I am thinking about getting the 990 but have some questions and couldn’t seem to find the answers on the Outlaw website. They are:

1) For 2 channel audio, can it do front speakers as large with no subwoofer (while maintaining small speaker settings and crossover of 80 for example in DD/DTS) without having to go into the menu and change the speaker settings. My current receiver, a Denon AVR-3805 does not do this and is a bit of a pain when I listen to music. I prefer not to use a separate sub for music only playback.
2) Can the “turn-on” volume be set at a distinct setting?
3) Can the digital audio inputs be assigned to more than one video input?
4) I currently use an amp for my front three speakers (an Earthquake Cinenova 300 wpc) and use the Denon AVR-3805 for processing and powering the surround speakers and zone 2 speakers. Would getting the Outlaw be more of a lateral upgrade and not make much of an audible difference?

I am trying to decide between the Outlaw and Rotel 1068 and the Rotel can do all the things I asked about above. The Outlaw would be a bit easier on the wallet and hence I would like to go that route. For a little more than the price of the Rotel I can the Outlaw plus the new 7 channel amp. However if it cant do the above then I will probably go with the Rotel. They may seem like minor features but for my use they are pretty important. Thanks for any help you can give.

(For reference the speakers I have are Paradigm Studio 20’s, CC-470, and ADP 470’s – all v3. The sub is an SVS PC+ 20-39)

1) No, the 990 can't do this one. The closest thing to that is the ability to reduce the subwoofer level automatically when in two-channel mode (2CH sub offset). For what it's worth, I have Studio60v2 speakers and an Outlaw LFM-1 sub, and I found that this arrangement (leaving mains small with the crossover at 60Hz and tossing in a 2 or 3 dB reduction in sub output for CD listening) works nicely for me - it might also work well with the Studio 20's.

2) Yes, the 990 does offer this.

3) Yes, the 990 can do this. Digital audio inputs can be assigned to any input, and you can assign one digital input to multiple audio and video inputs (I have optical1 assigned to both DVD and CD).

4) You'll need an additional amp for the surrounds and zone 2 speakers (presumably a Model 7125 since you can get a package price discount with the 990), so it will be a little bit of a case of apples vs oranges from the get-go. I haven't heard the 3805 to know how it compares sonically, but the 990 has really impressed me - I would tend to think that it would at least be worth trying out with Outlaw's 30-day return policy.

Gonk: I am lost on your answer #3. There is only 1 optical#1 input port.....how can you feed 2 outputs from different sources (ie. dvd player and cd player) to optical#1?

Kwok

I feed one input (the optical output of my Yamaha DVD player) to the 990 and have it assigned to two inputs - DVD (set up for surround modes) and CD (set up for stereo upsampling). It allows me to listen to CD's in stereo mode without having to toggle through surround modes.

Thanks Gonk - exactly what I was looking for. If I go with the Outlaw I would also get the 7125 amp. I dont need that many channels right now but I would probably never have to buy an amp again. That plus the Cinenova would give me 10 channels of amplification. Nice to know if and when I go to 7.1 I wont have to buy an amp. And with a zone 2 I would still have 1 channel left over, could possible use that for a passive sub in zone 2 for a nice little 2.1 system.

I just wish the Outlaw (and Rotel for that matter) had a couple of more of video inputs. My denon has 7 and I use 5 of them. The last thing I want to do is have to use the fornt a/v jacks, I think it looks terrible. This is actually one of the biggest issue right now and the Denon wins hands down.

Either way its a tough choice.