From 990 to 976?

I have been a proud owner of the Outlaw 990, 7500 amp, LFM-1 Plus sub, which I use with Bowers & Wilkins 804S/HTM3S speakers and two of their dipolar surrounds, with Oppo BDP-95 for movies and CDs.

Overall, I have been quite pleased with this setup for 8 years now. But now with the introduction on the Outlaw 976, I am thinking about upgrading (as that other model -cant remember the model number- was scrapped a few years back).

I have been using the dedicated DAC in the Oppo for CD music playback, which is then MIT Orical RCA connected to the 990 (untouched), and then MIT Ballanced XLR to the 7500 amp. This sounds better to me, than using a digital out to the 990 and its DAC doing the conversion.

For Blu-ray movies, the BDP-95 does a good job there (again with its DAC) but since it is a few years old, is lacking in some of the newer Dolby and DTS codecs.

What I'd really like to know, is if for my setup, would going from the 990 to the 976 make a noticable difference? Or should I also need to be looking at replacing the Oppo 95 with a more current model?

I would think it'd be an upgrade being able to use the HDMI output and allowing the 990 to process all those codecs for you, especially given the advances made in audio over the last decade. Only way to know for sure is to take advantage of the Outlaw's 30 day trial period and give it a test in your room.

I would not expect a big improvement in sound quality. Assuming your are not going to atmos/dtx-x anytime soon or planning on a 4K video upgrade I would stay pat for a while while the Outlaws get the flagship out, which may be a year or so but could be sooner since it shares a lot of the 976 architecture. As is, you are all set for 1080P and the current codecs other than the object based ones and the OPPO is more than capable in that realm.

If your only source device is the OPPO BDP-95 then you can certainly continue to use it to decode movie codecs (via the OPPO's direct output to the 990) and provide the DAC for music. But if you have other sources like Apple TV or a cable box you are using their DAC or the 990s. I suspect the DACs in the 976 are going to be better than the 990s but that is just an opinion. I'm looking forward to replacing my 990 in large part because of the convenience of using HDMI for all my sources. And for digital sources you will be able to use the 976's PEQ capability with REW software to compensate for room issues. Overall I think the 976 will provide the opportunity for better sound.