I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread started that focuses on 950 reviews along with comments and questions about such reviews. I know there is a good review already started by Jeffrey Mercado and another short one but that post kind of got off on some different tangents. If everyone just wants to post their own review under a separate heading then that is fine too or if we just want to stay with Jeffrey Mercado as the official one.
Scott, please delete this post if you feel it is not necessary. I look forward to all the reviews and I hope to post my review this weekend.

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[This message has been edited by mdanderson (edited May 06, 2002).]

I have only watched one movie on my 950/770 combo so far. Episode 1 while not the best movie has good sound as you guys are aware. I will keep this relatively short. Just to tell you guys what my HT currently consists of RP51 optical digital out to the 950/770. Progressive scan to my Hitachi 55P9701 HD widescreen. Boston Acoustic VR975 towers, BA VR920 Center, System 10k (Micro100x ) for all surrounds.
The 950 locked on to and detected the signal quickly. It decoded sound very well. Timing is not an issue. I was impressed. I could hear everything and even some things I thought I hadn't heard before . The 770 has GOBS of power, I cannot stress this enough. I didn't get it all hooked up til about 10 at night so I only stressed the neighbors for about 90 minutes . I will probably try 5th Element Superbit next.

Enjoying my 950/770

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Stott

First Impressions of the Random Kind
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- The unit shipped double-boxed, but it had definitely been opened and re-taped. Some of the packing tape had come off. No big deal, since it was only in transit overnight, but the Outlaws might want to have their shipping department do a better job taping.

- The unit has an ungrounded detachable power cord. I was surprised (in a positive way), as I thought it was grounded and I'd have more ground loop issues to sort through.

- The jacks on the rear of the unit are gold plated. The photos had led me to believe they were nickel plated. As others have noted, the jacks are just a hair too close - the Outlaw cables slightly touch when you plug a L-R pair of them in. I didn't feel like I was stressing them too much when plugging them in, though.

- The unit weighs in decently. It is far more attractive than I thought it would be, and feels like a nice piece of gear. The rubber volume knob is slightly cheesy looking, but it feels nice when using it. The buttons stick out further from the face of the panel than I expected them to, but this is fine too. The 950 is a handsome unit, even with the green button and wacky logo.

- As someone else pointed out, they supply Duracell Ultra batteries with the remote. This is a plus. The remote itself leaves something to be desired in a few ways, but it's pretty good for a pack-in remote. First of all, it's awkward in the hand. The batteries are towards the front of the remote, making it feel like it's continually going to tip forward out of my hand. Oddly enough, it feels comfortable to me holding it upside down. Secondly, the learning feature is nowhere near 100% reliable. It took several tries to get it to learn some keys on my Audiotron remote. Once they "took," though, they worked fine. (EDIT: Gonk suggests placing both remotes on a flat surface first, and making sure you don't move either remote. I also found that holding down keys on your original remote until the 950's remote blinks green worked better than simply tapping the keys on your original remote.) Lastly, the remote stacks up play/pause/ff/rew on top of the standard menu navigation arrows. This is seriously irritating, but I'm sure I'll figure out a workaround. (EDIT: One problem I thought the remote had was lack of a volume/mute punch-through feature, but RAF and Gonk both set me straight - see pg. 39 of the manual).

- The OSD menu system is really easy to use. Navigation is a snap; drilling in and out of the menus is quite easy. However, I really find it disappointing that there is no option to completely turn off the OSD for showing volume/acquired signals, etc. The best you can do is turn it down to 3 seconds.

- The main trigger output works great. It triggers my DIY triggerable power strip properly. Not much to report here.



[This message has been edited by Prefect (edited May 03, 2002).]

So How's It Sound?!
===================

My HT audio system is in a bit of flux, but I have much of my final gear. My front soundstage consists of a pair of PSB Stratus Silver i's on the L and R, and a PSB Stratus C6 in the center. These are driven by a Carver M500 and a slightly newer Carver M500t, both 250W stereo amps. At present I don't have my real surround speakers (PSB Image 10S - should be here next week), so I've got a pair of old Radio Shack Minimus 7's connected, driven with a Carver PM120 stereo 60W semi-pro amp. At present I have no subwoofer, but I'm probably going to DIY a Titan soon.

For sources at present I have an Onkyo DVD player, a Voyetra Audiotron, and an old Sony CD changer all connected optically. A stereo VCR gets me analog audio from VHS tapes and cable television.

When I first fired up a CD in stereo mode right after getting it hooked up, I have to say that I was underwhelmed. I had set my mains for large and turned off the subwoofer and other channels. Something just didn't seem right on my first test CD (Elysian Fields, _Bleed Your Cedar_). I'm not sure what it was. I got up to get a glass of water, came back as it was switching tracks, and all of a sudden it clicked. It sounded good!

The 2-channel sound using the 950 as a DAC compared very favorably to my old Carver C-1 stereo preamp and my DVD player's internal DAC. I've listened to the CD that I mentioned on many systems, and my HT system with the 950 was really keeping up well. Deep, beautiful bass. Female vocals flowing exquisitely. Snare brushes drifting from a wide soundstage in front of me. Very nice. Not quite the same level of "hairs on the back of my neck tingling" that I've had with the system in my music studio, but this was pleasing in a different way.

I then tried my Audiotron and some MP3s out of my extensive collection. Using the internal 950 DACs is a huge improvement over the compromised internal DACs in the Audiotron. Well-encoded MP3s sounded great. Not quite CD quality, but very good. The only minor problem I noticed here were occasional re-acquisitions of the signal (popups on the OSD). Hopefully this won't be a big problem in practice.

Next I watched some cable TV in DPLII-C mode. _Forrest Gump_ was playing on one of the pay channels. The Vietnam scenes were coming alive. Dialog seemed to steer properly to the center channel, with music and effects routing to left and right. Surround was subtle, but seemed appropriate most of the time. Very neat. Worlds better than ProLogic. I did some channel surfing - some programs sounded a little weird with the surround content (surround sound for news?).

Lastly, I tried several different DVDs. Among them: _Run Lola Run_, _Crouching Tiger_ (non-superbit), _Apocalypse Now_ (non-redux), _Quills_, and _Chicken Run_. I used the Dolby Digital 5.1 mode for all discs tested. Even with my limited, temporary setup - it sounds great. _Chicken Run_ is almost over, and it's sounded great the whole time. Even my girlfriend has been impressed! I'll get more detailed with the 5.1 sound as I get my system squared away.

So that's it for now - I'll post more detail once I get some more time in on the system.

In short? It was worth the wait, even with the few problems I've encountered so far. I'm sure I'll be able to devise some workarounds once I familiarize myself with the system more.

Now I think it's time for bed.

Prefect,

There is a volume punch through feature on the remote. RTFM, page 39. Like you said, the remote is functional, but I still use my Pronto to control everything important.

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RAF

My HT (latest update 04/17/02) Now includes Outlaw 950 and Outlaw 755

Ok, if you are into long incoherent ravings from a sleep deprived madman you can check out my review here http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?postid=660295#post660295

[This message has been edited by Jed M (edited May 03, 2002).]

Prefect

I'll add in some remote review comments.

As RAF noted, there is a volume punch-through feature. You will need to enable it for each device you want to use it for (I did it for all of them). It works like a charm.

As for the learning, I've found that you need to have a steady hand or set the remotes on a table together to get the remote to learn without any errors. If the teaching remote moves too much between the first transmission and the confirmation transmission, it'll fail. (The 950's remote rarely seems to move -- a benefit of the battery weight near the front, probably.) I've taught mine commands from several remotes, and once I got the hang of it I had very good luck.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

RAF & Gonk,

Thanks for pointing me to the punch through stuff. I feel like an idiot - I swear I searched through the remote control portion of the manual a couple of times and gave up. I was having too much fun listening to the 950 to care, anyway..

I'll edit my review to note this.

Prefect -- No sweat! I had located it in advance (it's one thing my wife really wanted), but still mis-read the instructions and spent five minutes trying to program it wrong. Have fun!

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

I programmed punch-through on all of my devices in about a minute before I left for work this morning.. Works like a charm!