Flamebait? That's not my type. Why would I spent my time and money ordering something just to flame it. I won't waste my time (Actually, I don't have much of it anyway) with you. Please, spare me of your non-sense.

I had a call from Tech support this morning, but unfortunately, I was at work and was in the middle of a conference call. I just got home and try to call technical support but I got the voice mail. I work from 8AM to 7-8PM, my only chance to get in touch with technical support will be next Friday since July 1st is holiday here in Canada.

I'm not sure what you guys mean by something wrong with my setup; I just pulled the pre-out/sub cables from my HK525 and connected them to my 990. All my cables are properly labeled.

I actually, wrote down the same calibration parameters generated by the 990 auto-setup, I disconnected the 990 and put back the HK525, and calibrated the HK with those parameters. Again the volume level on the HK at -30dB was already loud enough while I needed to set the level on the Outlaw at -19dB to get the same output.

The bass level is so low on the 990 with the tone->bass set to +6dB. I have a computer connected digitally to the 990. I played my mp3 files (ripped at Variable bit rate with Winamp pro 224Kbps - 320Kbps). Winamp is configured with the following plugins (Output->Asio->sample rate =48KHz + Input->Mad 24bit).

Thanks Guy for your help, but you can understand why I'm so frustrated, I was waiting for this unit very badly. Actually, when I bought my Aragon amps 2 weeks ago, I was also offered an excellent deal on the Aragon Stage One pre/pro but turned it down in favor of the 990.

Good to hear back from you Pythagore. I am not sure why you are hearing what you are, but if it is drastically worse than your HK receiver something tells me that either it's not set up correctly or its faulty. If not, that really sucks about the amount of money you invested in this trial. Perhaps it would be cheaper to sell it to somebody in Canada to save them from the fees.

Also, I am not sure I am following you, but using Outlaw's parameters on your HK is not going to work. I don't know of any receivers or pre/pro that have universal parameters. Every system will be different and will have to be calibrated individually. Just pick a number to use as your reference and dial it in to 75dbs. Just curious, but does HK's volume stop at 0 or does it keep going past 0 to +10 like the 990? That could explain that issue, even though it really is a non issue.

Do you have equipment and/or an audio card for your PC and software to do a test sweep of the HK525 and the 990?

That would tell you if there is a signal processing problem with the 990.

Alternately, a test tone CD and AC voltmeter (from RadioShack) could tell you the same thing, if it is a gross level problem.

You can also try a bypassed analog stereo connection from a CD/DVD player and compare levels between that and the same signal through a digital input to see if there is a discrepancy.

It may very well be that you have a defective unit.

IIRC, a long time ago, Outlaw had quality problems with a small fraction of units.

I concur that something is defective. I haven't had more than a couple of hours to listen to my 990 which is why I haven't posted a review but from what I've heard so far there is no way Pythagore's unit is working correctly. I switched from a Lexicon DC-1 to the 990 and there's no comparison (no surprise since the lex was 10 or more year old technology). I run digital out from a Denon 3910 to a DEQX PDC2.6 to a 3 way Dynaudio system of my own design and construction for stereo music (I use Anthem and Acurus Amps). The system is capable of very high quality sound. I highly recommend the DEQX but being 2-channel is doesn't cut it for HT. When I fed CD digital into the 990 and then routed it into the analog of the DEQX there wasn't a great deal of difference to be heard. The bass and midrange on the 990 are tight, authoritative and contolled. The higher frequencies sound excellent but have an ever so slight masking of clarity and transparency compared to the Denon-DEQX direct comparison--but not by much. And for a lot less $$$. The 990 is a lot closer to high end processors than it is an HK receiver. Pythagore needs to have his unit exchanged or serviced unless something is just plain wrong with the set up. Pythagore's observations about levels suggest something may in fact be wrong with the unit. Nobody but nobody can afford to build electronics without making a few duds. High end suppliers catch these in house by testing before shipping while mass marketers use consumers for QC. At the price, the 990 is amazing but there will be some returns. Sorry that Pythagore was the first to report less than desired results. When he gets a fully functional unit he will grow to love the 990. Especially for movies and TV where it excels.

My congratulations to all you Outlaws for keeping it civil. I hate flaming forums. Pythagore especially is to be commended for keeping his cool in a time of crisis.

AudioBear: Nice setup.

Pythagore: You should probably lay off the tone controls for now, they're intended for after all the speakers are in balance. If your subwoofer has somehow become out of phase with your mains and they're fighting each other, for instance, increasing the bass tone control will just make them fight each other harder, and you'll still get a suckout that sounds terrible.

If you don't mind, what speaker trim values did you end up with after the auto setup? Maybe some of the other 990 owners can take a look at your numbers and see if something looks odd.

You can't use the same channel trim settings for two different units and get the same output levels. The trim settings will be different for each piece of equipment. To directly compare the two, use an SPL meter to calibrate both units to the same dB level (typically 75dB) with the volume positions at 0dB. To further make it as comparable as possible, you might also use a test disc such as Digital Video Essentials or AVIA for the test tones, although unless the HK's test tones are really odd somehow there shouldn't be a need to take it that far.

I agree with R. Mackey that it would be best to leave the tone controls flat while getting the basic calibration done. Also, check the HK's settings to make sure you don't have some sort of bass boost turned on - a setting like that could really screw with your perceptions when comparing two units.

Guys,

Please don't attack our fellow Outlaws. Pythagore has a problem and is understandably aggravated. I know if I had just plunked down 1100 bucks on a piece of electronic gear plus another several hundred on customs and shipping, and it didn't work I would be plenty upset, and likely to vent on the manufacturers forum.

Pythagore,

I agree with the other Outlaws that said something has to be amiss with your 990. Based on the details you have given about the MP3s you are listening to, I take back what I said about that being an issue. With MP3s of that quality you should get reasonable sound quality.

When I manually configured my 990, the point at which I got 80dB SPL on the meter was at around -10dB on the master volume control, and that was with the subwoofer configured in the 990 to -10dB! If you are getting insufficient volume, you either have a defective unit or there is a problem with the speaker setup. The fact that you tried the preouts on your old receiver and didn't get a roughly similar result would definitely seem to point to a problem with the 990.

Please describe your home theater in greater detail. What amps, speakers, and input devices do you have and how are they wired up. Some of these guys (Gonk for instance) are very tech savvy and will try their best to help if they can.

If you have access to the AVIA or Video Essentials test disks and an analog sound pressure meter, try running a few tests. This might reveal a subtle problem of some kind that might be related to something as simple as a phase problem of some kind with the way your pre-out/amps/speakers are hooked up. Since you tried the same hookup with your reciever this isn't likely, but you never know.

Once again, I hope you get this problem fixed to your satisfaction.

I noticed something with the auto setup that I

Sorry about that. As I was saying...

I noticed something with the auto setup that I was wondering if someone could explain what was going on and if it could be Pythagore's problem.

Before running the auto setup I first turned my sub amp volume control from about the 1:00 pos. to about 9:00 per another thread in this forum. I then ran the setup and got that problem people see about the front and rears being swapped. I then shut off my sub and re-ran the setup. I turned on the sub just as the sub test was starting. Everything seemed to setup correctly this time. Note: The sub was assigned a correction of -1dB.

So I put in a movie and it is like there is no bass at all. Then I remember I turned the volume down on my sub. I go and turn it up to were it was set, and I have bass again. This gets me thinking that the auto setup did not work very well. I mean if the auto setup set the correction for the sub at -1dB with the volume level turned down, then why do I need to turn the volume level back up on my sub?

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind using a different volume setting on your sub for calibration than for normal operation - that seems to me to defeat the purpose of calibrating. If your sub has an internal crossover, however, I would certainly enable the crossover for the calibration process (since the test tone is full range) and then go back to bypassing it afterward.