Hello All,


Can anyone here give me the pros/cons of
the above listed HT units ? I am looking to purchase one of these in the next week or so and was curious as to everyone's thoughts here. I know that the 1050 doesn't have the
same power rating as these other units, but other than that, what are the major differences ? The other 2 units are listed on the Crutchfield web site and are close enough in cost that I will go with the most features/best sound. Of course any other options anyone here could come up with say up to $700.00 would be appreciated also. Thanks for your help !

I would say that the 1050 will be comparable or better as far as power (that's one thing the 1050 has a very solid reputation on -- its 65W goes a lot farther than you would expect it to). The sound of the Outlaw is widely regarded as extremely good for receivers in the price range -- it should compare well, and may actually sound better than the Kenwood and Sony. Many people who have looked at Outlaw have also looked at Marantz; some people prefer the sound of the Marantz, some don't. You may want to look into something like the Marantz 6200.

One big question is what features do you need -- both the Kenwood and Sony include features that the Outlaw lacks. The Kenwood and Sony have DTS-ES and Dolby EX, where the Outlaw lacks DTS-ES (it has DTS 5.1 only) and has Surround 6.1 (which from my experience is very comparable to Dolby EX). The Kenwood has Pro Logic II, which both the Sony and Outlaw lack -- something that you may want to have if you watch a lot of TV. The Sony has two multi-channel analog inputs; the Kenwood and Outlaw only have one. Sony Sony and Kenwood have more digital inputs, but the Outlaw's inputs are fully addressable while the others are pre-assigned to certain inputs. Both the Sony and Kenwood offer component video switching, if you want/need it (although there is something to be said for sending the video signal directly to the display, especially with progressive scan or HDTV signals that require a lot of bandwidth).

Not really a straight answer, was it? Hopefully it's some help, though.

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

Gonk,


Thanks for your reply ! It sounds like the Outlaw model's power is not an issue, so yes, it will come down to features. It looks like the two features I see lacking in the Outlaw is the DTS-ES decoding and the Pro Logic II ability. Other than that, it appears as though the Outlaw unit stands up well. So Now I have narrowed it down to the Kenwood or the Outlaw unit. Unless of course I decide to splurge for seperates
In which case the 950 would move to the head of the class Tho only problem there is my speakers will only handle 100 watts and Outlaw's amps are all way too powerful at 200 watts Oh well, any suggestions for six channel amps with 100 watts or less ???
Thanks again Gonk !


Jim

Outlaw's 7100 is a 100 watt per channel x7 and is due anytime now. Although there is no reason you couldn't use a 200 watt amp, most speaker meltdowns are caused by not enough power not to much. A underpowered amp when asked to deliver more than it can will clip which is bad news and can easily destroy speakers. Only you can tell a overpowered amp to send to much power, by a non calibrated set-up and the volume knob way to high.



------------------
m-mmeyer
GO TWINS
My DVD's

There's always the Outlaw 7100, which ought to start shipping in the not-too-distant future. Hopefully the newsletter that should arrive any time now will have some more info on it, but it should be around 100Wx7.

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

Thanks guys ! I wasn't aware of this new offering. It's sounds like the "right" ticket. Any idea of it's price ???