Hi there,

Got my 990 set up and working this week. For the most part, it's beautiful. I have some questions and comments for the group.

I've read a lot of the posts here at the Saloon, and I've certainly read the FAQ. My apologies in advance if these issues have already been raised, discussed and/or resolved.

1) I'm currently not using any video switching. I have only the Composite Video Out hooked to my Mitsu 52" DLP so that I can use the OSD. Setup was a breeze, until I set Zone 2 to "On" using the OSD. At that time, the OSD picture started jumping and rolling all over the place -- enough to be pretty much unreadable. I clicked the remote to the right again (which turned Zone 2 "Off"), and the display went back to a solid picture. This same behavior occurs if I'm not in the OSD itself, when using the Secondary Remote to turn Z2 on/off. That is, if I adjust the volume so that it's on the display, and then I turn Z2 on with the small remote, it gets weird. It goes back to normal when I turn Z2 off with the small remote.

It does this on a smaller Panasonic TV as well, so it's not my TV. I also switched cables to make sure it's not that. My old Denon receiver never did anything like this with its OSD and the same TVs and similar setup.

Another clue is that if I unplug my digital cable from my DVD player, this problem goes away. I'm using the Coax 1 input from a Denon DVD-1910 player.

Has anyone else seen this, or if you have a similar setup, can you try to reproduce this phenomenon?

I was plugging in and out pretty much everything, but I think it was really only the DVD digital signal that made this problem come and go.

I also ran a component video signal to the smaller TV, and it seemed rather unstable at all times. To verify this, I need to send the component signal to a different TV and I need to use different cables, but I didn't go that far. I figure that if the composite out doesn't work, it's broken, and I should just get a replacement.

2) The manual says that the "MR" button on the Primary Remote should allow me to control Zone 2 (at least volume and power). When I hit "MR" on the Primary Remote, I get no response from the 990 display screen, and the remote seems to control the 990's "Zone 1" funtions (i.e., if I hit "Power" it powers off the unit, and doesn't power on/off Z2). Anyone else seen this?

3) I contacted the Outlaws about the inability to trim the Sub output from the remote without accessing the OSD during Upsample music playback mode. I know how to use the "2-Ch Sub Trim" thing in the OSD, but that's cumbersome. When listening to music, I frequently tweak the sub output level (well, I used to on my old Denon, anyway), depending on if I needed more or less bass due to the recording, the volume, or my mood. Anyone figure out a clever way to manage this while listening to music. The icons on the front panel indeed show L/R/Sub as active (and they all are), but one cannot access the channel levels using the "Test-Set-Set" combo on the Primary Remote. Why? To me, it's pretty clear that any channel active in a given mode should be accessible for adjustments using that "Test-Set-Set" method.

4) I know that this has been brought up, but I wanted to reiterate in hopes that it might show up in a future firmware upgrade -- there should be crossover and level management on a per-input basis.

5) Is there an accurate Saloon-compiled list or official Outlaw Audio errata sheet for the bugs, issues and quirks of the model 990?

6) Finally, my overall impression with the 990 is that it's an excellent sounding and powerful pre/pro, especially for $1,100. I look forward to getting some good use out of it this weekend, and I'm sure that Outlaw will take care of my problems. Being a firmware guy myself, I know that it's better to release the code right rather than early, so I can be patient for any forthcoming release. In the mean time, I'm operational at 99%, and I'm happy.

Thanks for reading, and for any comments.

Have a nice day.

Otto