Thanks for the insights Altec and the recommendation to stay away from white noise to set speakers, at least for us more casual users. In all fairness to Gonk his quote was his summary of a link regarding white and pink noise.

The DVE disc does use filtered pink noise to set individual speakers; it is referenced as "Band Limited Pink Noise". DVE's pan is full bandwidth and at least across my front three speakers the SPL meter held constant. I got a 2 to 3dB fluctuation across the rear speakers however.

Does anyone know with certainty the 990 uses white noise for its internal test tones?