7. The 990 is a clear step up from the 950>

Allow me to rephrase: The 990 is a clear step up in functionality and connection flexibility from the 950. Will Dolby II sound different on the two units? Not unless the circuit has been changed on the 990.

To those of you who really, really want a tuner in the 990, I suggest a cheap boom box for baseball games given that audio quality in sports broadcasts is about as bad as it gets. For slightly more serious listening, unless you have some extreme reception problems (like having a 50,000 watt transmitter in your back yard) almost any tuner will do. Even with a quality tuner, the most critical issue is the antenna anyway. The 990 is a surround processor, not a receiver.

As to a phono circuit, it is going the way of the computer floppy drive, and there are a whole lot more floppy disks out there than records. Its inclusion increases the cost of the unit, but its absence does not prevent anyone from playing records with a dedicated phono preamp. I note that no one referenced moving coil cartridges. The 990's inability to handle those further reduces its usefulness even for record lovers.

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The 990 is marketed as a surround processor offering maximum performance and flexibility for minimum dollars. When you add features that have nothing to do with the functionality of a surround processor, you've increased its cost but not added to its fundamental functionality. Additional DSP processing IS one reason to have a surround processor and, unlike tuners and phono circuts, cannot be replaced if it wasn't put into the product. The 990 might cost $150 - $200 less if those features had been omitted or boast additional surround functionality for the same $1095. In either case, the 990 would be closer to Outlaw's stated marketing philosophy.