I am on the waiting list & already have a Sony TA-E9000ES, B&K Ref 20 of which I intend to replace with the Outlaw 950. I am leaning to replacing the B&K as I like the sound of the Sony for home theater. I also have the Parasound AVC 2500 which I am not replacing. They are all on different systems. How does the 950 compare with the B&K & Sony. Personally I am not a B&K fan at all. My B&K amp when new blew out the speaker in the l/r & then the board blew out. After the amp was repaired I moved it to a different system & since then 2 more speakers also the l/r have blown, 1 was a optimus & the other energy take 5. Energy repaired it & says the crossover was toast as well as the woofer. So far the amp itself okay but will have it checked. But again is the 950 better then the sony or b&k.

I have a Sony. But I don't know how you can compare them. They are from different technology generations. The Sony, while a fine sounding piece o' gear, and with bass management that actually does what it's supposed to, still doesn't have DD EX, DTS-ES, 6.1 or 7.1 soundfields ("virtual" doesn't count), DPL II, 5.1 analog inputs; does have 24/96 DACs but not the 24/192's the Outlaw does, ...

I would imagine that overall sound quality would be "close" between them, but *I* am upgrading simply because of the additional features.