From what I've read, the Statement D1 is a great piece of gear. The AVM-30 is a subtle evolution of the AVM-20, which while several years old is still a consistently praised unit as well. I'd gladly put either in my equipment rack given the opportunity and could never find fault in anyone electing to buy one of them, but both are well outside my price range. Both offer support for 1394, although I'm not sure if it's been implemented in software yet. Neither offer EQ that I can tell, and neither offer any support for HDMI, so I don't see how they could be considered more "future proof" than the 990.