Kevin: Lexicon has always used a combination of chips: currently it's SHARC and Crystal; in the older models it was a mixture of a few types of Motorolas, Lexichip (which ran the proprietary surround processing), and Zoran decoders. BTW, if you want to see what what the innards of the MC-12 look like (including a hi-rez pic of SHARC chips), go here .
Sayer: the DSP engines are basically used for signal manipulation; DTS/DD decoding, bass management, time alignment, surround processing & post-processing, etc. I doubt that the DSP engines would be contributing significantly to the sound quality of a pre-pro. The D/A converters probably have more influence, but ultimately it's the analog section and power supply that make the biggest sound quality differences between various audio components. Doesn't your Sony receiver have some sort of Re-EQ function that you can use to tame your bright sounding speakers?

Best,
Sanjay

Small world! I moved from the Sony ES receiver you now have, to the Outlaw 950. The Outlaw 950 is far more pleasing to my ears than the 30ES. However one complaint I have with the otherwise excellent 950 sound is it is slightly harsh in my system. (To be fair, others say the 950 is not harsh, but rather, revealing. I won't quibble with anyone about that.) However quite a few people who have compared the Outlaw 950 to the Rotel 1066 pre/pro say the Outlaw is harsher, or more revealing (take your pick) than the Rotel 1066.

Since you have the DA30ES receiver, you probably know that you can easily change the subwoofer volume, from the remote. That's not so easy to do on the 950's remote, and I miss the ease when switching between bass-light DD and bass-heavy DTS DVD's.

Anyway to repeat, the 950 pre/pro sounds better than the pre/pro section on your (and my old) Sony ES receiver, but the 950 is slightly harsh, to my ears.

The only time the Sony ES sounded better than the 950 was in quiet passages since my Sony never hissed noticably.

Will

[This message has been edited by Will (edited November 13, 2002).]

Thanks for the info. Yes there is some EQ facility on the Sony, but I have not explored it. I'll wait until the new amp arrives and then give myself a few days to get familiar with the sound before tweaking.

I'll have to see if the Sony can store separate EQ settings depending on the mode you are in. I really am pleased with the CD sound production, but in movies on DVD (like the famous Matrix lobby scene) there is too much of a harsh edge to the sound.

I've come from the background that EQ, bass boost, and any other additional tweaks are considered bad. This is very old school thinking... I basically installed the Sony, made sure everything was set to neutral, and forgot about it. It looks like these days it requires more than that.



Tis a small world! I'm hoping to demo the 1066 in the near future. I just searched and found a few of the threads on this forum regarding the comparison between the 950 and 1066.



Ahem.... Actually, I have not explored this. I just get up and change the sub. I'll have to explore that feature.

Like I stated above, I've probably been too stuck in the old school mentallity of leaving everything nuetral. I've never really trusted those extra features very much. I need to change my way of thinking a bit.



Arghhh!!!! Well, I have a lot to think about.

When I pulled the Siler 7 monoblocks out of my system last week I noticed that the DA30ES was weak to the left front channel. I've never used the onboard amps before for the mains, I had to turn the balance to about 9 o'clock to get it balanced with the right main.

Sayer

Sayer, But not uncommon in this hobby. What gets me is that audiophiles poo-poo the idea of equalization, often on principal alone, but then come up with all sorts of elaborate methods of tone control; everything from cable swapping to Mark Levinson's famous Cello Palate. I guess as long as they don't think of it as equalization, it won't offend their sensabilities.

Meanwhile, yes; once your new amp arrives, go ahead and tweak away with the equalizer built into your receiver. I mean it's not like you're going to hurt anything.

Best,
Sanjay

Even more silly when you stop to think how many places EQ is hidden in almost ALL signal paths.

Since Outlaw, Atlantic Technology and Sherbourn are using the same pre/pro platform, I'd imagine the extensive modifications now going on at Outlaw for the replacement 950 to reduce its hiss, where over 100 parts are changed, will be made in future Sherbourn and Atlantic Technology clones of the 950.