I've now found the Denon 3910 and Rotel RDV-1060 to be very good with the 990. I picked up the Rotel last Saturday and did pretty extensive a/b testing between the two. Video performance is outstanding and I'd say equal from the component connections of both. In fact, I preffered component over DVI. The Rotel had the edge on Multi-channel audio and two channel stereo performance from all digital and analog connections and stereo modes. The analog outs from the Rotel are unbelievable when running the 990 in bypass or upsample mode.

Gonk,
If I may ask--how much did you pay for the MX-700? Does it come with a reasonable manual for macro programming? I've gotten the 990's remote to be a universal remote for just about all the attachments, but I now understand why macros are really nice--not just for the technophobic spouse, but for me as well. I counted the number of steps to get from "everything off" to a particular channel on the set-top box: 8. This is indeed a brave new world.

I got my MX-700 from an ebay dealer for around $155 or so. The macro programming, like everything else abont the setup, is handled very well in the computer program. If it helps, you might want to peruse my notes on both the MX-700 and MX-500 .