The move from the Yamaha's internal amps to the 7125 should be a nice, noticeable improvement. Let us know what you think when it arrives.

The new HD formats do add some confusion to the buying process. I'm guessing that you've read some of the countless posts about the madness and mayhem tied to the new codecs (revised HDMI versions, analog output, benefits and drawbacks to actually using HDMI v1.3 to output raw bitstreams to processors) and are comfortable with waiting a while. I took the opposite route last year - bought the 990 when it came out because I figured the wait would be long enough that I could enjoy the 990 for several years before something in my price range appeared that fully and properly supported the new standards and a generation or two of players had come and gone. In fact, I bought assuming that I would very likely have the 990 long enough to pick up a second or third-gen HD player (not sure which format, as it's still too soon for me to be ready to decide to back either format over the other) and use the analog outputs with the 990's 7.1 Direct input.