Doug et.al. - What both of you stated, that 990 has clear advantage (technically or actually in Dougs case where he has both) when using digital input and this makes sense to me. The ability to upconvert PCM to higher bit rates (192khz) with better quality DAC should make this possible (but only for stereo, correct? The 990 doesn't upsample 5.1). Since I do most of my critial listening using my pioneer elite 45a DVD-audio/SACD player and this player has good high bit rate DACs and I plan to use high quality interconnects and by-pass mode to the 970, I think I the sound should be as good as with the 990 (N.B. in the full by-pass mode only, agree?). The trade-off will be that I also watch RAVE channel on Dish network and old lazerdiscs and these will be digital input. Having said that, looking forward any HD-DVD format player should have decoding, analog outs and high bit-rate DACs built in (assuming again here the analog pass though) and the 970 should work as good as 990, correct. Again to be clear we are only talking about the analog direct pass of the signal from a high-quality source player to pre-amp and single-ended (not balanced) connection from pre-amp to amps.

Bottom line was I was going ot go to balanced audio as I'm a believer in balanced audio - no question - it should work to lower the noise floor and produce crisper sound (as does balanced power by the way), I'm not convinced I needed both. I'd love to do A/B testing with a 990 (Doug we're all jealous) specifically with regard to the direct pass through modes. Any thoughts? -Don