I guess I will have to live with it then...its the only thing thats bothering me right now...maybe I will get used to it.

Otherwise the 990 is great. I love it.

Anyone from Outlaw know why this happens. What exactly is the issue? I know ive said this in my previous post but why can a cheaper unit do this with no noticebale delay..what is causing the delay in the 990? I realize it is an improvement over the 950 and 1050 but why couldnt it be eliminated in the 990 if it was a huge issue in the other units?

The buffer in a portable CD player is dealing with a different issue than the 990 is - the CD player knows exactly what audio format it is dealing with (PCM that it converts to analog; players of this type would not support DTS CD's) and is only concerned with getting jostled and getting the laser knocked off track briefly. In a portable player that is at risk for such jostling, the player has the buffer and then reads ahead of what is being passed to the output. The 990, on the other hand, is trying to determine if the incoming bitstream signal is PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, or DTS-ES. Starting to pass audio with the wrong processing applied would produce a really nasty noise (and would risk potentially damaging speakers) so the unit has to keep quiet while it determines what it is working with. Buffering the signal and starting it once the format is determined would leave the audio out of sync with any associated video, so all the unit can do is hurry to figure out what the format is.

It may be possible for a firmware update to improve the signal acquisition time, but at some point you run into the limits of the hardware's ability to react. We'll see what the future brings, but in the meanwhile I do feel it's worth giving the 990 credit for making a significant improvement in this department over its predecessor (the 990's delay is probably on the order of 20% of the 950's delay).

Does this delay happen if you start the first track over?

Good question Bugbitten! I was sondering the same thing.

No, it does not - if you start the track and immediately skip back to the start, there should be no delay because the player should not interrupt the signal. Likewise, you should be able to skip between tracks or chapters without experiencing any signal acquisition delay. I've done this with all three of my DVD sources (Oppo, Panasonic DMR-E80 DVD-R, and Yamaha DVD-S1500). Good point, bugbitten.

I was keeping it short. Yes, if you restart the track, there is no delay/loss. And I did say the first track on the first CD. If you put in other CDs without switching inputs on the 990 I believe the first track you play starts just fine.

I've noticed this delay happens when I start the CD with "Play", but there's no delay if I start with "1", i.e., the first track.

Then the problem is not just the 990. My 3805 has the same problem. I am constantly restarting cds.

That is quite correct, bugbitten - it's a problem that every surround receiver or processor faces. Any unit will introduce at least some delay, it's just a matter of how much.