Semi short version:
I love mine. Works great, sounds great, never a problem. Also have the Outlaw 7700, M80's, VP150, QS8's, EP600, and an M&K MX-200 sub also. The bass management thing was a non issue if you ask me. I never had a problem. I did however upgrade to the latest firmware. Couldn't tell a difference but it works fine.
I run a Denon 2910 DVD Player, Optical for DVD movies DD, DTS etc..... and DVD-A, SACD in Direct Pure Mode to the 7.1 channel input. Love it. Also run a Squeezebox 3 via Coax. It sounds great. Tried both Coax and Optical and can't tell a difference. But the analog from the SB3 wasn't as good as the 990's decoding. I've read much to do with people raving about the SB3's DAC and while it is good, I much prefer the 990's DAC. I generally don't delve too far into the super techy things. This is a blurb from the 990 page:
Audio Converters
Digital to Analog: Analog Device AD1852 24-bit/192kHz
Analog to Digital: AKM AK5380
Digital Remastering Chip: Analog Device AD1896
A quick Google should give you plenty of techno stuff on those chips.
I do not use it for any video switching but the guys at the Outlaw hangout board seem to think it works fine. Though no HDMI, just DVI. Not a big concern for me as I run HDMI direct to my plasma. Needed a bit of lip sync tinkering with the 990 and it handles it fine.
Until the whole HDMI 1.3 issues get resolved I don't think any one is going to invest a lot of time and expense to throw it into a Pre / Pro. Maybe for some it's an issue but I think at this point an external switch would do the trick too.
BTW, I use mine 80/20 music/movies. Well mastered/engineered/recorded music sounds wonderful no matter what the format.
