I have had my 990 for a few days and have been able to share the theater room with a couple of neighbors, themselves outlaws in good standing on this forum. They brought along some cd's to sample on the 990 along with about a half dozen sacd's and a DVD or two. Using, Auto Set Up with the microphone we were up and running in a few minutes. We followed that up with a RShack sound level meter and made only minor adjustments. The only thing that I didnt like was not having the set up right on the LCD and having to use a Monitor. We auditioned the CD's, sacd's and played with all the different modes offered for listening. We all agreed that the 990 was a step up from the 950. We found it to be quite! silent, the sound was clean and clear. My Monitor Audio Golds never sounded better. I loved the 950 for theater but found it not to be as musical as I would have liked. But hey, it was a bargain for the price. The 990, still a bargain gives me the music listening pleasure that I didn’t have with the 950 and that is a big plus. I like the upsampling mode for some of the music. The bypass mode for pure sound is always my first option. The sacd cd's sound was outstanding. I just finished a couple of DVD's and believe the 990 is another theater winner. Some of the added options like Pllx were no big deal for me, take it or leave it. The AM/FM turner has good quality sound but something I might never use. I cant give you any feedback on the video switching, because I use audio only. No video going through my 990. The front Sony HT projector gets it feed right from the Elite DV-37. I have Monitor Audio Golds, 7.1 in the theater. A Parasound 2205 amp, and another Parasound 1500 for the rears. A Sony C555ES for sacd, and all Outlaw connects behind the rack. My only issue is with the remote and might have to switch that out. This Preamp/Processor will be a keeper for me, and one I look forward to having for a while.

Good mini-review Dobeman.

I agree with you about not being able to use the menu on the lcd screen on the 990. Maybe they can software upgrade that for people who don't have 480i capabilities. It's a pain having to run an s video cable to my projector just to change the crossover or something.

Also, I agree about the AM/FM tuner. Its much better than the 950's. I find myself leaving it on AM sports talk while playing XBOX. With the 950 it was always a little too noisy to use it for an extended period of time while the 990's tuner is very clean.

The AM tuner is amazing on this thing. I get tons of AM in New York City. I live in a mid-80s building in the city, but I get perfect AM with this thing. I used to get ok reception with the NAD. THis is a step up.

FM is good too, though I haven't tested it as much. I only listen to Fordam FM radio for the most part, and that is only on certain nights. No, I am not 19, but I hate most commercial FM radio.

Shawn

I agree with you that the Monitor audio gold 60's sounded better than ever, and I am still waiting to hear how the 990 will make the silver 5's sound. BTW Sfox, what's wrong with being 19

they really put thought into their products .. the 2 channel sub offset is a great idea !!!!!!! theater soundtracks you want big bottom but stereo clean and pure .. nice touch outlaw .. phono input big plus .. video upconversion all across nice ... dual sub out great .. no more y .. i think this 990 will really hurt anthem cary ead .. etc .. yes you may have some difference in sound etc but not 1000 to 4000 $ differences .. ATI has the 8500 for like 3500$ with lcd display on unit that shows what you are watching.. or sending to your monitor .. nice feature and with ATI sound quality and warranty that is the only other unit i would go for but there is a little more than 2000 $ diff ... outlaw you win hands down in the prepro bang for buck area .. most large manufacturers dont even make prepro any more ..a shame .. recievers ..well you tell me when the value of a unit goes down 30 to 50 % when next years model comes out how well built is it .. AMPS hardly lose value .. adcom ati outlaw any they stay at a level cost even up to 20 30 years .. original adcom 555 and 545 are still going 200 (545) to 600 (555) and they are 20 years old .. !! well i m getting into a whole nother subject so i'll leave saying outlaw is the real deal with a price that wont make ya keel ..

Whenever I see the phrase "not as musical" my ears perk up.

I am completely baffled by statements like this.

Do people honestly hear a difference between a 950 and a 990 when in full bypass mode? Or between any two pre-amps for that matter?

Sure there's differences between processing modes - even the standard ones. But from CD to pre to amp to speaker direct? I'm not sold.

Given equally low noise and distortion, and a flat frequency response, there's only "features" to distinguish between components like pre-amps. Any review of something like the 990 should simply say whether any unexpected noise, distortion, or frequency irregularities were heard (or more likely measured - although the original 950s were an exception) and then get on with a description of all the great gee whiz features and processing modes etc.

In fact I bet my 15 year old NAD stereo pre-amp and the 990 could not be told apart in a blind listening test.

Musicality? I don't buy it at all.

Jeff Mackwood

Jeff, the only reason I can imagine why somebody could be hearing a difference in bypass mode between the 950 and 990 (which I think is unlikely too) is if their subwoofer didn't have phase adjustment, or it wasn't set correctly and the 990's ability to set the sub distance has changed/improved the sound. Keeping in mind, that would only be true of Outlaw and clones since they have analog bass management.

I think you've got a pretty decent point, Jeff. I did not notice a dramatic difference in stereo bypass (a mode that I'm not currently using), and what difference I did hear was likely due to the 990's lower noise floor. Likewise, the improvements in DVD-Audio and SACD were marginal - likely due to the noise floor and the more flexible bass management (which suggests that the A-D-A going on there is done pretty darn transparently). The biggest differences for me have been in cases where the 990 is involved in processing digital signals. Upsampling PCM stereo from CD's, for example. Of course, I can understand if if someone who is just getting the unit settled in happened to get carried away in their praise - it really is a great sounding piece of gear.

i dont know whose post said not as musical .. but if mine is the one your refering to i said nothing about direct or bypass . using the 990 dacs is what i m talking and yes dacs are different ..you are converting 0101010 back to a analog signal .. diff dacs take more or less points to make their analog wave .. and also take a adcom vs a ATI .. the adcom will color a little brighter and the ati more neutral .. yes amps color .. these arent just different boxes.. ...... you have capacitors transformers etc .. look at the adcom upgrade kit.. 200 $ upgrades the transformer and 2 caps and you have a great dynanmic headroom gain .. and if your using a true bypass or direct in stereo you should have no sub out slick .. direct is Left and Right channel as recorded at studio .. you are implementing a x over separating the signal .. if you want direct bypass buy a high end dvd with decoder and a gain assembly for between you source and you amp .. then all you video must go to tv and you select inputs rather than letting the pre pro do it for you .. i have a yamaha dvdc 920 that has dts and dd decoding built in .. and yes back when i had a adcom gdd1 and a gsa700 the direct from the yamaha was better but dac s technology is flying along .. hence the 990 having a usb and other upgrade capability.... other companies have tried this and some succeed for a while .. lexicon dc .. etc some fail proceed .. but i think the folks at outlaw have tried to anticipate as much as possible .. and for the $$ great deal.

Travk13,

I was referring to your post - since it was the one that kicked-off this thread.

While I specifically mention bypass mode, your post did say that you had "played with all the different modes offered for listening" and found the 950 to be "not as musical as I would have liked."

Regardless, I remain just as baffled by comments (yours and anyone else's) regarding "musicality". Is there more noise, more distortion, inaccurate frequency response with the 950 versus the 990? How exactly does one component sound more musical than the next?

I'll extend my claim to include DAC processing as well. I seriously doubt, in the absence of noticeably noise, distortion or non-flat frequency response, that anyone can tell the difference, in a blind listening test, between any two modern-day pre-amps passing a stereo signal through their DACs.

I'm sure that there could be differences heard between multi-channel DAC-processed modes - but not because of the DACs themselves - or at least not likely because of them. I can set-up the DPLII parameters on my 950 to either approximate or not a true concert listening experience from most sources using the user-accessible parameter adjustments. Maybe the 990 can do it better. If so, is this what makes the 950 less musical?

In fact I bet that you could not tell the difference between a purely anologue stereo signal travelling through a 15 year old analogue pre-amp with inherently low noise, distortion, and flat response, and the 990's DAC's passing the signal. Inaudible is inaudible regardless of how it reached your ears. Analogue or digital: they are both designed to simply pass the signal through without you noticing. And except for obviously flawed or failed designs (like the original 950), they all accomplish this - with no difference in musicality (whatever that is.)

Jeff Mackwood