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..