here's my first thoughts after only a couple of days with both of them in the same theater. I'd imagine that things will change as I have time to live with the 950:
Background info:
I’ve had the 1066 for a couple of weeks now, so I’m fairly used to it. I received the 950 on Friday and spent most of the night switching them out to compare and check for the issues that others have posted about the 950. Starting last night, I just left the 950 in the system so that I can have some time with it and try to eliminate familiarity with the 1066 as too much of an issue. I’ll put the 1066 back in next weekend and see if that changes any of my first impressions. The 950 vs. 1066 is the only thing I am swapping out in my theater. Everything else remains the same. All of this info should be read with the qualifier, “In my system,”
Facts (things I can measure):
Hiss: A lot of talk about this one. I have found that the 950 has a much louder hiss than the 1066. I can hear hiss on the 1066 from an inch or so from the tweeter but no more while the hiss on the 950 can be heard from ~4 feet away. Neither can be heard from my listening position in most cases, but the 1066 does seem to have the lower noise floor.
Signal Acquisition: The 950 is very slow. Again there are lots of comments on this already. When changing channels on the direct system the 950 takes a few seconds to lock. Not terribly annoying, but it is a little. With the 1066 I usually have audio before I have picture on my direct system.
Cross talk: Both systems show this. As far as I understand it’s due to the common ground for the analog inputs. If one analog source is playing, you can hear crosstalk on any unused analog input. I have not been able to hear the crosstalk on an active analog port even during complete silence.
Double Bass: This was a big concern of mine going in. I have read that a lot of people can’t hear it in their systems, but it turns out that I can. I guess this may be something like being able to see the rainbow effect on a DLP projector. Some people can see it and some can’t. What I ended up doing was playing sine waves at different frequencies with the sub on and with the sub off and measuring the output with a sound meter. There is clearly more output when both the sub and mains are playing the signal, but if you can’t hear it then it won’t be an issue for you.
Drop Outs: I have had a few drop outs using the optical input for my directTV receiver. From asking on the outlaw forum, this does not appear to be a common problem. It is not happening enough to make a difference with my testing, but I did want to point out that it’s there.
Opinions (take it for what it’s worth):
Sound: The big question. I find it hard to even write this because it is such a subjective thing, so please put a huge IMHO here. These are both great sounding rigs. Probably the best I have ever heard. I have not listened to anything that costs many times more than either of these boxes with the exception of my old Ref 20 which I think retailed for ~$2400. I don’t think it’s fair to compare these with older generation processors on a cost basis, so I don’t think that counts. That being said, sound wise they both outpace the Ref 20 by quite a bit. I was not able to have them both in the theater at the same time, but I lived with the Ref 20 for over a year so I stand by that claim. They both offer a huge soundstage and very clear and detailed sound. The movie processing is dead on with each of them and I don’t think you could tell the difference between rotel’s XS processing and outlaw’s CES if they are not the same thing.
One of the big sound questions is if you could tell them apart in an ABX test. My answer to this is that I think I could with enough listening and on certain source material. Most of the time I don’t think I could, but there are certain times when the 950 sounds a little harsh to me or maybe it’s the 1066 sounding a little warm; I don’t know. I don’t want to get in to which one is producing the more accurate sound because I have no idea what the answer to that is. What I do know is that in that 5% of the time that I think they sound different; I prefer the warmer sound of the 1066. The 950 sounds a little uncomfortable and maybe fatiguing at those times. This is probably much like the speaker debates where some people like a warm sound and some like a bright sound and some can’t even agree on what speakers are bright and what speakers are warm. There is no right or wrong answer here.
Looks: This is meaningless to me as all of my equipment lives in a closet in my office and is hardly ever seen by anyone. I do prefer the looks of the 1066 and I think that the silver one is pretty cool looking. The outlaw looks a little fisher-price with the big buttons and colors, but I can’t imagine that coming into play on someone’s decision to buy.
Ease of Use: I didn’t see any real differences here. They each seem to have their good and bad points, but I can’t imagine that during normal operation either would pose any problems at all with usability.
Bottom line: These are both great pre/pros. I’d be very happy to own either of them, and I don’t think you can go wrong in a choice between them. In my opinion, the 950 dies a death of a thousand paper cuts in my system. The big issues of the double bass and the brightness push me towards the 1066 and all of the other little things add up to another push in that direction. After living with the 950 and getting used to its sound, that may change. But that’s where I stand for my first impressions.
Sorry this was so long. I guess I had more to say than I thought.
brianca
[This message has been edited by brianca (edited May 26, 2002).]
Good luck with your new home theater. lk
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