The great thing about the 990 is it has both balanced and unbalanced outputs, and we will not know what their design is until further info is furnished by the Outlaws. However, based on their other gear, I believe that both outputs will perform as they should. As for what sounds best, I can only hear what my ears allow me (too many nearby artillery rounds at the outgoing and incoming end, and not on some sound stage)) so I really don't care what anyone else hears. With that said, for telco transmission we always sent program and video on unbalanced 75ohm for short distances, and balanced 124ohm for long differences.

Presumably the second zone is a simple IR remote, which means that if you are running it from another room you would need to have an IR receiver and some wire to get signals from that other room back to the equipment rack. There looks to be at least one rear IR input, so you wouldn't necessarily even need to stick an emitter on the 990's face to deliver the signal.

They may be shaking the bugs out of the manual - it it's like project specifications, it's one of the last things that gets done.

Soundhound,
I don't mind you having an opinion on any kind of circuit design topology, but your statement above assumes that I, or anyone, is unable to discern which preamps and amps sound more transparent and neutral and that when we find those components which best fit our sonic requirements, our opinions are somehow based on the marketing bullshit being thrown our way.

Not only does your statement seem outwardly pompous in nature, but is downright insulting to those of us who make our equipment decisions on what sounds best to us and not on some "marketing" bullshit being thrown to us by fellow forum members.

I respect your opinions on balanced and unbalanced circuits, but would appreciate them even more if you respected our opinions as well in return.

BTW, I agree that the Gemstone is a very nice amp... and the company is owned by my friend Steve who also recommended and sold to me my Balanced Output Krell HTS 7.1.

Now... back to the 990.

Does anyone know if the 990 will have any sort of auto-eq feature?

One question I have is, does this require special headphones? Or is it a way to make regular stereo headphones sound like more than stereo?

Thanks,

We know there's an auto setup of some sort in there, but it's not clear what it attempts to do. The newsletter mentions "speaker size, delay and output levels" but not eq.

According to Dolby.com, Dolby Headphone will work with any headphones.

Now don't get all up in a snit. I only stated that there are no electronic devices that are totally devoid of noise, which you seemed to imply. If somebody has told you otherwise, they were feeding you bad information.

You are way out of line with the profanity.

Pat,
It uses regular headphones but must be of sufficient quality in order to use high impedence headphones.

I spent some time with the Anthem D1, which also has Dolby Headphone, and was able to use my Sennheiser 600s with it, without a problem, and thoroughly enjoyed watching movies using headphones. You won't probably get the same levels of bass and of course no sound pressure waves during explosions, but, Dolby Headphone is the best there is, IMO, for watching a movie late at night or when the baby is sleeping.

As for how the 990's Headphone amp and Dolby Headphone compares to that of the uber expensive Anthem D1, remains to be seen, and heard.

Soundhound (or anyone else)

So, what amp(s) do you recommend I look at in the same price range (sub $3K) as the Gemstone, since it is balanced?--7Channels..decent power?

I'm really more interested in high end music audio, since I figure if it can do that, I'll be more than happy with it's movie performance.

I wish that I had the knowledge that some of the posters around here do, but let me offer my humble input:

I have heard the difference between balanced and unbalanced connections between preamp and amp, and WOW! The balanced connections produced a complete lack of hiss/hum that was present with the unbalanced connections. The amount of hiss/hum present with unbalanced was not unusual for midfi equipment, but when the low amount of hiss/hum was GONE with the balanced connections, the music sounded so much more lively and wonderful. I have to say that any nth-order distortion effect problems that soundhound mentioned, were completely overwhelmed by the positive improvement to the music that the "totally black" background and dramatically lowered noise floor offered.

I wish my pre/pro had balanced outs. In fact, if it did, I would probably consider using it with high-quality active biamped monitor speakers, and thus avoid using any external amplifier at all! Can anyone here offer any advice about that idea? I am still a relative newbie to all this stuff, so I can't (and don't wish to) argue with soundhound or others about the electronic specifics - I can only rely on my own ears here!

I am very glad to see that Outlaw is offering balanced outs on their new pre/pro, and this is actually a major selling point for me (I think...)