Asx,

I originally upgraded from a Yammy 2500 to the 990 and thought it was less bright than the 2500 (not surprising as many calim the Yamahas are rather bright). I never thought of the 990 as being bright, but after listening to the AVP7 for a few weeks and then going back, there was a noticable difference. My wife was even yelling at me to turn the 990 down cause it was too loud, yet I could achieve higher SPLs with no yelling with the AVP7, cause it was not as forward as the 990.

I will try to play around tomorrow with the distance of the center and fronts (as they would have to be responsible for this to occur in 2-channel modes). Right now the L/C/R are set at 10 feet on both units. I'm off to check out X3 and eat some pizza.