I received my 990 on Tuesday, set it up, and listened to a CD. After listening I went back into setup to turn down the subwoofer because it had a little too much bass.

When I when into the channel level calibration and moved to the front left speaker, I noticed that it was crackling. The front right speaker was also crackling, but not as loud. Thinking something was wrong with my amp, I switched the right and left inputs. When I did this, the problem switched to the other speaker, so it appears the 990 is the culprit.

I then played the CD again to see if the cracking was affecting anything beyond the level calibration tones. I did not notice any crackling. I went back into the channel calibration and the crackling was gone as well. As it only seemed to affect the level calibration I was not too concerned that this occurred.

Yesterday, I was listening to a CD again, when I started noticing crackling sounds. I had not listened to this CD very often, so I was not sure if was in the CD or not, although I expected it was not.

I stopped the CD, and the crackling stopped. I went into level calibration and, as soon as the test noise began, the crackling was back. I started playing the CD again, and the crackling was still there. I changed sound modes a couple of times and the crackling disappeared. I went back into the level calibration and the crackling was also gone.

Now both times this occurred I was listening to a CD in upsample mode (the first time occurred just after finishing a CD). I don't know if upsample mode caused the problem, but I changed my CD input to plain stereo mode and I will see if it occurs again.

Has anyone else had this happen?

Arbury

I haven't run into anything along these lines, I'm afraid, nor have I heard about anybody else reporting similar behavior. Somebody else may have some thoughts as to the underlying cause, but you might also want to see if Outlaw support has any suggestions.

Any possibility that it is a bad cable?

Arbury,

I have experienced a similar problem with my 990. Whenever I switch to Upsample mode I hear highly distorted sound from my main speakers. Could be the same as the "crackling" sound you heard. This occurs with any source material using digital inputs. The sound quality of my 990 is absolutely fantastic in every other mode.

I am working with Steve to get the problem resolved.

Good luck.

I wonder if this has is occurring because of the large range in level differences between my speakers:

fronts + center: +3 DB
Left + Right Surrounds: +14 DB
Subwoofer: -13 DB

The surrounds are higher because they are slightly less efficient and have a weaker amp powering them.

The subwoofer is so low because the 990 is powering it much "hotter" then anything else I have had connected to it. When it was set to full the 990 auto-calibration would actually put the amp into protection mode! Turning it down to half prevented this from occurring, but the 990 said it could not detect a sub (even though it was very loud). Amp is a Crown CE2000 powering a 2 ohm load per channel (about 980 watts per channel).

Rapidfire, do you have a large swing between you min + max channel levels as well?

Arbury

The auto calibration seemed to properly set my speakers. The distance was accurate and there was no more than 1 or 2 db difference in the levels. I have PSB Silveri Mains set to large, PSB Minis set to small and a B&W cc6 center set to small. The PSBs are 4 ohm and the cc6 is 8 ohm. My HSU subwoofer is self-powered.

Hope this helps.

I also had the problem of crackling and distortion, which would only happen occasionally, but I was able to resolve it with help from Outlaw Customer Support.

It turns out that the DSP chip in the 990 is very sensitive to heat buildup. I had the 990 right on the top of a 12 channel amplifier, which would almost start glowing red after being on inside an MDF enclosed rack all day. Suffice to say, I believe that the sensitive chip cannot handle any heat above what the 990 itself produces.

I'm not so sure that this is a serious defect in design as it is just the nature of high-end electronics. This doesn't mean I think there should be a fan in the 990 either, after all... AV equipment should be properly ventilated anyway.

I would love to hear if other people have found evidence to suggest that this is in fact a fix. All I know is that when the 990 temp. is normal, the distortion is gone!

I hate to say it, but I don't think that it has anything to do with inputs or settings. It didn't matter if I unplugged it, reset it, or left it on! The only variable which is absent when it works is warmth! It is purely an environmental factor.

Weird, I know, but easily solved with some well placed 12v computer fans, wired up with a 3.5 mini plug and plugged into the 990's 12v switched output. (Don't forget to enable the switched output in the OSD!)