For those of you who actually care what the 990 sounds like, rather than how the spec sheet reads, IMO it is a more "musical" component than the 950. The big improvements, even in video modes, come in low level detail retrieval, and image placement. Listening to a musical vocal track, the voice has much more texture than the 950 ever produced.

On the video side, I've also noticed a slightly better focus in the component video switching, which is very welcome. Using a test pattern, line edges appear sharper. I also suspect a bit greater color depth, but hey, I've only had the thing two days.

For music, I'm not convinced that the bypass mode is better than the upsampling mode of the 990. I think I prefer the 990 to the Sony DVP-S9000ES in terms of sonics, and plan to use the 990 as a DAC for that player, rather than using a bypass mode.