I'm hoping to buy one of these sometime in the future but I need to redo my equipment rack and refigure my whole setup before I even think about it. I've been needing to do this for some time but with the physical size of the 990 it now makes it a priorty. I'm thinking about buying a cabinet or rack (6 shelves counting top of unit) built by a friend of mine and he can modify the spacing between the shelves per my request. I'm going to space each shelve specific to each component and try to leave adequate room for ventilation, but I have some questions about the 990 first:

1. I plan on putting my two amps on the bottom two shelves. I would like to put the 990 on the top inside shelf of the cabinet but I'm concerned of the weight of all the cables hanging down, are the jacks substantial enough to handle this? Or should the 990 be set as low to the ground as possible? I have various interconnects and some brands are rather big and heavy, is the spacing on the back more than adequate for all sizes of interconnects?

2. This kind of relates to question 1 but if the 990 can handle the weight of interconnects being positioned high, would it look out of place (if I run out of shelves) if it had to sit on the very top of a cabinet with it's physical size? After reading some negative comments on the looks of this unit I wondered if it should more or less be heard and not as visable.

3. Do you find that most people run all their components through the 990 or most just pick and choose which ones? I'm curious as I think I would have a hard time running everything through it as I'm so used to using the different tv inputs but maybe I would get used to it. I could see myself maybe still hooking up my satellite directly to the tv, but then again I don't know since I'm not used to having so many switching options. Maybe it's just something you have to get used to, anyway just curious.

4. After reading through the threads there seems to be a few bugs with the 990 would it be wise to wait until these are delt with before buying one so they can all be worked out? I would kind of hate to go to the trouble of hooking everything up ,then have to unhook everything, carry it upstairs to the computer, download the updates and then rehook everything again.

Anyway I would like to get started reorganizing my system as far as a new rack or cabinet and running longer cable so I would appreciate any input. Thanks!

1. I would have no concern about stress on the jacks, unless you are hanging 10 pound weights on your cables for some reason. A number of my cables are pretty heavy, too, and the 990's rear panel handles them without any deflection.

2. The 990's certainly large, but I don't know that it would look any different high or low in the rack. It's probably going to be purely personal preference, though.

3. I'd recommend running everything through it unless there is a very compelling reason not to. It will quickly become easier to use once you get used to it (particularly with the editable video input names). Definitely run your satellite through the 990 - the sonic benefits over listening through the TV will be huge.

4. There are a few bugs that are being addressed, but whether you wait until the patch comes out is up to you. I'm planning to do my firmware update with my wife's old Dell laptop (even have a USB cable in place), so for me there's no penalty in having the unit now. It helps that the bugs don't happen to interfere with the way I use the unit. I would never tell you which way to go here. My traditional method of advising in purchases like this is to ask if the enjoyment that can be had between now and when you would buy if you waited outweighs the benefit of waiting - the answer can help you make your decision.

countryboy,

Gonk gave you good advice. A few things I might add is there a numerous solutions for cable management as well. I use velcro wraps due to the fact they do not crush the wiring and can be undone for system/wiring changes. I wrap the same type of cables together (power, video, etc.) and sometimes even use a tack through the velcro to hold them in place avoiding any strain on the 990 or any other components.

Also, I prefer to put my processor in the middle of the rack. That way you can use short cables (cheaper and less of a mess) and run them from both above and below the pre/pro.

Another thing, I would try to build some flexibility into whatever rack solution you go with. I don't know how many times I have had to redo the shelf spacing on my homemade rack due to equipment changes I did not forsee in the future. I am now going to put a rack beside my main rack that will be unseen from the HT room main rack to hold components that do not need to receive remote commands such as my amps and line conditioners, etc. This will allow me to put more controllable components on my main rack.

Doug makes a good point about locating the processor in the middle of the rack. I've done something similar for slightly different reasons - my processor is above the amps and below the source components, which makes sorting the cables out a little easier.

Thanks guys! Good to know the 990 can handle about anything connected to it's back and without stress. Also I certainly will take into account the other suggestions when setting up my rack.

I thought of a couple more questions. Is it necessary or desirable to have my rack located where you have a clear view or line of site with the 990 as long as you have your onscreen display? I was thinking of getting a RF remote.

I asked this pretty much as a general question to Doug (on another site) about connecting everything through the 990 but could someone be more specific. Once I would have have everything connected through it I understand you run audio and video back into the tv, but what exactly. My HD TV was bought before DMI came out so would the video ran back to the tv (in my case) be a S-Video or Component cable or perhaps both. I'm having to buy longer interconnects so would like to know which ones I need.

You don't need to worry about line of sight if you are using an RF remote with an RF transmitter/receiver setup.

If you want to use the onscreen display, I believe you will need to use S-video as component does not send the onscreen display out to the screen (correct me if I'm wrong Gonk).

As far as running audio back to the TV, this would only be necessary if you want to use the speakers in the TV (if you have speakers connected to an amp connected to the 990 you would not HAVE to do this).

Hope that helps.

As Doug says, line of sight is unnecessary with an RF remote (although you will need to set up whatever IR emitter is included with the RF remote to pass the signals to your gear). You can also use an IR remote and set up an IR repeater system by locating an IR receiver at your TV and running a wire back to an IR distribution system in the rack.

I would recommend connecting your gear with the best possible video output (component if possible, s-video if you can't do component, composite if all else fails). Once you do that, just run component from the component monitor output of the 990 to your display. The 990 transcodes all composite and s-video signals to component, making composite and s-video monitor outputs unnecessary if your TV will accept a component input (as yours, being an HDTV, does). The on-screen menus are overlayed on top of s-video and composite video inputs and are displayed on a blue background in place of the input for component video sources, so you can get to the 990's menus from any source. The s-video and composite video inputs get an overlay "pop-up" showing volume, input or surround mode when things are changed; the overlayed information is introduced before the transcoding, so it works even when you are using the component outputs.

The DVI output does not get any onscreen information (menu or pop-ups), but since your TV doesn't support DVI you aren't worried about that.

Yeah actually I am familar with RF remotes I was just asking if you felt like you needed (like any advantages) to be able to see the display on 990's front panel or if you could even read it at a distance. Okay good to know I just need a longer component cable to run from 990 to tv, and that I would have an on-screen display using such cable. Everything's starting to make a little more sense to me now thanks.

The 990's display (at least the current input label) is pretty legible from a distance.