Two channel is not the strong point of the 970, it is good but not great. I am sure it is as good or better than most AVRs but the 990 is supposed to be better for two channel. I use my 970 in analog bypass with an external DAC (channel islands VDA-2) because I was never happy with its two channel performance. I use it with an Outlaw ICBM which I use for bass management at all times so that I can use my sub when running analog bypass.