I was able to swap out my Yamaha for the 990 this weekend.
I was concerned about the technical aspect of the programing. All of the forum posts I read said it was very straight forward and to my relief...it was. The manual is very well written. My main concern was setting all of the inputs properly and would it work as easily as I had read. It was logical and worked just as the manual was written.
I tried the auto setup for speakers and it only had a problem with the sub. It said there was no sub connected. I set the volume by ear and It sounded much better than my Yamaha ever did. Radio Shack up the street had a SLM in stock to I picked one up. I checked what I had set up by ear and was surprised how close is was. Although when I used the meter to adjust everything again made a made a big difference. The rear speakers blended in to the front (Luke Skywalker flew over my head and beyond the Screen. (I'm using 5.1 rears only but am awaiting delivery of 2 more speakers for sides to do 7.1).
I switched between the 990 and my Aragon preamp (that I have used for music listening only) and was surprised how close it was. Knowing which was which I would tell you I heard a difference and the Aragon was a little clearer and the vocals were more precise in the sound stage (trying to describe how something sounds is like telling you what the color red looks like as opposed to blue). If I didn't know which was playing I can't say I could tell you what was playing. So needles to say for me 990 is an
excellent product.
I know as time goes by I will make more adjustments and it will only sound better.
I ordered LFM-1's & SMS-1 and I can't wait to put them in the system.
I'm sure I will have some question for all of you in the near future.

Thanks for all your replied to my questions.

Brad