Bought a B-Stock 970 and it arrived last Thursday. I compared it to the 990 and recognized that for my use, solely HT, the 990 wasn't necessary.

Out of the box, it sounded much worse than my Denon 3803 that I was using for a pre/pro to my Adcom amp. Well, a couple of hours of tweeking and running through the set-up changes with the very good Outlaw manual and, HOLY MOLY, that's what they meant by surround sound, huh?

My wife went from worst $650 ever spent to best $650 ever spent and she's still raving over the difference in sound quality. In addition, SACDs and DVD-As now sound much better with better mids, better soundstage and separation.

So, I say take the plunge, the water's fine. Good luck, Dave.