I have been a proud owner of the Outlaw 990, 7500 amp, LFM-1 Plus sub, which I use with Bowers & Wilkins 804S/HTM3S speakers and two of their dipolar surrounds, with Oppo BDP-95 for movies and CDs.

Overall, I have been quite pleased with this setup for 8 years now. But now with the introduction on the Outlaw 976, I am thinking about upgrading (as that other model -cant remember the model number- was scrapped a few years back).

I have been using the dedicated DAC in the Oppo for CD music playback, which is then MIT Orical RCA connected to the 990 (untouched), and then MIT Ballanced XLR to the 7500 amp. This sounds better to me, than using a digital out to the 990 and its DAC doing the conversion.

For Blu-ray movies, the BDP-95 does a good job there (again with its DAC) but since it is a few years old, is lacking in some of the newer Dolby and DTS codecs.

What I'd really like to know, is if for my setup, would going from the 990 to the 976 make a noticable difference? Or should I also need to be looking at replacing the Oppo 95 with a more current model?