Folks should not confuse speaker auto-setup with room eq.

Considering how many receivers now come with some form of room eq., it sure would have been nice if the Outlaws had included this feature on the new 990...Audyssey's MultEQ comes to mind. Guess I'll have to wait....

As for the bass management on the 7.1 analog input, I don't think we know exactly how it is being implemented - I have no doubt that whatever solution is in place works for all 7 full-range channels, but whether it is an analog 80Hz crossover similar to the 950 or an option to convert to the digital domain and apply bass management (similar to what Anthem has done) is still unknown.

I've been poking around a bit on the HDMI issue over the last few days. In theory, it's a great idea - audio and video in a single connection, and the video side is very well nailed down. The problem appears to be implementation of the audio side. Dan points out that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will use HDMI for audio and will support some evolution of Dolby Digital and DTS over HDMI. The problem is that despite some of the trade show press, the formats and the audio signal standards are not pinned down yet. Look at my post near the bottom of page 5 for some of the neest reasons that this is the case - HD-DVD is running behind on finalizing the standard, which prevents hardware designs from being completed. Based on what Outlaw said in their newsletter and some other things I've read, it looks to me like Outlaw had to choose between three options: wait indefinitely for a guaranteed final standard for audio over HDMI (which could take a year or more, depending on how the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray issue shakes out over the next six months or so, leaving them with no new processor during the wait); include today's HDMI hardware and software and hope that the hardware will support the final software (a gamble that could backfire and strand thousands of customers on a platform with HDMI that is only good for video switching); or use DVI to cover digital video switching and get the 990 into people's equipment racks this spring so they can enjoy it during the months and years it takes for this all to shake out.

Are you sure that a room EQ is not included with the 990 unit?

www.prillaman.net/950_chart.html

The 990's entries in that chart are based on Outlaw's Sunday night newsletter, and the "auto calibration" line there refers to automatic setup in general, not necessarily room equalization. Based on the P-965 manual, I believe that its auto setup is purely distance, level adjustment, and small/large. The MC-12 v3 upgrade the same way, based on Lexicon's site.

I was wondering the same thing. the 990 is missing the infamous green button.

Not at all!

Does anyone other then the powers that be at outlaw or the pre production testers, know for sure that room equalization is not incorporated in the 990’s feature set?
I would like to suggest to the Outlaw crew that they release the full feature list as well unit specs and an internal parts list. Releasing this information in know way would contribute to disappointment of delivery expectations, and in fact will clear up some of the unnecessary speculating and debate that is now going on. I find a lot of this speculation and debate annoying and unproductive. It concerns me that the powers that be are not seeing this as a negative, and eliminating the confusion by providing all the available technical information on the 990.

I don't think anyone knows for certain. I have assumed that because it was not mentioned as one of the aspects of auto calibration in the newsletter on Sunday that it most likely does not. As for a more complete feature list, I agree that it would be good to get our hands on that, and I expect that we will see more information when the next newsletter arrives in the next week or so. I do not expect to see an internal parts list, only because I've never seen such a list for other Outlaw components.

How about a dumb question? At what separation distance between a 990 and 755 would you expect that you should used balanced vs unbalanced interconnects? Or should you always use the balanced?

I don't think you can use the balanced outputs to the 755. It doesn't have the connectors to handle them.