"Yes, I know you are my only daughter. Yes, I know you would like to finish college. Yes, I know all you need is another grand for tuition. But daddy needs a 990! Uh, you wouldn't understand, it's just another one of daddy's black boxes with twinkly lights are far as you're concerned, but it's what keeps daddy in the basement and out of trouble....sometimes.......you don't want daddy to get in trouble, do you? I knew you'd understand, sweetie, now go get a loan or something"

WOW! I get home from work and check out the 990 thread and even Merc came back! It's starting to feel like the Outlaw forum in here. All we need is RAF and Lena.

It's good to see you all. I hope life has been good to all of you. I had planned on keeping my 950 for a very long time, but component on-screen menus and the balanced outputs (to my Behringer EQs) may tip the scales towards the 990. A real bonus would be a tuner of the mid 80's NAD Schotz class (after all, we ARE talking about a Peter Tribeman company!) and a capable MM/MC phono section.

Upgraditis has been quelled by the strong performance of my 950, but...

I just realized that tomorrow will be 3 years since I registered here. I'm member #1317. I feel like I have been here a long time, then I look at Gonk and Pat. Hard to believe you guys have 4 years here.

The inside information I had about the delay with the 2500 related to the incomplete spec for the HDMI port and Yamaha not wanting to implement an incomplete feature. Hmm, sounds like Outlaw might be right about no HDMI ports...

On a side note, if the new 990 is as big as the Sherwood, it's going to be quite hefty. If the reasoning for the size is the balanced outputs, I do hope they are truly balanced as questioned in an above post. Knowing Outlaw, they probably are.

Also curious if the DVI switching will handle 1080p. Some DVI switchers out there will not (Dtronics 4x1, Gefen's).

Almost no one will need it to, but there is one situation where you would. Feeding a JVC HD2K both from its outboard scaler box and from an HTPC (or other direct 1080p source) you would need this capability.

Down the road, there may be other projectors with similar needs.

Anyone one from Outlaw know nif it has been tested at this resolution?

BB

Be careful what you wish for.

Completely balanced circuits not only add to the complexity of a circuit by a factor of two, with the resulting addition of noise and distortion, but they also cancel out even order distortion components such as the 2nd and 4th harmonic, the very ones you do not want to be cancelled. This leaves only the odd order (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th etc) distortion components laid bare, and these usually result in a sterile and hard sounding unit, even when the spec'd distortion is "vanishingly low".

All electronics generate distortion, however little, and the presence of the low order even harmonics (especially the 2nd harmonic) will cover up the presence of the higher order, harsher distortion components. Our ears are particularly sensitive to even vanishingly low levels of higher order/odd order distortion.

One of the major reasons tube amplifiers sound so natural is the fact that the distortion spectra is almost completely low order, with the 2nd harmonic being the most pronounced.

Plain old un-sexy unbalanced designs are the best sounding, and balanced circuits should only be used as a last resort to combat RFI/EMI picked up by extremely long cables (50' or more) that have to run through hostile environments.

Contrary to what marketing departments may have you believe, balanced circuits were developed for one purpose and one purpose only: to combat interference picked up by very long cables in professional installations. Their use actually involves a sonic penalty that is best avoided if at all possible.

I had not been visiting the forum for sometime now....but I get the email from the Outlaws, and its back to the forum. It looks like this has really drawn a few people back.

I hope that the 990 sounds as good as it looks...

Now I have to figure out how to pitch this to the wife.....

"I, for one, prefer to know what is coming, rather than be surprised, even pleasantly...

If people would have known to expect this, then surely they would have waited instead of just purchasing something else. Now, all of the people who just bought something are surely not going to buy the 990 also... No worries, though."


While I certainly understand Outlaw's thinking about the secrecy regarding the 990, as Curegeorg said, I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who grew impatient waiting for the PROMISE of a new pre/pro and went out and purchased something more updated than the 950. I was sure that Outlaw wouldn't release anything until the end of the year at the earliest (and probably much later than that, based on the 1070 and RR2150 problems!) and I was seduced by the deal I got on a Denon 3805! While I love the 3805 and have been enjoying it for the few weeks I've had it, I definitely would have held off on the purchase had I known the 990 was just about to be released, as I'm sure many others would have. Oh well, I guess that's the life we've all privately sworn to (or sold our souls to!) when we were first bitten by the HT bug!

Thanks SH. I have long been under the impression that balanced inputs were quieter and cleaner than RCA inputs (and outputs). You are forcing me to do some research. I still like the ieda of an on-screen display on component outputs, a high quality MM/MC phono section, a hopefully better tuner than the 950 (although the 950 tuner is better than the average receivers out there now), and the software upgradability. Naming of inputs is a plus, and perhaps each input can have its own settings (please?).

I am wondering about the quadruple crossover. Mains, center, sides, and rear surround?

Nope. Simpler unbalanced designs contain less active electronic stages for the signal to go through, and there is less chance of added noise and distortion as a result. Simpler is always better in audio, assuming a good design to start with.