The time delay is actually set as the "distance" in either feet or meters, from your listening position to the speaker. Then the 950 converts it internally to milliseconds. Basically, 1 foot (0.3 meters) equals 1 millisecond.

You set the distance/delay once and it applies to all processing modes.

Sorry, there isn't a manual yet. But I made a bunch of suggestions for when they do write it!




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JeffLH

Thanks for the reply. Just to clairify, there is a distinct adjustment for each of the 7 channels? The surrounds are not lumped together? What about LFE?

Also, does LFE have phase adjustment?

Bummer that we can't rename the inputs - that's always a nice touch.


Charlie

One other question - what is the range of adjustment?

[This message has been edited by charlie (edited February 12, 2002).]

I'm pretty sure left and right are grouped, but I don't remember if the 4 surrounds are grouped... I'll check tonight and will post again tomorrow morning.

There's no phase adjustment for the sub.



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JeffLH

Hello, gang.

Beta Tester #1 making a quick pit stop. If you want to see my take on the marvelous 950 check out my HT web site at

http://home.att.net/~rfowkes1/HT.html


I'm strapped for time right now so I won't be spending a lot of time here (the 950 has kidnapped my free time!!), but I do hang out at the HTF where I'm a moderator.

Enjoy!

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RAF

My HT (latest update 02/05/01)

I would also be curious if the 950 mixes .1 back into the 'large' speakers if LFE is off.

On the 1050 I played the Sound and Vision sub woofer level test and switched the LFE off and on during. This sequence has atone sent to left for 4 seconds followed by a tone sent to LFE for 2 seconds. When I turned LFE down there was a 2 second hole. When I switched LFE off the .1 was mixed into the large speakers in the system, so clearly the 1050 mixes the .1 back into the large speakers.

Charlie

I checked the tuner and it does have 32 presets. I noticed that if a stored station is too weak, the preset scan will quickly skip over it.

The bass and treble can be adjusted +/- 6dB, in 2dB steps.

During calibration (using the built-in test tones and adjusting relative volumes) you can individually adjust all eight speakers -15/+10dB. That's L, C, R, R-surround, L-surround, R-back, L-back, and sub.

For setting the crossovers, the left and right fronts are grouped, the center stands alone, and the four surrounds are grouped.

Sorry, I forgot to check the delay menu to see about groupings...

To test for crosstalk, I played a DVD - connected to both the digital coaxial input and to an analog input, then switched to an unused input and cranked the volume up to the top (+10dB on the scale.) I didn't hear any crosstalk - absolutely no bleeding through of the music!

One problem with not having a manual is that I don't know everything this unit can do. I read in the latest Outlaw newsletter that it does format conversion between S-Video and composite. I tried it this morning and it works! I connected a composite input and it played on the S-video monitor output.
Then I connected just the S-video input and it played on the composite monitor output. Neat!

It was too bright in my room to really test the quality of the conversion, but it looked great in a quick test using The Fifth Element DVD.

A quick note about quality - I've been plugging and unplugging connections for the past couple of weeks and everything is holding up great and still looks brand new. I've also accidentally zapped the thing with static a couple of times when I forget to ground myself after shuffling across the carpet. It just keeps running great.

The metal case seems strong enough to handle some serious stacking. There are vents on the top though, so I don't know if that's recommended. It has only gotten very slightly warm during my tests.



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JeffLH

It sounds to me like the 950 is shaping up to be an incredibly high quality product with a few minor annoyances. Some of those annoyances are understandable, as "fixing" them would drive the price way beyond $900 even for the Outlaws; some seem to be things they just didn't think where important.

Example: it converst composite sources to S-Video. Quite useful, except that it won't convert to component. This works great if you've only got S-Video and composite sources, but you'll still have to switch modes on your TV if you have at least one component source in the mix. I can guess, though, that S-Video to composite conversion circuitry is probably pretty expensive.

Another example: you can't rename inputs. Sounds to me like this would have been a lot easier to do, but they probably just didn't think of it. It would have been very useful to me, as my CD player will have to plug into one of the video inputs due to its on-screen displays.

Do these minor annoyances overshadow the quality and value of the 950? No, of course not. It's still going to be both the best sounding and cheapest unit out there. But you bet they're both on my wish list for the 950's successor.

Are the adjustments in 1db increments, or in the more precise .5db increments?

Neil

Here are the menu screens:

Main Menu

Input Config
Speaker Config
Channel Calib
Channel Trim
System Config
Multi-Zone
PL2 Music Parameters
Exit

----------
Input Config

Source: DVD
Input: Coaxial 1
Mode: PL2
Music
Treble: 0dB (+/- 6dB, by 2dB increments)
Bass: 0dB
Night: No Comp (DR Comp 1 to 4)
Return to Main Menu

----------
Speaker Config
Front: small/large
Center: small/large/none
Surr: small/large/none
Surr Rear: LB/RB bs(LB) none
Sub: on/off
front Xover: 40/60/80/120/150 Hz
center Xover: 40/60/80/120/150 Hz
surr Xover: 40/60/80/120/150 Hz
Return to Main Menu

----------
Channel Calib
left front: 0 dB (-15 to +10 dB, by 1 dB)
center front: 0 dB (or none)
right front: 0 dB
right surr: 0 dB
right back: 0 dB (or none if you only have one back speaker)
left back: 0 dB
left surr: 0 dB
subwoofer: 0 dB (or none)
Return to Main Menu

----------
Channel Trim

All the same entries as Channel Calib.
The difference is that in Trim mode, you
can hear your source playing. In Calib,
you get white noise.


----------
System Config
front distance: 13 feet (0 to 20')
center distance: 11 feet
surr distance: 10 feet
VFD brightness: half/full
OSD Timeout: 3/5/10/15/20/25/30 seconds
Sleep Timer Set: 0/5/10/20/30/40/50/60 min
Theater Compen: on/off
Distance Units: feet/meters
Return to Main Menu

----------
Multi-Zone
Multi-Zone: on/off
Input: CD
Mute: on/off
Volume: -21 dB
Return to Main Menu

----------
PL2 Music Parameters
Panarama: on/off
Dimension: step 0 (+/- 3)
C width: step 5 (0 to 7)

Return to Main Menu
------------

There are some other hidden things - like if you press and hold the DD button, you can switch between a locked setting and an auto setting. I'm waiting for the manual to find out how auto works.

Also, some menu choices are disabled in some situations - although they're not greyed out. For example, you can't turn off the sub if you tell it you have any small speakers. And you can't adjust the night compression if you're in certain processing modes.



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JeffLH

During the early part of beta, I called Peter directly whenever I had a question - at his home or office. He also called me many times and always asked how I liked the sound. He was always very proud of how the 950 turned out and how it was even better than they had hoped for. If they've left out a few bells and whistles (custom named inputs, for example) that definitely wasn't the case when it came to anything related to producing great sound.

I never got the impression that they were holding anything back from the 950 implementation in order to leave room for a high-end model later.



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JeffLH