I cannot seem to be able to control the second zone switching with the remote if the 950's primary zone is operating. Only if I turn the 950 off can I control the second zone.
Is this normal ?
I'm on my third 950 for various reasons and I'm starting to lose a little faith here !
The first one had extraneous noise all the time, the second one had the second zone volume all the way up when i initially selected it, and it blew a circuit !
This third one I have only had hooked up a few days so cannot report on everything yet, but it does demonstrate the control situation above.
I did keep the remote control for the second unit rather than set up a new one, perhaps the remotes are matched frequencies ?

OK, found the answer! (called Outlaw !)
Apparently, the second zone is only controllable through the setup menu if the 950's primary zone is operating.
You know, there is a great deal they don't tell you in the manual, yes?

Kiwi

I am thinking of buying the 950 but wanted to confirm that the multi-zone feature is going to work for me. I would like to play music in other parts of my house independent of the primary room and contol with a LeapFrog or a wall mount IR transmitter device.

What has you experience been since you have had a chance to fiddle with the features and commands with such external devices?

What are the pros/cons of the 950 multi-zone capabilities versus other units with the same feature?

There seems to be some documentation discrepencies on this capability and I don't have much experience with any other multi-zone units in the market so make a valid comparison.

I realize the strenths of the 950 aren't in the multi-zone capabilities but I want to make sure that it will meet my limited needs

-Richey

Take a look at the online manual, page 36. I find it to work pretty much as the description indicates. The 2nd zone can be used with the primary zone in standby. But you'll need to see the display and both zone triggers are either on or off. In other words when you trigger zone 2 (or 1) zone 1 (or 2) amp will also be triggered.

I find it pretty useful.

So I read sections about multi-zone in the manual and the following still puzzles me:

(1) It states that only analog sources can be used in the 2nd-zone. What Does this just mean that any optical source won't play like a DVD player?

(2) If the 950 is in standby and the 2nd-zone is triggered on, the manual states that the primary-zone remains in standby. Does this mean that no sound is sent to the primary-zone even thought the amplifier was triggered?

(3) Has anyone programmed a macro in the remote to turn on the 2nd-zone with the push of one button?

(4) Outlaw states the 2nd-zone can only be controlled through the setup menu on the 950 if the primary zone is on. Does this mean the "multi" button seizes to work on the remote?

(5) Would it be possible to use an external IR receiver and submit the command to turn on the 2nd-zone from another room if the primary zone is already on?

That is correct. However, if you connect a pair of analog cables from the stereo analog output of that DVD player to the DVD analog input, it will work. And it won't affect the way the DVD player works in the primary zone.



I don't have my 950 at hand to test, but I'm pretty certain that the answer to this is "yes." As long as the 950's primary zone is in standby, there will be no signal to the amp.



I never have. I don't use it enough to do it, although I may try this when I get an MX-500 (later this summer, probably). It would probably be an on/off macro, actually, and if you left your second zone on a single input and volume setting (like I do, tuner at a single volume position, feeding a wireless speaker that we drag into the yard sometimes on the weekends) it would be the only button you'd need under normal circumstances. The "multi" command once and the left or right (I think) direction pad button would switch between on and off, if I remember the menus correctly, although you would need to wait for the multi menu to time out to try it a second time or you would end up changing inputs.



I'm not sure if this is referring to the setup on-screen display (which would require the 950 to be on and delivering a monitor output to something) or the front panel as well. I tend to think it only applies to the OSD, in which case the "multi" button on the remote would still work when the 950 was in standby, but I'll need to try it at home to be sure.



Yes, it should be entirely possible. There is even an "external remote" input jack on the back if you didn't want to use an IR repeater of some sort. You will be unable to see the menus while in another room, though, so unless you are running an on/off macro or have a display in the other room fed from the 950's monitor out it will be difficult to know what you are doing.

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

Gonk

Thanks for the detailed response. Let me know how the testing goes.

If the 950 behaves the way you say, I am sold. It meets both of my needs and I am sure will also need other.

Thanks in advance for following up on the open points.

Richey

Richey

I didn't get a chance to test anything last night, but I should have the few minutes I need tonight or tomorrow morning and I'll post my findings here (hopefully tomorrow morning).

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

Let me chime in.
As to question 2. The answer is "Yes", no signal is sent to the primary amp when only the 2nd zone is used.

Question 4. The multi button is active on the remote as long as the 950 button is active. The multi button is dual purpose I believe it also is labeled T/V. I don't have the remote near me at the moment. The only difference between the primary zone on or off seems to be no OSD when the primary is off.

Let me add, I have a 7 channel amp and use 5 channels for home theater and the other for the remote zone. I use one (1) trigger cable and it works fine.

I tried something last night -- with the 950 in standby (only the yellow light below the power button on), pressing the "MULTI" button on the remote will bring on the front panel with the multi-zone menu. Switching the multi-zone mode on will then turn on the yellow ZONE light and cause the triggers to fire. As xyzfla says, the only thing you lose if you go to use the second zone while the 950's primary zone is off is the on screen display (which wouldn't really mean much if you were operating it from a remote location, since in most systems you couldn't see the TV anyway). That means you could use a "zone on/off" remote macro from another room and it would work whether the 950 was on or not.

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

My second zone output just died !
This is the third 950 I've had in 6 months and the second to have 2nd zone problems.
I have lost faith in this product. I know Outlaw will want to send me another unit, (there is no denying they stand behind their products) but at some point they have to take a strong look at the issue of quality control.
I bought a 755 amp and an ICBM with the initial 950 and have had no problems with either of them.
So now what am I going to do for a processor? - I do not think I can gamble on the 950 again.

Xyzfla or other takers-

I'm just getting my 950/7100 hooked up. Plan to use 5 channels for HT also, with the last two powering my 2 outdoor speakers. If I want whatever is playing in stereo bypass on the mains to also go direct to the oudoor speakers, how best to do this 9on both the 060 and 7100) and not have the outdoor speakers treated like rear or surrounds? Can the stereo bypass still be used when sending that full audio signal ouside also?Couldn't figure it out from the manual.

Thanks.

The operation of the two zones is completely independent -- both volume level and input source. You can select any input for the second zone (so long as there is an analog connection from the source to the 950, since the second zone does not provide D/A conversion), including the input that you have selected for the primary zone. In the case you describe, you can select CD for the second zone and select CD as your main input. You can also select stereo bypass for the CD on the primary zone if you want. Just connect the two extra channels of the 7100 to the second zone outputs of the 950 and hook your outdoor speakers up to those channels.

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

Hi all,

My first post. Forgive me if this sounds dense. (My current audio system consists of a ten year old stereo receiver and only 2, count em, 2 things that you could possibly call speakers if you wanted to be generous. At least they make noise when you turn em on).

I found the forum after reading the OUtlaws ads and have been reading and learning a lot from you all. I have a question. We have a game room down the hall from our tv room. The game room was wired with monster cable when they built the addition. The cables go from the speaker locations in the game room to the equipment rack location in the tv room.

Just so I understand the multzone operation... Is it possible to use the Outlaw gear (950 and either of the 7 channel amps) to simultaneously play a 5.1 Dvd movie in one room and a CD in another room (say - use 5 channels of the amp for the HT and the other 2 for the speakers in another room)? Would I need a couple of M200s in addition to a main amp to do something like that? And finally, will the 950 process the two sources simultaneously? Any insight would be great. Thanks!

Cheers,
Bartman

Bartman -- Welcome to the forum! The 950 does include a second zone, which acts basically as a separate stereo pre-amp. It is in fact possible to have a 5.1 source (DVD, whatever) playing in the home theater and simultaneously have a separate stereo source (CD, tuner, whatever) playing in a game room or on a porch. In my system, I have a cheap wireless speaker that we cart outside when we're working in the yard so we can listen to the radio or to CD's.

As for the logistics of making it all work, the speaker wire you have in place is probably the biggest piece of the puzzle. You would need some sort of amplification for the game room. A pair of Model 200's would certainly do the job, but you could also use an old stereo amp of some sort -- eBay and Audiogon can be good sources for such gear, as can local audio shops selling stuff that was traded in or even pawn shops. Heck, you could even use your old receiver as an amp if you wanted to. It's not necessarily the most sophisticated approach, but it would work. Once you have amplification of some sort, the speaker cable that is already installed, and some speakers at the other end, you would need to make sure that any sources you wanted to use in the game room were connected to the 950 with stereo analog cables because unlike the 950's main system, the second zone does not convert digital sources to analog -- it requires an analog source to begin with. So while you would most likely connect a CD player to the 950 with a digital cable if the player supported it for the main system, you would also need to hook up the left and right channels from the CD player to the 950 for the sake of the second zone.

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

Bartman, Yes, you can play a DVD in the main room and another source in the remote room (or both at the same time-room 2 in stereo-)and you will need a 2 channel amp (or 2 m200
amps!) for the remote room (you can also power it on/off with the zone remote trigger and install the amp in room 2)

Thanks Gonk and Alfredo - that was FAST! It sounds like the 950 can process everything I want, but you can't divide up a 7 channel amp into different zones (say use 5 channels for source A in one room and use the other 2 channels of the same 7 channel amp for source B sent to the speakers in another room). Shows how much I know about amps. I'm thinking the best solution would be one 5 channel amp (for the HT) and then two M200 amps (for the game room) all connected to the 950.

Thanks again for the light speed service!

Cheers,
Bartman

Sorry, Bartman, I think we have misled you in the process of answering your question... Oops...

If you have a 5.1 speaker system and a seven-channel amp, you will have two amp channels sitting idle, unused, and lonely. There is absolutely no problem with using those two channels to drive speakers in a second system (such as the second zone on the 950). If you are planning on using the 950 in a 5.1 configuration (which many people do) and you get a seven channel amp like the 770 or 7100, you could easily use the other two channels for your game room. No need for a separate amp of any sort.

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

Gonk - thanks for the info that I can have my tunes (analog) in both places. The helpfulness of all on this forum (and seemingly good service on Outlaw's part) are making me feel pretty good on this purchase. Thanks.

Thanks Gonk!