mktheater:

First, thanks for taking the time to compare and contrast the various SSPs. The information is most helpful to us Outlaws!

Second, in the surround sound processing realm, aren't the 970 and 990 essentially the same? The reason I ask is that I am quite happy with my 970, but if your conclusions about the 990's movie performance apply to both units, it makes me even more pleased with my purchase (And, like you, will stave off my usual case of upgrade-itis! At least for the foreseeable future)

Third, with all due respect to sdurani's comments about room equalization, I do not find that a compelling reason in its own right to justify the price differences between the two units. I could be missing something about the purity of the Meridan's room correction circuitry, but the whole concept seems at odds with conventioanl wisdom: i.e., that that degree of signal manipulation, at least with repsect to mid- and high-frequency information, is anathema to preserving the fidelity of the input signal. With that in mind, I was always told the way to attack room problems is with acoutical treatments, or in the case of bass inaccuracies, a product such as the SMS-1. Neither of which puts you at risk of mucking up the critical mid range and higher frequencies, imaging, tonal balance, etc.
Lastly, any issues with the 990's tendency to be more neutral than warm can easily be addressed with careful choices in assoicated electronics, interconnects and speaker cables. So I do not consider this a drawback in the least.

Thanks again for the review.