I'm a TG3 owner, whose making the switch to the 990, mostly for DVI switching, and because the high cost of the TG3 was making me nervous on the resale value. High cost digital electronics in general make me nervous, but the Outlaw warranty and high resale were big selling points on the 990 switch. I loved the TG3, it's a great pre/pro, and at $3500 MSRP it's not necessarily a fair comparison $ for $ with the Outlaw, so keep that in mind.
The TG3 philosophy is minimalist, simple, with very high quality fit/finish & functionality. It sounds excellent, but has some limits (no PLIIx, no video upscaling (ie, composite -> svideo -> component), these were corrected in TG4, but still no digital video switching). The aesthetics - full brushed anodized aluminum body, LED button/indicators & dark blue LED segment display come together for a very impressive yet minimalist, high quality look and feel.
Some features the TG3 has which the 990 does not, that I miss:
- "Sub Enhanced" stereo mode - basically, L/R + Sub, but only takes effect when in Stereo mode, I dig this for electronic music.
- Auto source select - in analog & digital modes; ie switches to DVD when it detects a signal on that input.
- Dimmable front panel - all LEDs & LED display dimmed to one of 3 (?) levels, or off. (I see the 990
- Lots of status LEDs, very tasteful layout & color, the LED text display used very sparingly & tastefully.
- Motorized volume control with LED indicator.
- Rotary source selection knob; and the ability to turn off unused sources so they are "out of rotation".
- The ENTIRE setup menu is available (only?) through the 7 digit LED bar segment display. At first, this may sound awkward, but it was very well designed, and I found it intuitive, quick and efficient. Very hierarchical, much better organized than the 990.
- HTM MX-500 remote
- 9.1 channels; additional side channels mixed from front/rears
Some features the 990 has, which the TG3 does not, which I like:
- Auto setup w/ microphone, impressive!
- DVI switching - this was a dealmaker for me
- USB audio (does this allow bit perfect 44.1k?)
- Headphone out (though I find this to be pretty low quality sound, good enough for a movie at night)
- Video upscaling (or whatever it's called)
- Second sub out; but if this were stereo at least in 2 channel mode, that would really nice.
I realize that many of the TG3s avantages are directly related to cost (motorized volume, physical build, LED/display, auto source), some are just a different navigation philosophy (being largely a 2 channel guy, I prefer the TG3s rotary input select, no-display-necessary menus), and some I really hope Outlaw can add/fix in the firmware, like:
- dimmable LED levels (it does it in sleep mode!)
- VERY limited config without using the monitor; I really don't understand why the 990 doesn't display at least the current menu line on the dot matrix LED !?? The TG3 pulls it off very well, with an even smaller 7 digit segmented-bar LED.
As far as audio quality goes, they both have great FM tuners. I haven't A/B'd them back to back, so I'm hesitant to give careless impressions, but I think I'm leaning towards the TG3 for CDs, with more accurate soundstaging, and what sounds, on my setup, a little more musical to my ears. They both sound great for movies, and the 990 overall is an incredible bargain for the price (1/2 - 1/3 that of the Sunfire!!). I hope this little write up was not out of place/inappropriate for this forum.
Regards,
Rob
In case anyones curious, heres my setup:
Monitor Audio GR60 fronts, Odyssey Stratos Mono Extremes
Monitor Audio SLCR center & SFX rears, Carver A-753x 3 channel amp
SVS PC+ 20-39 sub
Oppo OP971 DVD, Samsung SIR-T451 HDTV Tuner, BenQ PB5120, all DVI video
Apple Airport Express with a RAID'd 250gb ALAC archive
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