Wait a minute, I thought that was the primary function of a pre/pro...

I agree. Also, I would say the same thought would apply regarding the features found in each particular processor.

If you really believed that, why not buy a $500 receiver and use that as a pre/pro?

If you say that there's no or not much difference between the Outlaw at $950 and pre/pros costing more than $1500. Why would there be any more difference in a receiver at $500? You could save a lot of money that way.

Plus, due to economies of scale, a receiver at $500 actually might have *more* engineering hours put into its design. (I.e., they sell a lot more of them, so the R&D overhead per unit is a lot less. Plus the many common components that would be in units just below or just above that particular unit in a company's product line.)

Hey, today's $500.00 receiver probably outperforms a $1500.00 unit of a few years ago!!!

There is a downward threshold to anything built for a certain price point, below which overall quality and reliability suffers. The quality of the switches, jacks, and controls for instance. Also, a really cheap receiver cannot afford to put as powerful a DSP chip into its design, therefore the processing is compromised by having to make do with less processing power. Just listen to the "boingy-chruch" reverb settings that some receivers have. They are trying to make shortcuts in the processing power devoted to what is a rather complicated process. Same thing with computer program plug-ins for DSP for your soundcard (or my digital workstation) Some processes take 2 or 3 DSP chips to get the reverb or other effects right. The Outlaw 950 probably is pretty close to that "sweet spot" where the quality of the components is good enough, yet there is little "fat" wasted on cosmetics. Also, notice they don't even attempt to do "room simulations" which cuts DSP overhead (and are pretty useless IMHO) and would probably sound pretty crappy anyway in a unit costing under $1000.00.

I'm sure you know all this already...



[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited August 28, 2002).]

You just contradicted yourself dude.



So a "number cruncher" isn't just a "number cruncher."

I don't know about y'all, but the 6 channel Aragon Aurum Class A preamp that is part of tha Aragon Soundstage that I installed yesterday most certainly does not sound like a Casio!
The only person that I'm out to impress is myself. I listen to music, and/or, movies everyday. Couldn't wait for the Outlaws any longer. The only thing I have to wait on now is the upgrade to some newer formats and 24/196 chips. With the way this unit sounds and functions right now it will be an extremely pleasurable wait.
$1700.00 on Ubid. Incredible deal. I spoke with Steve at Mondial/Aragon. With the release of the StageOne, they sold all of the remaining 2001 Soundstages to Ubid. I couldn't be more satified right out of the box. I'm just wondering how much better it will sound with a little time on it.
I'll be auctioning-off my spot on the waiting list. (Just kidding).
Good luck.
Mix

[This message has been edited by MixFixJ (edited August 29, 2002).]

I was referring to FUNCTION, not the relitive POWER of a DSP. The DSP in a $199 unit HAS THE SAME FUNCTION AND CRUNCHES NUMBERS the same way as that in a $4,000.00 unit, the only difference is in scale. BUT given sufficient DSP power allocoated to the job at hand, that $199 unit COULD in theroy decode DD as well as the $4000.00 one.

Mix- I might just have to take a look-see for one of those Aragons. I have two Acurus A200x3's now, and that would make for a nice setup...