Merlin,

You and I have similiar equipment. I have the 990/755 with Rocket 760's (850 Sigs arriving tomorrow!) and a Denon 5900. The Denon 3910 and 5900 are very similiar and the macroblocking issue has never really affected me. Although I can see it (rarely) on certain dark passages (I use a Panasonic HDTV) the overall picture quality is amazing...very HD like! Additionally, the sonics from these units are incredible...you will not be disappointed.

I let the Denon do the bass management and Digital to Analog conversion (D/A) by selecting "small" in the Denon's setup menu and connecting through the 7.1 analog inputs on the 990. You then need to select "large" in the Outlaw 990 to bypass its bass management on the 7.1 inputs. Althought the 990 is a very capable performer, I have found audio (specifically two-channel audio) to be slightly better when letting the Denon do the work (i.e. perform bass management tasks and D/A conversion) and passing everything through the 990 untouched. I also have a digital coax output connected from the Denon to the 990 (switching the 990 from large to small to activate bass management) so I can compare the two. The differences are small....but If I'm going to spend the money...I want it to sound as good as possible.

You'll definately want to experiment with letting the 990 handle all the bass management tasks vs. the Denon because your results may be different!

Good luck with all the new gear...I know you'll love it.

Steve