My 950 *may* be black, but I don't think of it as black. Compared to my other components that really are black, the 950 is a little more grayish. Might be the surface roughness or the specific finish.


Oh yeah, so I just went through the Outlaws products pages, and also looked at the new ad for the 950 on HTF. They all sure look gray to me!


[This message has been edited by Kevin C Brown (edited January 19, 2003).]

soundhound: you got a good point there. Still, wouldn't hurt to read what others are saying outside of this dedicated Outlaw forum. Most people here seem to be very satisfied Outlaw customers which I am sure Outlaw knows about. What I want Outlaw to know is the potential customers they have lost because of poor aesthetic of their products. Outlaw can get this kind of feedback by venturing outside of this little forum of ours.

[This message has been edited by eskendir (edited January 19, 2003).]

Does anyone believe that part of the Outlaw mystique is that of: "astetics be damned, we are about the sound"? Seems to me that the Outlaw newsletters tended to imply that the sound was all that was important.

I was just noticing the Outlaw add in Home theater magazine. Compared to other products, the Outlaw 950 and 770 did look "less elegent". An Adcom amp a few pages prior had a more refined faceplate, come LEDs and a black power button. Would someone buy the Adcom over the 770 because of the appearance? Maybe so.

I think the Aragon amps look cool, but am not willing to pay big bucks for one.

The Denon 3802 stuffed in my rack has a nice finish and nice feeling knobs. (Not that I feel the knobs very often ) The buttons are cheap feeling though. That goes for the Panasonic RP-82 DVD player. The buttons are cheap feeling on it as well.

I think most well informed purchasers place price and performance at top of priorities. Seems to me Outlaw is targeted at the well informed crowd and is trying to hit the niche of low price/high performance. Even so, I say, put some nice aluminum knobs on your products. I like nice feeling knobs.

I've always been a form follows function guy, so even though I do not care for the logo, it is a matter of degree. When form matches function, especially for little or no increase in cost (price)then design nirvana has been achieved. That silly toy-like Outlaw logo prevents Outlaw from achieving this. But I just close the cabinet and listen to the functional aspects of the deal and the price I paid which far more than compensates for what I choose not to look at.

It would be nice if the 950/770 were available in the same finish as model 200 but with a new logo. The 200 looks great. All black, no big ugly green button and cheap plastic looking finish here.

From the pictures I've seen, the finish on the Model 200 is the same as the finish on the 950, 770, 755, and ICBM. The logo is different (I suspect future production runs of the other Outlaw products will adopt the new logo) and there's no power button (similar to the ICBM in that regard), but otherwise it's the same Outlaw face plate as always.

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

I thought all the Outlaw stuff was a sort of semi-gloss powder coat looking black stuff, yes? Is anything they make not black?

My 950 is a slightly lighter shade of black than the black anodized finish on my Sony gear. It actually looks like a _very_ dark grey to me.

From the picture I have seen the 200 looks black to me vs the dark grey for the 950/770/750.

As Pat mentioned earlier, it is difficult to judge by picture alone (especially some of the earlier pictures Outlaw has -- perhaps due to the methods used by their photographer). There was an old thread in the 1050 forum by someone who chose not to get a 1050 because he thought it was blue based on some pictures on Outlaw's site. When a friend bought one, he was startled to discover that it's actually somewhere between dark gray and black (not as pure black as some components in my rack, but really too dark to be quite gray if that makes sense). Looking at JasonA's 200 pictures (particularly the front and front detail pictures), it appears to be the same finish as the Outlaw faceplate I'm looking at right now (a Model 950). The finish on the aluminum can often catch ambient light a lot when photographed and make the face look lighter than it really is.

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