I purchased the 990 after auditioning it at my local retailer. But after a few day's of listening at home. I found some troubling symptoms with it. What i found was although i had dsp modes off. I still had audio leakage through my surrounds; something i did not expect from Yamaha. I returned the unit to my retailer and exchanged it for another. Same results. Idon't know if this is a design flaw or just a bad run. At any rate i have since taken the receiver back and purchased a Denon AVR-3600. The difference is night and day; I am extremely happy with the Denon. So if considering a receiver keep Denon on your list.

I decided to buy this receiver after spending some time for survey and listening. In my opinion, it is the best in its price range, considering
its sound, flexibility and features. With a pair of Paradigm MiniMkIII, it
produces a satisfying sound for a wide variety of music. By addition of
center and surround speakers and a subwoofer, it gives me a thrilling
movie sound reproduction. It also offers some flexibility for upgrading
into AC-3 in the future. To me Yamaha receiver is the only one that has
listenable DSP modes. You can really enjoy them.

Simply put; good power, lots of inputs and outputs including S-Video, great DSP, good remote control. One of the best 5 channel receivers. If you want something better than that buy a Yamaha RX-V2090 or a DSP-A3090, or spend a much more money with separates.