYPASS always being my first option, is true. I like the pure sound with nothing added to distort the true recording. How this took off to be a topic of what is or what is not musical is beyond me. Maybe start your own post with the question: The definition of Musical, and let everyone chime in.

For those of you who actually care what the 990 sounds like, rather than how the spec sheet reads, IMO it is a more "musical" component than the 950. The big improvements, even in video modes, come in low level detail retrieval, and image placement. Listening to a musical vocal track, the voice has much more texture than the 950 ever produced.

On the video side, I've also noticed a slightly better focus in the component video switching, which is very welcome. Using a test pattern, line edges appear sharper. I also suspect a bit greater color depth, but hey, I've only had the thing two days.

For music, I'm not convinced that the bypass mode is better than the upsampling mode of the 990. I think I prefer the 990 to the Sony DVP-S9000ES in terms of sonics, and plan to use the 990 as a DAC for that player, rather than using a bypass mode.

When you guys say a processor is more musical than another... what do you mean by that?
Do you mean that, one unit is better at 2 channel than the other?
So perhaps, the 950 is great for home theater applications, but if you want to listen to a lot of 2 channel than you would be better off to opt for the 990.. ???

Craig

I would say that if you plan on using the DACs in your processor then the 990 is better than the 950, IMO. I think if you are really serious about music, investing in a $300 cd player is probably going to net better results than most DACs built into HT processors. That said, the 990 does sound nice for 2 channel stereo, something I wasn't sold on with the 950.

Could anyone advise how much sound quality improvement btw 990 and 950 on the basic DIGITAL processings available at both processors (ie. DOLBY D, DOLBYEX, DTS, DTS-ES, NEO:6C/M)? Does it worth the upgrade from 950 to 990?

That's something that is difficult or impossible to quantify (as in "it is 7.42 percent better"). The 990's lower noise floor does help in all modes, including Dolby Digital and DTS processing, and depending on the speaker setup the quad crossover and discrete channel delays may also yield some improvements. I've been completely satisfied with my upgrade from 950 to 990, so for me it was worth the upgrade. I'm also making use of some of the extra features as well, though, which certainly helps justify the upgrade in my case. However, the fact that I have been able to (pretty easily) justify the upgrade in my case does not mean that the same will hold true for everyone. If you were planning an upgrade anyway, the 990 certainly warrants a place high on your list of candidates. If you weren't planning an upgrade but find the extra features appealing, then you might want to take one for a test spin - there's always the 30-day return policy if you can't justify the upgrade in your case.