In the end, that's what it's all about. A lot of the previous equipment that I've owned never gave me THAT feeling. You know: that you can't pry this out of my hands no matter what. Even when I owned the more expensive Anthem AVM30, I thought something was missing. For me, the Arcam is it (not that my wife would believe me), and the 990 is "it" for a lot of people too.

For what it's worth, I've never had any static or freezing issues in the seven months that I've owned it. There is some speculation about a bad batch.

Chris