Hi guys,

My apologies if this question has already been asked, but I just went through pages and pages both in this section and the 950 section. If this has been covered, please point me to the thread.

I'm upgrading my entire home theater system at the moment, and going to external amps. Currently looking for an excellent preamp that won't break the budget, which is why I'm looking at Outlaw.

The question is, would there be any real benefit in going to an Outlaw 990 over an Outlaw 950, specifically in sound quality?

Some of the features of the 990 are nice, such as DVI switching (although I'd prefer HDMI), the XLR outputs are nice (as my amps have both XLR and RCA inputs), auto setup might be nice, but I can certainly use the SPL meter and would probably spend time tweaking the auto settings anyway.

Any really solid reason I should stick a crowbar in my wallet and spend the extra $700 or so on the Outlaw 990 over the old reliable Outlaw 950? Anyone have a 950 they'd like to sell off?

Note: I'm using a 5.1 system and don't have plans to go to a full 7.1 system for a while due to room limitations. I really can't find a place for surround speakers behind the seating position without hanging them from the ceiling, and if I tried that my wife might hang me from the ceiling next.

But hey, isn't that what happens to Outlaws anyway? =)

(System: Klipsch KLF-30 Mains, RC-7 Center, RS-7 Surrounds, Velodyne 15" Powered Sub, Dalite 133" High Power w/Panny AE700U, old amp Sony STR-DB930,
currently auditioning a Denon AVR-4806, but would like to try an Outlaw 950/990 with very high powered external amps).

I think you could spend hours reading older posts that covered the 950 vs 990 questions and answer's. I have owned both and can give you my opinion. The 990 is a quality product, much better than the 950. From A to Z, I do not think the 990 lacks anywhere compared to the 950. Is it worth the price, hundreds of dollars more? Yes! If you can afford to pay more, buy it! a good investment for music listening and theater. The 1,099 price is such a steal, I think my Denon. 3300, sold for 1,200 about 6 or 7 years ago....So with inflation and all quality innovations considered it’s a bargain and half the price.......... Dobeman

I also own both the 950 and 990 and with the current street prices of the 950 either is a great bargain. If money is an issue and you really are going to stick with 5.1 for a while, I recommend the 950. With the money you save by going with a 950, you can invest in a used high-quality 5-channel amp from Outlaw, Rotel or Adcom, etc. to complete the setup.

Good luck

At the end of the day I went with the Sherwood P-965 as it has RoomEQ (a huge benefit for me as room treatments would be highly difficult), and I'm pairing it with a Rotel 1077 digital amp.

The Rotel 1077 is flat out incredible. =)

The Sherwood P-965 I got for less than an Outlaw 990, heck of a deal.

The Rotel RMB-1077 is TWICE the cost of a comparable Outlaw amp, has less output power, and, quite frankly, doesn't sound any better. As a matter of fact, it has a higher noise floor so it arguably sounds worse. Also, if Rotel's past performance is any judge, its output ratings might be a bit "ambitious" and I certainly wouldn't use it to drive "difficult" or 4ohm speakers to its rated output.

Frankly, your choices confuse me. You're spending more on (at least in my opinion) an inferior amp. The roomEQ on the Sherwood is nice, if it works. In my initial research, I noticed a number of people bitching about the roomEQ being a mixed bag in terms of actual effectiveness. As for the sound quality, the Sherwood should be mostly the same as the 990 since it utilizes the same platform.

If you haven't already bought all this stuff, you really owe it to yourself to listen to the Outlaw gear.

Best regards,

Dozer42 is in a situation that is pretty common. Wanting room eq to deal with sonic anomalies because dealing with the room seems not to be an option. As has been discussed elsewhere ad infinitum, electronic compensation is no cure for bad acoustics but it can curb the peaks. Anyone in this situation might do well to surf a little more and see if it's really true that your room can't be tamed. There are an awful lot of ways to hide acoustic treatments (drapes, ceiliing tiles, wall hangings, wall art, furniture, beanbags in the corners, etc). Ok, if your room is 12X12X12 you have a problem that nothing will fix but you would be amazed at the effects of some well thought out room treatment. Keep in mind that room treatment and speaker placement and number is the only way to deal with dropouts and dips in response curves.

And I should have added I love my 990....won't buy anything else until I win the lottery.

I was able to tame my room quite a bit just by covering the large windows behind my Maggies with drapes.

Also, I've yet to hear an electronic "room correction" system other than those offered by TACT that seemed to actually work without crapping all over the signal. "Taming the peaks" is a real pyhrric victory if it comes at the expense of neutering the music.

If the Sherwood/Outlaw platform was able to do a decent job at room correction, you'd think the Outlaws would enable it. I suspect it's disabled because it has serious issues.

(edit) And for the record, I LOVE the sound of the 990. It's the best $1k I've spent on audio gear in a long time.

Cheers,