Fellow Outlaws,

I have not seen much discussion of my biggest concern about the 950's design: the lack of means to upgrade its internal operating code.

The long delay has, fortunately or not, given me the opportunity to look closely at the features offered by competing units. After much soul-searching, my interest in the 950 is beginning to succumb to the much discussed "death of a 1000 paper cuts."

My greatest concern about the 950 is the lack of a mechanism by which the operating code can be patched/upgraded. I think Outlaw's decision not to include an RS-232 or FireWire port on the 950 constitutes a major oversight.

As with any complex computer software system, there is always a likelihood that bugs will be found. Also, as technology develops, new features and enhancements will become available. Unfortunately, Outlaw made a decision not to offer customers a means to incorporate those inevitable bug fix/features into their units. Their competitors did. As a result, I now have serious concerns about the long-term viability of the 950.

The inclusion of an RS-232 port would also have offered Outlaw the ability to sell upgrades providing them a source of incremental revenue with little manufacturing investment.

Without a means to upgrade the code, the 950 now represents a technological dead-end. It will remain a snapshot of the current state of technology that does not possess the ability stay abreast of industry developments. The Rotel and Anthem both offer that feature and, as a result, appear to have been designed with the long-term in mind.

I would gladly have paid $50-100 more for that feature. How about you? As it now stands, my excitement about the 950 is waning.

Any thoughts?

Santa Clara Jim


[This message has been edited by santaclarajim (edited June 16, 2002).]

I am not bothered by the inability to upgrade. There are a few products that offer it but many more that don't. By the time I am buying something that has the next latest and greatest features (a few years off to be sure) I will want the newest DACS and latest input standards to be met. Unless you get one of the couple boxes out there that can take daughter board upgrades you will need to upgrade regardless. I like the way mine sounds and the ability to upgrade wasn't on my list of must have's for 899. I figure that if I can sell it for a portion of what I paid for it when I upgrade I will be doing ok.

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Stott

I think the RS-232 port needs to be viewed as a software enhancement not a technology upgrade path.

When you receive a 950, you get what comes in the box. Unless yours is defective and swapped out with a new unit, that's it.

The Rotel 1066 can have its software ungraded, which basically means fixing bugs, not a major leap in technology. What what I have read/understand, people have already upgraded their Rotels to add DD EX and fix a couple of bugs.

I agree with santaclarajim, the complexity of these processors and the software that runs on them, make the ability to upgrade it invaluable. If you cannot upgrade the software, you either are an early adopter and live with any significant bugs, or you are a late adopter, get the improved code, but go without a processor for many months. The upgradable software gives you the best of both worlds.

I think that the real problem is the 950 is too good. Good enough for many to want all the other features that a more expensive pre/pro offers. But it was designed to be sold at a certain price, period. For many of us that is the most important factor in building an HT. It is one of the reasons we use separates, so that we can upgrade individual components as necessary/feasible/affordable.

I don't think this poses a problem. I have a B&K Ref 30. It has a RS-232 port on the back that can be used for setup and control, but not software upgrades. I just upgraded the software this weekend from 2.05 to 2.08 by replacing an eprom. This took only a minute or two longer than it used to take me to upgrade my Sony TA-E9000ESs software using the RS-232 port.

Adam,

Does the 950 offer the ability to upgrade the eprom as well?

Regards,
Santa Clara Jim

From what I understand, the 950 does have the ability to upgrade software via E-PROM replacement. Check out this blurb from the October news -- near the bottom is mention of e-prom replacement.

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

Gonk,

Thank you for the pointer. So, from what I gather from the blurb, there is a mechanism to upgrade the EPROM, but there is no indication as to whether or not it will actually be used. Hmmmmmmmm... I guess that's good news...uhhhh...right?

Santa Clara Jim



[This message has been edited by santaclarajim (edited June 17, 2002).]

I thought I read somewhere that the Outlaws said they would NOT be using the EPROM to do any upgrades as they were using an unshielded power supply. I didn't find it on a quick search so I could be mistaken.

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Stott

Can you find out for sure if they are using an unshielded power supply? Your source?

That may be part of the hissing issue, if true.

Dan