Akdrama,

Thank you!

And, Altec, WOW, what a difference! Isn't one of the great advantages of SS, over tube amplifiers, the fact that it can produce more, pure power, more efficiently? Isn’t this partly responsible for the birth of hybrids or tube pres with SS amps (best of both worlds)?

BQ, I think I was also trying to say that these new pre/pro's are more complex systems and as such, are mostly imperfect, with both positive and negative traits; hence the notion of "compromise."

Ok, here's a somewhat funny story. When I was a young man, an apprentice at GM, the old journeymen would lecture me on finding a wife. "John," one fellow said, "in all women, you're going to find things you like and dislike about them. What you need to do is find a woman with faults that you can tolerate, that you can live with and the rest will take care of itself." I think he makes a good point; these pre/pro's are all the same way, complicated creatures, exhibiting both strengths and weaknesses and so in choosing, perhaps it’s best to focus on finding an example where you can tolerate its shortcomings. A one trick pony is yet somewhere down the road, I think

My new setup often surprises me in ways I’ve never experienced before. As I’ve come to better understand and play with the 990’s features, I’ve certainly come to enjoy the HT experience (something I couldn’t do before); an example of one of the 990’s strengths. Unfortunately, for pure musicality, even in two channel, bypass mode, it doesn’t compare with the old Bryston setup. To be fair, however, my old system also had a quality and expensive cd player, Dual turntable and a separate tuner, by comparison to my current sources: a relatively inexpensive Oppo 990 and the 990’s built-in tuner, with a weak signal.

In your case, you’ve swapped out one component and so you can attribute the changes directly to the 990. I wouldn’t rush to judgment, however, not without first spending more time with it and playing with its features. Once you have a better feel for it, then compare it to the others.

Again, good luck, keep us posted!

John