No problem whatsoever, the 'duplicate font speaker' is exactly what I am aiming at. I am thinking of making a split for the L and R channel after the pre-amp, and connecting these to an additional stereo power amp for driving the height speakers. Putting an analog mixer in between will allow me not only to adjust relative volume settings, but also to add the center channel to the mix for additional 'dialogue lifting'. I will start with putting the height speakers 45 degrees to the side, and 45 degrees up, and equidistant with the fronts and center speaker. It will call it my 'analog Trinnov' for expanding the front sound stage... Hope it works out as I expect it will: spectacular! (apologies for getting a bit off-topic here)

Sounds like an interesting experiment.

Well went for the Sherwood R972, would have wanted the Outlaw version since I have the 950, 970 and still using my 990. Waited on the 997 then the 978 but for the price of a brand new R972 could not turn it
down, came out to less the 1/3 the original list price.

Steve1173,

I have the R972 in my setup for over 1 year. I have been very impressed by the Trinnov Optimizer in R972 from day one. It puts the sweet spot right around you if that's the proper to say it. It has its quirks and such are documented in various forums. The major one to me is the few seconds delay it takes to lock on to a digital stream again if the stream is paused/changed/interrupted. This occurs when you pause a movie and change the channel. Due to this reason I don't use it to watch cable as I am a heavy channel surfer and ad skipper :>

In my simple (movie only) setup I have the OPPO BDP-95 connected directly to the TV via HDMI. I only use the R972 for 5.1 audio given the OPPO is already doing a phenomenal job with video. YMMV but for my usage the R972 has been pretty much trouble free for me.

I agree at the current fire sale price it is hard to turn it down if Trinnov is what you want and you use it primarily for movies. Hope you enjoy your R972.

Did you by any change do some A/B comparison between the Model 990, and the R972 with Trinnov disabled?