Elikd: I hear you. I have the 950 and today is the deadline date to order the 990. I have a high end parasound DAC for stereo music, which is superior to the DAC in 950. So i am not quite concern much about the Stereo By-pass in 950 or 990 (after all they are AV processors).

That's why I keep asking owers of 950/990 for inputs before submitting the order today. Tough decision.