Just starting to build a system, and looking for advice/answers. Ultimately, I want to have a full blown home theater set up, but my initial goals are to build a system that can handle music.

Should I go with separates, or a receiver?
The speakers at the top of the short list are Jamo D450s - anyone have any experience with them (they sounded great in a short test this week)?
What speakers match well with the Outlaw products?
How does the Outlaw product line compare to NAD, Denon, HK, and Rotel?

Since I am doing this in stages, I have a bit of freedom in the budget ~3k for amplification and 2 speakers. Thanks in advance...

Welcome to the forum, puppethead.

Depending on your needs and long-term plans, either approach can work well. Separates can help with long-term upgrading because a good power amp can last a long time (as the five-year warranty on Outlaw's amps suggests), allowing you to only have to replace the processor portion of the system if you want to move up to HD-DVD and Blu-ray in a few years or want to upgrade for other new features or sonic benefits. A receiver gives you everything in a single box, saving you some extra wiring, but also requires you to replace the amps and the processing if you decide to upgrade in a few years.

Outlaw gear is being used with a wide array of speakers: British brands like B&W, Canadian brands like Paradigm and Axiom, a number of different Polks, Klipsch, Onix Rocket, Aperion, Boston Acoustics, and a bunch more that I'm probably forgetting. The Outlaw equipment has been pretty consistant in its neutrality (not particularly "bright" or "warm"), so if you get speakers that suit your personal tastes the Outlaw equipment shouldn't influence that sound much.

Outlaw works hard to make solid, reliable gear that will last and that will sound good along the way. NAD and Rotel are two of the separates brands closest to Outlaw in price, and Outlaw consistantly matches them (many people actually prefer Outlaw, although there is some personal preference involved). Similarly, HK and Denon in the same price range may offer a few extra bells and whistles (they benefit from the larger R&D budgets of large corporations), but for sonics and reliability the Outlaw is definitely competitive - and Outlaw's customer service is going to be faster and friendlier than any of the brands above.

If you are looking for a music system now that can expand to do home theater, I'd certainly recommend taking a look at the 990 and an Outlaw amp of some sort. You could do a pair of M2200's now and add a 7500 later to provide amplification for the rest of the surrounds, or just get one of the multichannel amps and add speakers down the road as you expand. I am not familiar with the Jamo's to know what amp might be the best fit (whether there's a need for the 200W offered by the M2200, 7500, and 7700 or whether the 7125 would work just as well), but others around here may know. (EDIT: The Jamo D450's are a 4ohm load that are 89dB efficient - at 4 ohms, the 7125 would provide 190W per channel and the 2200, 7500, or 7700 would provide 300W per channel. Any one of those would probably be comfortable keeping the D450's fed.)

Puppethead,
Welcome to the hideout.
Just to add to gonks thoughts ....
you will be hard pressed to find sonically better combo than the 990/7125 in a receiver.
Even in separates – you will have to spend some money (5K-10K) to step up from Outlaw products (990/ with either the 7125, 7500/7700 or mono amps)
If you decide on 990/7125 combo – you could bi-amp the Jamos.
I have not heard the Jamos personally
A couple more speakers ...check out rbh, Moraunt Short Avant or even Magnepan besides the ones mentioned by gonk.
Over in the 990 thread MarkBK just finished a personal shoot-out between the Arcam AVR300 and the 990/7125 combo. Good stuff.

Have fun digging around the forum. There is a wealth of knowledge to be had.

another place to check out is http://www.audioholics.com

Have fun building your system and keep us updated on the progress.

Thanks for the help so far - I'll look into the Arcam shoot-out.

Hi Puppethead

Gonk seems to consistently provide outstanding replies and there is nothing in his latest that I can argue with.

However, let me add my own experience.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to build two outstanding systems.

The first is based on 2 channel audio from the British brand Naim. I consider them to be very high end with my preamp costing $10,000 for example and each of the four mono amps setting me back over $3000. The Cd player alone was $5000.

The second system is a home theater built around a JVC SX21 (1400x1050 rez DILA) projector combined with anamorphic lenses projecting onto a 10 foot screen.

The recent additions are the Outlaw 990 and 7700. I'd not heard much about Outlaw and was somewhat sceptical. However, repeated rave reviews combined with the 30 day trial and the great prices made me take the plunge.

My 7700 arrived with a horrible scratch on the faceplate and the Outlaws were amazingly proactive in sending me a replacement and not even asking me to send back the original until the replacement was at my house! I'm actually glad that happened because I got to know a guy called Steve at Outlaw. he's quite wonderful!

The combo is excpetional. It's not quite up to the Naim $40k system, but nor should it be. The amp drives 9 full range British Kefs, B&W speakers and REL sub basss units with ease. Their is detail, drive and power to spare and I'm delighted.

My point is that I have well tuned ears. I am not upgrading from some $500 Denon receiver and gaga over anything.

My conclusion is that here we have a brand that makes no nonsense great products at very low prices. their bsuiness model is to cut out the middleman and gain competitive davantage from their distribution channel and the word of mouth from their user community. I am impressed by their willingness to host this forum with no edits. They don't need to edit as we users all seem to become fans very quckly.

You have $3k. I know all the other brands you mention very well and there is nothing wrong with any of their equipment. My experience after a few weeks is that the Outlaw gear blows them away on the value equation.

I'd go seperates for all the reasons Gonk mentioned. Hell, anyone who has a CD player going through multiple expternal power suppplies, a processor, it's power supply, a croosover unit with it's power supply, then going to 4 huge mono block amps...

So what should you do? I'm very intrigued by the Outlaw 2200. I think you'll be well happy with a 990 and 2 x2200's. if yo8u decide to go the home theater route you can then add 2200's at your leisure.

The 7700 is an awesome 7 channel amp. I have no idea about it's performance versus 7 x 2200's.

Bottom line - don't take my word for it. Trust your own ears and get some gear. You can always return it.

Good luck
Rob

Thanks Robert, great advice.

I am leaning toward separates, and you must've read my mind, because I was wondering if there was an advantage of going monoblock versus the 7-channel. I am going to post that in a new thread.