I received the pre-production reference sample 755 today. Rather than sending you all over the web, I'm reproducing a couple of preliminary comments I made over on the HTF as follows:

The heavy (83 pounds!) box arrived today and I hope to have it hooked up by sometime tomorrow (I have previous commitments tonight). I thought that my Denon 5700 was a beast at a little under 50 pounds, but this 755 is a back breaker! The 770 is supposedly even heavier. The mind boggles. The 755 looks extremely impressive in terms of build quality. I popped the hood and it looks exactly like the pictures in the 755 gallery on the Outlaw site. Although I don't have a 770 in front of me, from the comparison of the pictures of the two units I wouldn't be surprised if the 755 is the same as the 770, with two fewer channels.

Also, the binding posts on the back and the RCA input jacks are very heavy duty. All in all one hefty piece of equipment. If the performance is as serious as the build quality then this will be one kick-a unit.

I'm planning to run a series of listening tests comparing the 755 to my Marantz MA700 monoblocks, as well as comparing the sound of the 755 to the 175W/channel amps of the Denon 5700 (which will be leaving shortly). I really don't expect the 5700 receiver's amps to compete well, but I'm curious. There's also the question of what I'm going to do with the 8 channels of amplification I now have available. One option would be to keep the MA700s in front for the L/C/R channels as they are now, and use the 755 for the 4 surround channels. Another option would be to use all five channels of the 755 for the L/C/R front and the L/R Side Surrounds, with two of the MA700's feeding the L/R rear surrounds. The third MA700 would become a spare (waiting for 8.1? )

The nice thing is that with all of the amps able to receive banana plugs trying out all these possibilities will not be too complicated. I just have to make sure that I don't have so much power plugged into my outlets that the electric meter screws itself into the ground!



Stay tuned....


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RAF

My HT (latest update 02/14/02) Now includes Outlaw 950

Or maybe use the 755 for all the surrounds and front center, and use the MA700's for your mains. That way you don't need to power up all the rest of it if you just want to listen to 2-channel.

I thought of that but, assuming that the MA700s and the 755 have slightly different listening characteristics this would be contrary to my goal of keeping the front soundstage balanced for movies. The 3 MA700s across the front would allow me to do something like this by keeping the 755 off for two channel music. However, I'll see which ones sound best in the final analysis.

Also, remember that an amp doesn't draw that much power (Class A amps excepted) when at idle. True, since the 755 is a Class AB device there would be some current draw, but nothing too excessive. And some would argue that it's better to use the amps more rather than less overall as well.

Finally, I'm hoping that the 755 outperfroms (or at least matches) the MA700s because then I can save a bit of shelf space by removing one MA700 right now. One of the advantages of monoblocks is that there is greater flexibility installing them whereas a big box like the 755 is either there or it's not.

And, of course, the final configuration will be all about sound. I hope to have some answers later today if all goes well.

Sounds like you've got a fun day ahead of you. Best of luck with it, and I look forward to hearing what you find out.

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Gonk

gonk,

I'm busy as the dickens right now (and the fact that there is a deadline on a bunch of March Madness Pools doesn't help!) but I did take the time to post some initial impressions at:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56590

That'll have to hold you for a bit until I can catch up.

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RAF

My HT (latest update 02/14/02) Now includes Outlaw 950

Robert, Bob, RAF, Doc, Whatever - Could you please post your impressions here so that I can read them.
Thanks and Take Care,
merc, John, Rusty J.(sic), Whatever

[This message has been edited by merc (edited March 14, 2002).]

merc,

No problem. (I didn't realize you can't read things on the HTF. I thought the only limitation was posting.)

I'm intending to eventually add some comments and pictures on my HT web site but a combination of factors vying for my time (March Madness, a christening, a surprise party, etc.) might not give me a chance until next week.

So, in the interim, here's a quick "cut and paste" for some of my comments over on the HTF:

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I've spent most of the day playing with my new Outlaw 755 Amplifier. I tested it out with my Marantz MA700 monoblocks and also with the amplifier section of my Denon 5700 in all possible combinations. After almost 8 hours of constant listening my initial verdict is in.

If you are planning on getting a 755 (or a 770 which is the functional equivalent of the 755 with two more amps) I predict you will be very, very happy. The individual amps in the 755 match up very nicely with the performance of my MA700's and, quite honestly, I can't say that I can hear a difference. I've lived with the MA700s powering my front soundstage (L/C/R) for over a year and when I put three amps of the 755 in place of the three MA700s the only reason that I knew that this had occurred was because I had done the wiring. Very similar performance in terms of power and imaging. And this is not surprising because the two products have very similar specs. I love my MA700s and the 755 amps are, in my opinion, at least the equal in performance.

Then I replaced the four Denon 5700 amps that were previously powering the four surround channels (LS,LR,RR & RS) with the remaining two amps from the 755 and two of the MA700s. As we like to say here in New Yawk, Fuggedaboudit!! No contest. An acoustic epiphany! Seven clean channels of 300W each into 4 ohms with plenty of headroom. Of course, the MA700s and the 755 amps are more powerful and have much more robust specifications than a receiver's amp section so this wasn't really a fair comparison.

It now just comes down to which amps to use where and for me this is just a matter of convenience. After trying out all manner of configurations I've decided to let the 755 address the L/C/R and L&R side surrounds (as indicated above) and use two MA700s for the L&R rear surrounds. The remaining MA700 becomes a spare until 8.1 or whatever shows up.

I will probably never, ever need all the headroom that this set-up provides, but as with my SVS subwoofer, it's nice to know that it's there for that rare burst of power that is called for. (A similar philosophy guides my predilection for 8 cylinder automobiles.) During normal listening and viewing the reserves make the regular stuff effortless and this shows up in how everything sounds.

I've been speaking very favorably about the performance of the 950 and can now, from personal experience, give an enthusiastic endorsement for a 950/755 or, by extension, 950/770 package.
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Hope that helps.

Take care.

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RAF

My HT (latest update 02/14/02) Now includes Outlaw 950