Nice post. Thanks for the listening notes.

I'm curious to hear what you think once you're sure you have the digital input set to stereo, bypass, and upsample, compared to the same 3 modes on the analog input. That's because, on the analog input, the bypass mode feeds the L and R full range with no manipulation, but the sub gets a full range signal as well. On the digital input, the bypass mode feeds the fronts and sub their bass-managed frequencies as set in the speaker setup. It bypasses the speaker delays, etc.

I have a Denon 2910, and I've found that because of the above, it's not so easy to do a direct comparison of the 990 and Denon DACs unless all speakers are set to large in order to avoid the bass management aspects automatically applied to both analog and digital inputs.

Mark