having heard about how good the upsampling and DAC's are on the 990, I still have a few questions.

If my primary music listening is to 192k and 256k mp3 streaming from Itunes Air Express off my Macbook, how much would I benefit by trading in for the 990 for the upsampling and DAC's for this type of music?

Its a tough decision because I have space constraints in my rack and also really like the on the fly trim capability of the 970 remote and I'm pleased with the overall perfomance of the 970.

I also have no need for a second zone, don't plan to use XLR's, don't use the video connections and don't need a second sub LFE out.

I have Polk LSI speakers driven by an ANTHEM MCA 30 .....any opinions would be much appreciated.....I've only had the 970 a couple weeks, so there's still time to swap it.

I haven't heard the two processors to be able to offer comparisons, but upsample can only do so much with lossy content - it is my preferred mode with MP3 content (via SoundBridge rather than Airport Express), but it's still not equal to the original CD.

From the sounds of things, my first reaction is to say that if you're pleased, to stay put. The 990 would offer better music performance, but using lossy sources may narrow the gap between the two. I assume that you are using optical from the Airport Express?

Thank you gonk....i appreciate your thoughts...helps put my mind at ease on this.

Yes, that is correct, using optical. My gut tells me to keep the 970 too, and your comments are helping me believe that is the right thing to do. I suspected that upsampling might not be quite as impressive on lossy content.... and it's interesting......the subscritpion 192k internet radio via itunes seems to often sound as good if not better than the 256k itunes plus songs i purchase and download to the laptop. I assume that's becuase the internet radio broadcast doesn't invole the hardrive? Both of these by the way are far superior to 128k or a direct ipod hook up. I can't listen to those on my system....they sound so flat and muted. But, they are fine on the ipod with headphones.