Randomcreek,

The only difference I noticed in the analog inputs between the 990 and the 970 before I sent the 970 back was that the noise floor was slighly lower with the 990. The 990/755 combo is dead silent turned completely up with a source paused and my ear right next to the speaker. The 970 had a little more hiss than the 990. The 970 was quieter than my Yamaha 2500 used as a pre/pro only.

If anyone actually sees the back of both units side by side they will notice the 990 uses much higher quality connections and is much more solid. Honestly, there is no comparison between the build quality of the two.

I am left wondering if this was a good part of the reason the 970 was nosier than the 990. Keep in mind, this was at a level hopefully no one would be listening at and would easily be drown out by the source material. At practical levels, the 970 should perform very similar to the 990 via the analog inputs.