It's been awhile since I've posted here too.
I've had the 976 for about half a year now and couldn't be happier. I use it mostly for home theater. I imagine it could be better than the 990 in SQ, only for the sense that the DACs must be newer gen DACs. But, I haven't heard the 990, so. It does do great for the home theater
presentation though.

You can hook up two powered subs to it with either balanced or RCA cables.

I was looking at the new 7000x amp, as my 7200 is starting to develop a slight noise in some of the channels, when powering off or on.

I'd recommend the Oppo 4k BR player, but they're out of business. Maybe someone can point you in that direction.