As of yesterday I am now an owner of the 950 pre/pro. I have to tell you I was very sceptical of the performance this could deliver. I found it to exceed my expectations and the performance of my Adcom GTP600 and Marantz DP870 (off-board processor). Sonically the music and Dolby Digital were both more detailed and crisp.
The sub signals are more detailed and
crisp. I believe I have more highs and lows now.
The Stereo mode was even better and I have more volume on all settings. The CD analog input is the loudest at -27db for comfortable listening.

I found the remote to be lacking some buttons
needed to be a universal remote for my use.
The display could be larger, I can't read it across the room (13'), maybe just old age.

I will set up my RC5000 remote to control this pre/pro.

Now for the losses..
The tuner does not pull in all the stations that the Adcom could pull in.

I'll miss my two switched and 1 unswitched 115V outlets on my old pre/pro.


Equipment used in this system:
Paradigm Eclipse bi-polar fronts bi-amped to
Adcom 5800 each.
Polk Audio CS1000 center speaker.
Paradigm ADP-170 side surrounds.
Paradigm mini monitors back surrounds.
Adcom 5 channel amp for center and surrounds.
Subs: Kilpsch SWII and a Polk SW-650.

So far this seems to be a great bang for the buck. I would highly recommend this unit to anyone. :-)
JT

welcome to the Outlaw family!

Personally I'd like to see future pre/pros drop the tuner completely; Those who want it probably want a good one, maybe even already have one, and the rest of us never use it.

I'm reasonably happy with my 1050, I think I'll wait a bit before I leap, maybe see if the 950 big brother is more to my liking.

Glad your enjoying yours - seems to be a great value, as well as an excellent product.

The tuner in my 950 was better than I expected! A tuner needs balance between sensitivity and sound quality. Only very high end, expensive tuners do both well. The 950 is fairly sensitive, but gives up really high sensitivity in exchange for fantastic sound with strong stations. (in my opinion...and I listen to a fair amount of radio). Magazines have listed the 950 as being terrible at AM, but I have found it more than acceptable for listening to distant sporting events and talk radio. Of course I turn off the TV and all flourescent lights when listening to AM and I have a straight wire antenna in the attic. (I also have a 100 mile FM antenna in the attic).

Yes, a $100 DX AM radio will pull in AM better...but that is 1/9 of the price of the 950. Even a cheap FM tuner is another $150, and the remote control is another $75...A cheap AM/FM tuner and the remote would cost over 1/4 the price of the entire package, so I don't complain. In fact, I praise highly!

I was actually surprised at the performance of the tuner in my 950. I have a very good Phase Linear tuner, and the one in the 950 pulled in as many stations, and with comparable sound quality.

I do agree however that the days of the tuner are (or should be) numbered. Radio is bound to go the digital route in the future. Frankly, I was surprised that the 950 had one at all, and wouldn't have missed it. I would rather have had a better remote

I prefer using the 950 in stereo mode, for critical listening. For FM however, the DTS NEO and DPL modes are great!

Incidentally I'm glad that the 950 has a tuner! One reason I decided to get the 950 instead of the Rotel pre/pro was because the 950 has a tuner and the Rotel does not. I really enjoy listening in the background to FM and even to AM sometimes.

However, I was disappointed by the 950's AM tuner. There's way too much static on stations that come in clearly on my previous AM tuner. I like to listen to AM for news and games, so the sound quality doesn't have to be great. But I wish the 950 didn't have so much AM static.

Mine has very very little static in AM. Will, have you tried a straight wire antenna in the attic and shutting off all lights that are not incandescent?

I'll be honest, I wasn't too happy with the presence of the tuner at first either. (I have a Nakamichi ST-7.) But, after playing around with the FM antenna, I can get all the stations I need. (The tricky one is a low power college radio station I listen to.) The Nak is a better tuner, but the Outlaw's is "good" enough. Saves me a rack space, and AC outlet, ...

I'm using the supplied indoor AM antenna, like I used with the tuner in my previous receiver, only with the receiver, I didn't get this much static. The static is about the same no matter if I use the indoor antenna supplied with the 950, versus the indoor antenna I used previously.

I haven't tried a straight wire antenna in the attic. But I tried turning off all lights in the room, which didn't fix the problem in my case.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited February 14, 2003).]

I'm a new owner too. I received my 950 a few days ago. Unfortunately the unit was DOA, which was fairly disappointing - BUT: I called Outlaw support at around 1:00PM PST and they told me they'd send a new unit. IT ARRIVED THE NEXT DAY! I am impressed! They're so fast, they didn't even leave me enough time to get upset :-)

The new unit works great and I'm very happy with how it sounds - definitely no need to spend 2 or 3 times more. I had my doubts about buying directly thru the Internet but I have to say price/performance ratio is outstanding and I can't complain about customer support. Besides, I didn't have to put up with sales guys trying to feed me a load of BS. Can I ask for more?

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