Just a follow-up.

The Rotel amp sounds fine, but I'm not terribly fond of the Rotel pre/processor. I think the 990 definitely sounds more transparent. An Outlaw-based system would definitely have sounded better and cost less, but my pigheaded friend didn't want to wait. He's going to let the equipment "burn in" for a few days and then we're going to do a series of listening comparisons with a couple of CDs that we both like. We'll see how that goes.

Cheers,