Just a fast word of encouragement for everyone out there: My 990 just got dropped off by the carrier and is now on my living room floor! Unfortunately I have to work today and won't get to play with it until this evening but I thought I would let others know that the first units have hit the beach.

Very cool! I'm looking forward to hearing some real world feedback!

Hi Audioholic,

Did you get an email that said they shipped it?
I ordered in the first batch (but not till Monday -- Who checks their email on Mothers Day? I know, apparently a lot of people) but I haven't seen credit charges (of course me CC company is usually late posting them) and I haven't seen a ship email yet.

Darn. I hate waiting :>)

Congrats on being one of the first, Audioholic!

I just received my final invoice and all my shipping info in an email. Looks like my 990 arrives on the 'morrow. Unfortunately, the cables are coming Friday followed by the 7100 on Saturday and finally the LFM-1 next Tuesday!

With any luck, I'll have sound by this weekend!

Hi Cerebus,

I ordered on Sunday night (after paying appropriate respects to my wife and mother of course), the bank showed that the charge hit Monday and I received shipping info today.

I'd expect that you'll see your invoice and shipping notice today or tomorrow.

I hope we all have some fingernails left after this excruciating wait!

I just received mine today as well. I didn't expect to see it until next week, but it shipped from MA so it was basically overnight for me. Sure glad I didn't pay for overnight shipping!

I'm at work, but I'm going to plug in the USB to my PC and listen to the headphone circuit at least.

Sounds like it's time to start watching the office door - I had mine sent to work...

Well, it took a lot longer than I expected to get audio out of the headphones. I actually had to RTFM on that one - you have to hold down MUTE for 3 seconds (5 seconds if via remote) to switch from speaker outputs to headphones.

I have audio playing from my PC through the USB and out the headphones. There are some unexpected limitations, like it does not appear that you can do upsample mode on the headphones. In fact, the only way to change the processing on the headphones is through the menu system (which, by the way, only works through a monitor! Unlike the 950, you can't do it on the front panel anymore. This is probably due to the custom display, which only has one alphanumeric display line on it.)

It would definitely be nicer if you could choose between DH1, DH2, DH3 or STEREO from the front panel or remote.

Another limitation I've noticed is that you can't rename the audio-only inputs (CD, AUX, TAPE, etc.). You can rename the video inputs, however.

That stuff is fixable with firmware updates, though, so I'm not too worried. It's possible they're tight on RAM/ROM in the system though, maybe that's why some of these corners were cut.

Despite all of that, it does sound pretty good so far, based on my minimal testing.

I should have mine up and running as soon as FedEx gets here in the next hour or 2. Of course I'm upgrading from a Yamaha pre/pre section into good amps, so I'm sure the Outlaw will beat it. At another point I'll have to give it a go against my modded Spectral DMC-10 preamp and Entec number cruncher D/A.

I met Scott at the NY Stereo show and asked if he though the d/a section in the 990 would beat my entec since the entec is probably 3-4 years old. He knew of the unit and thought it was good and might be as good as or better than the 990 internals, which is surprising considering how digital technology advances.

I'll post back what I find.

Prefect, on the 950 you could toggle through modes from the front panel "SURR MODE" button. The 990 looks to have a similar button - will it let you toggle through surround modes? Maybe in conjunction somehow with the navigation pad?

Richard,

Just to clarify on the Entech issue: The Entech was/is a very nice DAC. However, what I said was that I encouraged you switch back and forth between the two. You will find you probably prefer one over the other. DAC technology has come a long way in the last few years, and the upsampling chip in the 990 is very sophisticated. Of course, while I prefer the DAC set in the 990, your experience may not be the same...play around...enjoy!

gonk,

The way that control works is that you tap "SURR MODE" and then use the up/down arrows to select the surround mode. This works fine as long as you're not in headphone mode. For whatever reason, once you've gone into headphone mode, it won't let you pick anything using this method.

There is a setup menu under "Surround Config" where you choose the headphone mode (one of three Dolby Headphone modes, or stereo).

Interesting... How do the different Dolby Headphone modes sound so far?

Looks like the modes are all DPLII Movie + Dolby Headphone modes (when run from a stereo source, as I am right now), so I'm not really sure I can give much of a useful review since I just have music to listen to here.

I am curious to hear what it will sound like when run with some multichannel movie content.

Well, I'm also the proud owner of a large cardboard box - and mine even came with a 990 inside! I'm going to be visiting family some for dinner after work and I need to try to get a little more work done this evening on a floor plan or two, but I will be taking some time tonight to install it and get it at least roughly set up. It will probably be this weekend before I have any really definitive thoughts about it, but as with the 950 I'll be putting together a review on the 990 to summarize what I find.

I look foward to your review Gonk..

I still have not had the chance to purchase mine yet,......but I am sure that my time will come...

Ian

Could one of you folks measure the depth of your new 990? The manual says it’s 17.75 in. but does that include the volume knob & connectors? The 950 manual said it was 14.75 in, but that DIDN’T include volume knob & connectors. It actually measured more like 15.5 in. This is important because I have doors to close.

As others have asked why does it have to be so big?

Anyway I hope you lucky folks enjoy your new toy.

Actually tomorrow's the day.
Fedfex reports that my tracking # of a package weighing 39.0 pounds, whose reference starts with the designation "990: (gee I wonder....)

Anyway. HOT DOG!!!!
Tomorrow.
I wish I had ordered my center speakers sooner and had gotten further along with wiring.

Just because I was able to I put in not one but two separate 20 amp circuits to the location my eqpt will plug into. These are clean circuits. Nothing else on them. Ought to be good. Saw the suggestion on an outlaw forum/. Can't remember which.

Actually tomorrow's the day.
Fedfex reports that my tracking # of a package weighing 39.0 pounds, whose reference starts with the designation "990: (gee I wonder....)

Anyway. HOT DOG!!!!
Tomorrow.
I wish I had ordered my center speakers sooner and had gotten further along with wiring.

Just because I was able to I put in not one but two separate 20 amp circuits to the location my eqpt will plug into. These are clean circuits. Nothing else on them. Ought to be good. Saw the suggestion on an outlaw forum/. Can't remember which.

I'm heading to bed, and haven't had much chance to listen yet, but so far I'm extremely pleased. Very clean, absolutely quiet when appropriate, and upsampling the digital input looks like it may be my new default method of listening to CD's.

From back face to front face is 17.75". Add 0.5" for the volume control knob, so 18.25". The rear jacks would add about 1/8", but if you plug anything into them (which I assume you will for at least some of them), the real determining factor is how much room the plugs need. For me, I cut the whole back of the cabinet away, so the rear of the 990 can actually poke through until the rear feet catch on a thin strip of cabinet still remaining above the shelf. The door closes fine this way and it's easy (comparatively speaking) to get to the rear panel of the 990 for wiring.

Thanks for those measurements Gonk. Look forward to your review.

Gonk,

What kind of cd player do you have? Try the analog upsampled too. It's an interesting difference. With the Arcam, I prefered the internal dac better. I will say that I love the sound of the DAC on movies. Makes my NAD sound like a tin can with a string. Anyone have a good DVD player suggestion? The video on the Pioneer I have stinks.

Hooray, Got my tracking number!
Of course, I am in Colorado, so its going to be a couple of days...by which time I will be headed to Texas for business. Yeah, I know, I could have paid for overnight, as it wasn't that much more, but waiting is good for your character.. or something...

Actually, It turns out the Outlaws sent it for Saturday Delivery. Man those guys are cool.

I use a Yamaha DVD-S1500 for DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, and CD. I haven't had a lot of time to compare things yet (barely got it hooked up last night), but I do have stereo analog cables run from the S1500 so I can compare analog bypass. A brief comparison between S1500's DAC and 990's DAC on CD left me thinking that the 990 had an edge on the S1500, but I'm not ready to call it definite yet. I'll try analog upsample, as well, when I get a minute.

If you're looking for a good DVD player, Denon has some good stuff in the middle and upper ends of their product line. There's also a new-comer (OPPO Digital OPDV971H) that scored really well on Secrets' tests, if you have an HDTV with a DVI or HDMI input - it's really only appropriate for a DVI or HDMI input, since the component outputs are limited to 480i. My Yamaha's picture quality is pretty good, although the Yamaha DVD player user interface (front panel display, remote, and such) is pretty dreadful.

man gonk..can't wait for your review!!

Well, my 990 is here on the campus grounds. Now I just have to wait for the mailroom guys to get it over here. They will probably drop it off at my office, while I’m out to lunch. God, I think I feel a sick day coming on for tomorrow.

Repeat after me, Oil Can... "You're lucky I'm here today." Our plumbing designer says that any afternoon when he plans to putter in his workshop at home or do yard work the next day, so none of us are surprised when he calls in "sick" the next morning.

For those of you who received a tracking number, did the email come from Outlaw or the delivery agent like UPS?

I thought I would have received a tracking number by now and haven't.

gonk, I have the Denon 3910 and Carver digital tripath amps. I am anxious to hear DVD-A/SACD when everything is set up correctly.

That's IF I can get it to fit in my built-in cabinet

audvid,

The email came from Outlaw. It listed the carriers and the tracking numbers. I ordered four items and got four tracking numbers from 2 different carriers (UPS and FedEx).

Great news, the 990 has arrived at my desk. Now all I have to do is lug the thing down two flights of stairs to get it to the car. Don’t these people make anything that’s light weight? Thirty-nine pounds. I guess if you buy a 790 it will come with a free truss. I wonder, do you think they equate weight with quality? Ah well, time to make up some sort of story to tell the boss why I must leave early. :rolleyes:

Gonk – Thank you for taking the time to measure your 990 & post the depth information. The information proved very timely as I received my notification about the 990 being available shortly after noon today. I got myself on the waiting list more than 3 hours after it opened so there moving right along filling orders.

And yes I ordered the 990. No amp as I have a 7100. But I did order the package best suited for me. “990 pre-pro + deluxe shoehorn”!!

I'm glad the measurements helped out, and glad to hear that we're three hours into the reservation list.

I hope it has "Outlaw Audio" embroidered on it and a strategically-placed cowboy logo.

But where, oh, where will they put the green button?

Well, I couldn't take it any longer. My dedicated HT room is still under construction, and all of my HT gear has been boxed up since I packed it up for moving back in September! I broke down tonight and unpacked my speakers, amps, and other miscellany and set up a temporary home theater in the master bedroom. The 990 compelled me!

I'm trying to give it as thorough a workout as this arrangement will allow. So far I'm very pleased with its performance on movies. Jury is still out on music, but I have to become re-accustomed to my PSB Stratus Silver i's, as I haven't heard them in almost 3/4 of a year. I'll report back after my brain has burned in.

I've run the auto-setup, played with the "display timeout" feature which shuts off the VFD after a period of inactivity, and renamed one of my inputs for kicks. I'm using a mixture of single-ended and balanced outputs (mains+center are single-ended, by surrounds are running off of a small Carver pro amp, XLR out of the 990 to the XLR ins on the amp). I'm running S-Video out of an old DVD player, through the 990, and into a Dell LCD (hey, this is temporary..). Video quality looks as good as I would hope for this setup. I can't really practically set up my projector up there, so I can't comment much further on video quality for the time being.

So far, so good. It's not perfect. I'm hoping some of the minor imperfections will be fixed with firmware updates as time goes on, as they are mostly nit-picky user interface things. For now, though, I feel this is a great upgrade to the 950. It fixes most of the things I found frustrating on the 950, and adds some great new features. It's a killer deal for someone just getting into separates for the first time, or any of us who want to maximize price/performance.

Outlaw's really giving a lot of bang for the buck, here. Kudos to them for that.

Gonk,

Any chance to verify whether or not the 990 has fixed the digital audio signal lock issues that the 950 has? I know that Sfox7076 kind of answered in another forum, but since he had never experienced the issue he wasn't exactly sure what I was asking. I hope that you've had a chance to enjoy your new sound a little more. And I too am anxious to hear an extended review from you. Thanks.

Jeff

Just a up date on where the list is up to:

I placed my name on the wait list at 1:59 est, so that means the 2nd waive is covering up to 5 hrs out!!!!

I cant wait to get my 990/7100 combo! I was not sure if I was going to pull the trigger, but then I went to the HES and was totally impressed.

my next mission will be to up grade my speakers, as I have Infinity's(flame on, hehe), so I will be picking all your brains for advice. but I think I may be addicted to the internet only companys!

jeffdavis,

I still hear a slight signal lock delay when I first start playing a CD (over optical). It's better than the 950 used to be, but I'm still hearing a slight dropout on the first beat of the first song on a CD. This only seems to happen when I start it up from being stopped. Once it's going it seems fine.

I have my 990 set up and calibrated.

Seems nice so far. I am using Springsteen's Devil's & Dust DVD 5.1 mix to compare with my previous setup. Sounds nice and more extended on top than my previous setup (pre/pre out section of a yahama 5560 reciever), however the more extended, the more I tend to hear
compression artifacts from Dolby Digital, etc.

Also seems like I am hearing more small details of instruments than before as well.

I am impressed with the auto setup via mic, though I do wish each channel could be raised in .5 db increments- 1 db to me seems like too large a jump.

It does support 96Khz DVD's (I have a few of those precursers to DVD-A and SACD) though a few times I got dropouts. Those disks didn't benefit from upsampling though 44.1 CD sound a bit smooother through the upsampling.

Overall I;m quite happy with the build quality, sound and features for this price.

OK, I'm going to take a moment to post some findings.

I have what I think may be one of the best signal acquisition test systems around. What is it? It is the combination of our digital cable box (which conveniently provides a digital signal for all stations, even analog ones - it converts those to PCM) and my wife. With the 950, we kept the cable box's input set to analog because the delay while channel surfing drove her nuts. When the 990 went into the rack, I did a "Folger's" sort of test: replaced her analog input with a digital one. The cable box takes a moment to provide an audio signal in many cases, but we're pretty familiar with that delay from the analog output. There was no detectable extra delay with the 990's digital input - it latched on very quickly. In fact, the only comment Becca made about the cable box was that it sounded a lot better. Thumbs up there. This is not to say that the delay is absolutely 0 - as Prefect noted, you can catch the delay slightly on occasion (some CD's that start playing immediately, maybe the first note of music on a DVD menu), but it is very quick. Those of you used to the 950's delay will probably find the 990 acquisition time to be startling.

How does it sound? So far, all I can come up with is "great" - I've been very pleased with CD's using the upsampling and a digital input. My Yamaha DVD-S1500's DAC was always a close match for the 950's, and in fact I'd been using analog bypass more often than not for CD listening with the S1500. At the moment, I've just about settled on using the S1500 as a straight digital transport for CD's and relying on the 990's upsampling and DAC. Oh, and this puppy is quiet when it needs to be - seems to be a very clean analog section.

Auto setup is pretty cool. The mic has some nice weight to it, so it will hold still if set on a surface, but I used the tripod mount to locate it exactly at head height in the sweet spot.

I'll have more this weekend, but so far this thing looks like a serious winner for Outlaw.

Again, I'm the Newbie at 5.1 surround.
Got my 990 and 755 connected so far to just the satellite. All I can say is

WOW !!!!! :p

Sure makes the living room sound great, and I don't even have my new (good) center spkr yet.
And I'm "playing" old junkers for surrounds.
The outlaws really did a remarkable job.

I still have the 4 ch inline, elsewhere in the house, but I guess I'll do my listening of CDs in the liv room. Mrs. nfaguys was also impressed with the sound. The amp is extremely quiet. Boy are we happy.

nfaguys, What time did you Register..

Actually the registration that went thru was next morning. I was at the computer waiting [with baited breath ugh]for the bell to ring at 9 PM. At about 9:05 I signed up, but I think I forgot to hit the submit button, or whatever, because the next morning I didn't have an email confirmation. So I submitted then. Could be that I actually DID submit at 9:05 [just after the starting bell].

From your question I guess you haven't received yours yet. Maybe it's just because this is so new to me, but this is fantastic !!

Good luck.

I just walked out in my garage and there set a big box with Outlaw 990 printing. DHL had delivered the box sometime today, without asking for signature, nor telling anyone that they were delivering same. Talk about service I had just got my tracking number via email at 136pm and DHL did not show the tracking number in their system. Moving out the 950 tonite and installing the 990 tomorrow. 950 on ebay Sunday.

Prefect and Gonk,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. It looks like they've corrected my only complaint with the 950. I guess that I'm going to have to order mine now. Again, thanks.

Jeff

Pull the trigger, Jeff. I think you'll be glad you did.

Went ahead and placed my order a few minutes ago. I'd held off since Sunday evening to do so. Man, that was the longest 5 days of my life. If it weren't for being in San Jose for the week at training, I don't think that I could have held out until I got a question answered. I'll fly back east tomorrow and hopefully my 990 will be shipped early in the week and I'll have it installed by the weekend. I know that I'm being a bit optimistic, but what the heck. Thanks all, for taking the time to respond to my question. If the 990 is as fine a piece of electronics as the 950, I'm sure that I'll be happy.

Now to figure out how to sell on Audiogon or eBay. I usually just give stuff away to friends and family, but I may have to try to recoop some of my investment in the 950 since I haven't had it very long.

Jeff

I could not wait until tomorrow to install the 990. After some listening time, I do believe it sounds better than the 950. I have not listened to 2ch music for any length of time but upsampling does seem to improve the sound. Two things I do not like, 1.The Remote, which I really dislike, can be fixed with a Harmony. 2. Auto setup does not have a feature to check for out of phase wiring, my $400.00 Yamaha has this feature. This can probably be fixed with an upgrade. From a short two hours of listening to DVD Movies, HD Sat Movies, DVD-A, SACD and Analog CDs, I really like this unit and think my money was well spent.

No dis respect fellas, but this is starting to sound like magazine reviews, everything they review sounds amazing. My response is always, sounds great compared to what? A Lexicon MC-12 or a pocket 1970 transisor radio?

I want to know if the 990 is truly a $1100 processor, or does it sound more like a $2000 processor? Is anyone able to A/B it against a B&K 30/50, Anthem 20/30, Carey Cinema 6, Krell HTS, Lex MC-1, or even it's brother the Sherwood 965?... Inquiry minds want to know

mendes9:

Hate to try this out, but did it occur to you that everyone is giving the 990 good reviews because it really does sound good?

As to "a $1100 processor", how can you quantify that versus what a "$2000 processor" sounds like? Out of context without an A/B, that sounds impossible to do.

I'll let you know when I get mine. I can then compare it to the Anthem AVM30.

That would be great! I know alot of people would like to hear how they compare.

Why don't you buy one of each and decide for yourself.

Hmmm... I sense a catch-22 of sorts here... If we complement our new toy (which none of us have had for more than two or three days) we are equated to writing a "magazine review," but if we wait until we can produce a lengthy dissertation (which takes time, in turn taking time away from work, family, and actually listening to our cool new toy) then the other folks waiting in line are left completely in the dark (in the silence?). Personally, I find it a bit offensive to suggest that by saying it sounds great we are somehow deficient - especially since "great" is a very good way to describe this puppy.

What does $____ sound like? I'm wary of establishing a concept of directly correlating sound to price tag. I've been listening to my 990 a fair bit since it arrived. I can't directly compare it to a more expensive processor such as the Anthem AVM-20 or 30 since the price tag on those keeps them out of the picture for me, whereas the 990's price is attainable in my budget. For what it's worth, I have found that going from the Model 950 to the Model 990 is an upgrade in sound as well as features - an upgrade that even my wife noticed almost immediately. Don't sell short the suggestions that the 990 sounds great, because to my ear it really does.

Hi gonk,

Methinks you doth protest too much.

j/k

- we're just getting downright literary around here, what with the Joseph Heller and Shakespeare references.

To somewhat change the subject, how many of us who had the 990's shipped to work took a moment out of the work day to unbox it briefly and ended up with really confused co-workers? I had mine sitting on the log-in board for a little while. Aside from one co-worker who borrowed my 1050 briefly three years ago (his wife ended up vetoing the purchase) and another who owns a Rotel 1068, nobody in the office could really quite comprehend what they were looking at.

Well, many others have posted here indicating delivery of their 990. I just checked FedEx tracking of my 990 and it appears that it's on the truck out for delivery today. Who's excited? Yeah, it's me.

Gonk, in response to your question: As you already know, I didn't have mine delivered to the office. But I did show a buddy of mine the photos in the 990 gallery. I think he was with me until he asked "How many watts per channel?" and I told him, "0". Seems that even after a description of "serperates vs. receivers" he was still left shaking his head.

later,
simp

If everyone shared your passion, you wouldn't get a 990 for a few years..

Hello everyone,

I received the 990 today @ 10.20 A.M. I ordered the unit on Thursday @ 7:00 P.M. I wasn't expecting to see it until the end of next week. Now that's service, WOW.

I received my 990 yesterday and hooked it up last night. I don't have any real opinions yet, but the lock on is faster. Also, the surround channels seem to be more fluid and natural. IMO it may sound better than the 950, but I will give more impressions once I have more time to mess around with it this weekend.

I do have a question though. Does anybody know why I can't get Dolby Digital on some HD channels with out Dolby Digital + Dolby VS 5 SP Wide? The manual claims this is "Dolby Digital but used to expand the soundfield when front left and right speakers are positioned close to tv." I really don't like what the Dolby VS 5 SP Wide does to Dolby Digital and I don't need it at all since ironically I don't have a tv (I have a projector screen). I would appreciate any help I could get. Thanks in advance.

Also, I don't know what others' impressions of the size are, but this is the largest piece of electronics (tvs not included) I have ever owned, except maybe our first Betamax in the real early 80's. Here is a picture of it just sitting on top of my rack. For comparison sake, the 950 is two shelves down.

I think its obvious I will need to buy a new rack if I decide to keep the 990.

JedM,
Could the issue be that the HD content is not encoded in Dolby Digital and the processor is defaulting to ProLogic? not all HD content is encoded in DD.

B&W, thanks for the answer.
I understand that not all HD shows are in DD, but the thing that confuses me is that it lets me select Dolby Digital when on those channels, but forces me to use the wide mode with it? If it wasn't encoded in DD, I don't see how I could be able to select it? I guess I am just going to have to assume that the manual is a bit misleading and that Dolby Digital + Dolby VS 5 SP Wide is a DSP like DPLII and not real "Dolby Digital".

I will also add I love the ability to set the volume to a default "power on" level. It will be hard to break my old habit of having to turn the processor down as soon as I turn it on.

JED M,
I think you are correct, because this is a new firmware, it maybe programmed "Bug" and treat that setup as a "Mode". Have you noticed if the subwoofer volume output changes between "Stereo", "DD/DTS" and "Dolby ProLogic? I know with the New Castle P965 that there could be a 9Db change in subwoofer volume.

No, I have not, but I have not had a chance to listen for that. I did find some strange anomalies with the auto setup feature but they are probably user errors. Has anybody else had wildly different results when running the auto eq more than once?

Jed M,

That rack looks kinda wimpy. You better pick one up quick before we all have to have the first 990 funeral..

I was just putting it up there for comparison purposes. That is not where its staying, trust me.

I have created an mxf file for my MX-700. If anybody would like it just pm me with your email address.

I have programed all the 990 remote commands for the Pronto TSU 3000. If anyone needs them, I can save you the trouble and send you the pcf file.

yankeedan, How do you like the Pronto TSU 3000?

Guys,

With forum members doing the grunt work and programming commands into various remotes and offering to e-mail them to other members, would it be unreasonable to ask the Outlaws to host these and provide http (or ftp) download links? This would make it easier for people to try different combos that may have been posted by various forum members. Just a thought.

Jeff

I've had my Pronto for about a year and a half, and I don't know how I ever survived without it. As I sit here reprogramming the macros with my laptop, I remember how many phone calls I used to take from my wife (Pre Pronto). They all went something like, "I don't know what's wrong with your stupid stereo stuff, nothing's working and all I want to do is watch TV!"

It is an EXTREMELY flexible remote. This means two things: You can program it to control anything, look however you like, and carry out complicated instructions with a touch of a button. However, this also means that there is a steep learning curve and the unit is practically useless out of the box. But, if you are willing to put in the time, this is a great remote.

A great way to learn quickly on this remote is to highjack the ideas of others. Check out RemoteCentral.com for other user's configuration files, bitmaps, and layout ideas. I learned enough to get up and running quickly and subsequently went back to the site to revise and improve my configuration.

Happy to share any Pronto files if you end up with one of these puppies.

Hi folks. JOY! Got the 990 hooked up in its' temporary location in my rack. Initial impression? 2 thumbs up. Big time.

* VERY nice sound from all inputs and surround formats. EXCELLENT!

* Lock onto digital signals is significantly faster than the 950. I had a real problem with this particularly between my SA3250HD cable box and the 950. Problem solved with the 990.

* HD and progressive scan video quality through the 990 is much better than it was through the 950. I noticed it immediately. That could because I have a 35' run from my rack to my TV. It's funny how you get used to a certain look or picture quality. This was a real pleasant surprise.

* Auto setup is nice. It got me to a nice starting point. I still tweaked it a little after running the setup routine.

* Renaming the video inputs is nice. Too bad you can't reanme the audio inputs too.

* Dolby Headphone is a little disappointing. Kinda sounds like you're in a tunnel. But that's no biggie since all my phones listening will be stereo anyway.

* One thing I noticed is that it seems to run a little quieter than the 950. By that I mean that where I would normaly watch TV at -30db on the 950, I seem to have the 990 at around -25db for the same volume. No biggie there either.

Have not had a chance to hook up my turn table yet. I will tomorrow and reort back.

That's all for now.

later,
simp

whoops wrong section !!

Hey Jed,

I understand that your 990 is only in this rack temporarily - however for comparisons, how deep is that shelf?

Thanks,
Bob

I ordered my 950 on Friday evening at 7:15. It was shipped on Monday at 5:19 PM, and was delivered to work today at 9:22 AM. That is the good news, and thanks to Outlaw for making it happen so quickly. The bad news is that I won't be able to hook it up until I go to my house this weekend. It's going to be a long couple of days. I guess that I also have to find another rack/stand between now and then to put everything on, as I don't think that it will work on my present stand. Maybe I'll have to hold off and see how creative I can be this weekend getting this monster to fit into my present system. I love having problems like this.

Jeff

Ordered mine sunday afternoon, and delivered today!!! by noon!

Can't wait to get home!

Sorry about not seeing this earlier, Bob. That shelf was 17". So the rack Outlaw sells is an inch and a quarter deeper. That should work if I go that route but I will probably look for a rack with an open back just to be safe if I decide to keep the 990.

I ran into a similar problem with my 990, that is, space in the rack. I have an older Bell'Oggetti rack that has two tubes running up along the 'spine' of the rack. In order to buy more wiggle room I have had to use some right-angle RCA cables (for the analog sources). Luckily, the balanced outputs (which I am using - and happily so) just clear one of the two tubes.

So far, I love this piece. I can honestly say that the thing I noticed most was the complete lack of background noise as compared to my old setup (2-channel system using an outboard Ashly XR1001 active crossover). Indeed, I can't hear any 60, 120, or 180 Hz noise that was there (even if barely audible with your ear at the speaker) in the old system.

My center channel amplifier returns from repair tomorrow, so I am way psyched to get that up and running.

So far, this has proven to be worth the wait and above all, a real value. I am sure that there are 'better' pre-pro's out there (by someone's estimation or measure), but I just can't see spending the scratch when I (you may be different) wouldn't likely hear the difference. Frankly, I'll put the balance of what I might have spent towards my daughter's college fund. This way everyone wins....

Mark

old_school, I am using balanced too. I will likely have the whole set-up running this weekend.

Your comments, as well as others, make me anxious to hear for myself.

Not old school. RCA jacks suck, balanced are much more stable even just from a plug stand point. I have a Hafler preamp, DBX sound processor, etc, that all need new RCA plugs, because the connectors start getting noisy inside the equipment. I hate them..

Just to clarify - three of my amplifiers (front L, C, and R) are equipped with differential inputs; presently, I have another older two-channel amplifier with RCA inputs to handle two of the rears - and I don't have the other pair of B&W 805's...yet (though I do have two pair of the 805's and the companion HTM center channel, as well as a Velodyne F-1200). Anyway...the rears sound pretty damned quiet as well. I will say this...I may need to re-arrange the equipment rack(s), so having balanced outs and differential-in amps gives me a lot more flexibility in terms of where I can locate the amplifiers relative to the pre-pro.

Anyway, differential inputs are the natural companion to a balanced output (I won't go into the why and wherefore as it's been covered in many places...and I really don't want to stir up the pot). Unfortunately, I have not been able to find more monoblocks for my system for the surrounds as they are out of production / available on a custom-order basis (read: pricey), that is, additional monoblocks like the three others that I have (DB Systems' DB-6M, modified by DB Systems to incorporate differential inputs, additional power supply capacitance etc).

There is always ebay....

Anyway...the transition to multi-channel from two-channel is turning out to be a pleasant experience. Like I said...I can't see spending more than I did for the 990 and getting what I got. Yes, I looked (closely) at the B&K and the Anthem pieces, but just couldn't justify the additional dough.

Now for the tough part...trying to decide where / which rooms will get all my old two-channel gear. This will of course require that I find some 'nice' speakers for those rooms; I can't bear the thought of selling all the gear I have been collecting over the years. Furtunately, I have my Audiotron DAR's available (playing uncompressed files) to stream the library from my host PC into each room...as well as the 990.

Life is good.

Mark

Today I got my package but unfortunately it was the 990 only. I should get the amp in a couple of days I hope. I was super surprised to get it so fast as I ordered it like a day or two ago. I should also be getting the EMO Ultra lights. It will be a battle of the budget prepros with the loser going back.

Jeffrey, I will be looking forward to your opinions.

Thanks. If your going to be in New York for any reason drop by to have a budget battle listen.

Although I really appreciate the invite, unfortunately a trip to New York is not in my plans in the near future but the budget battle sounds like a good time. I truly like the 990 better than the 950, but its size is a real pain for me.

Ok, I got my 4 amps all wired up 2,200 watts and have the balanced connections ready for the 990. Tomorrow I hope to get everything hooked up and running. Still have some work to do but I think I can get audio sometime tomorrow.

Barnabas, I am VERY interested to see how you think the 990 compares to the AVM 30 in sound quality alone. I am looking at Anthems and would hate to spend the extra money if the 990 suffices. The AVM 30 is such a sexy piece of gear but I'd settle for the 990 if it competes sonically!!!

Settle! The 990 is sexy too. It's just full bodied..