Absence of Proof is not Proof of Absence. Nor is it proof of existence.
Collecting evidence for either side in this case amounts to the same thing... listening to the box compared to other boxes, over a very large sample of listeners...

Bottom line, I am not sure why we are trying to "prove" anything. Its not like the Outlaws are showing up at people's houses and forcing them to buy a 990 at gunpoint. I am sure the Outlaws would love to sell a unit to everyone.. they took their best guess at what people would buy at price point X, with feature list Y, with costs that allow X > Y to a point where they can pay people's salaries, their suppliers, the landlord and hopefully have a little left over for investors. Given the multitude of variables and real world constraints I am not surprised that everyone does not find the 990 perfect, or even desirable.

And here is the real underlying truth behind any discussion of what features are essential, desirable, or useless. It may seem obvious, but sometimes we forget that a product that may suit our needs perfectly provides no benefit to someone else. Even a product that offers most of the features needed by a majority of the interested consumers will simply not fit at all for others.

Are you sure? After all they are Outlaws.

Yet, you admit if the "circuits" are changed between the 950 and 990 they will sound different, but the 990 will sound identical to $5000 processors regardless of the circuits. Sounds like a testy argument. :rolleyes: Good luck on your processor hunt.

Well so far they haven't been to my house. Which at this point is still somewhat frustrating for me...

I'm with tbng on this one. For my situation (and apparently for his), he's dead-on with his list.

What I really care about is how it sounds. If it sounds better than my 950, at that price, I will be all over it.

One feature I do really like is the sub offset for two channel sources. I don't know why, as I've calibrated my speaker levels, but I always have to turn down the sub for two channel CD listening vs DD & DTS with movies.

Cary