The AVM-30 certainly has some solid credentials. I will be curious to see what comes out of the planned upgrade for it - the changes davewb describes are major (there's no spot on the back panel that would readily accept HDMI jacks unless they forego the 1394 support and squeeze HDMI into that space, and the video upgrades described would suggest the replacement of at least some of the video boards), but they still don't appear to add auto-calibration (and by extension, that means no auto EQ). As I've said earlier, I would never tell someone to not get an AVM-30 or D1 if they had the cash for it, but I also don't see the 990 as a stop-gap - unless you buy it in order to wait a couple years (a pretty big gap) for the whirlwind to die down a bit and a few things to be decided on (high def disc format, HDMI audio standards) and fine-tuned. Obviously some folks may have systems that are better suited for the AVM-30, but I think many people could be equally well served by the 990 - especially with a $1,900 price difference and some form of digital video switching available immediately.