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).]