TommyBoy - It almost seems like you are confusing CD playback with DVD playback. At least you keep referring to decoding two-channel, I guess you could call it decoding but when I hear that term I think more of something like a Dolby or DTS bitream not PCM coming off a redbook CD. You really don't need any fancy processing to play CD's it is just plain ole PCM data.

So yes I really do want to bypass the processor in the 990 for CD playback that is the reason just about all decent Pre/Pros and receivers have a Bypass mode. The 990 even takes bypass a step beyond most processors by offering a digital bypass in addition to the more common analog bypass.

I have done extensive testing between my dedicated two channel DAC, SACD/DVD-A and the 990 DACs with and without upsampling, trust me there is a significant difference between them.