Has anyone noticed this phenomemon?
When I calibrate levels by using either the internal noise generator, the AVIA disc (using a digital connection) or an external test set the sub levels are close to one another. As soon as a 2 channel source is decoded to PL2 (or DTS Neo) the bass levels increase by at least 10db. I've experimented by calibrating first using the digital connection and then hooking up the analog connection of the same DVD or test generator and running the test again in PL2. Same result. I've even run the test in reverse and the DD sources are 10db down.
What this means is on playback either the bass from PL2 sources is correct and the Dolby Digital sources are low or DVD's and HDTV are correct and sources decoded to PL2 are very bass heavy. I've got Scott at Outlaw looking into this but I thought I'd ask to see if anyone else has had this issue.

Oh, and yes- the tone defeat is ON.

Try listening to music and switch between "bypass", "stereo" and PL2 (or DTS NEO) and you'll hear what I'm referring to. And if you don't , maybe I've got a defective 990.

I'm positive that DPLII Music puts out more bass than any other mode, including DPLII Movie, but was too lazy to investigate it more thoroughly. Plus I just don't have faith in Outlaw fixing anything for 990 anymore...

Here's something I noticed yesterday and copied Scott on:
I think some of the problem might be where the 990 noise generator falls in the circuit. On my unit it appears the test generator is after the crossover and bass management so I get noise level up to the highest frequency my sub (an LFM-1) can produce. The LFM is set with its crossover to bypass but when I engage it I can hear it working. The 990 crossover was set at 80Hz. My experience with other preamps has been when the noise generator was before the bass manager I would not be able to hear any difference switching the sub crossover in and out with the sub crossover set to its highest frequency.

DD LFE vs DTS LFE sound tracks on the same disc, the DTS track will be 10dBs higher than the DD track. DTS records their tracks this way vs. DD. Not sure if this could be the cause of your problem but I recently purchased the 990 and noticed it compensated for this difference. My old Parasound AVC-1800 surround processor didn't do this and I always had to manually lower the subwoofer setting by 10dBs to compensate for the difference.

Sportsound, Main speaker size setting will be a factor.
If your speakers are set to small, 990 will route low bass to your sub if your signal is not "By pass". You will definitely hear the difference.
If you go analog and "by pass" full signal will go to your main without any routing.

Happy hearing.
Kwok Lau.