Lizard King - I'm kind of amazed that what you're hearing from your new amp is exactly what I noticed with the more powerful Emotiva receiver I tried, but (hopefully!) without the qualities I found undesirable in the Emotiva. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that more power provides benefits even for those of us who don't listen loud. I wonder why... I've read many times that even inefficient speakers are using only a few watts of power at normal listening levels.

And yeah... early CD's and CD players sounded *awful*. I remember thinking at the time... "this media ain't gonna make it" I have to disagree with you, to some extent, about compressed music files. I use 200 kps (or whatever the units are) MP4's on my Zune with a good set of 'phones, and it doesn't sound half-bad to me for the purpose. I never have been able to find an MP3 codec I like though.


Gonk - Hey, that's great news about the Analog Devices DAC in the 990. I think that's the exact same DAC used in my Philips CD player that I love so much. I'm getting more and more anxious to upgrade!


Videodrome - Valid point about out-of-print stuff on vinyl. Actually, I've got a couple hundred old LP's (lots of obscure stuff from the "British Invasion" back in the 60's) that I'd like to transfer to CD or FLAC or something. But I just haven't found the time or money to do it. I'd need to buy a decent TT, cart and phono-preamp, plus a good USB-type soundcard (I use a laptop), to get the job done to my satisfaction.