After a ton more reading - it just seems like the SNAP EQ in the Sherwood was either implemented poorly or isn't ready yet. I did read that Audyssey EQ won't be ported to Cirrus chips - so I hope that Outlaw is working on fixing the issues with the Cirrus Level 2 EQ as implemented by Sherwood or coming up with their own.

Anyway - what finally swayed me in my decision between the Outlaw and the Sherwood was one thing that initially I didn't care about...balanced outputs.

I read a review of my Amp (Sherbourn 5/1500A) in Home Theater magazine. S/N ratio went from -90.25 dBrA on the unbalanced inputs to -98.43 dBrA on the balanced inputs - significant enough for me to finally switch to balanced cables from pre to amp. The noise floor has always been a little too audible for me with the B&K Ref31/Sherbourn combo - the B&K isn't known for its low noise floor anyway.

Bass Management won't be too much of an issue for me at the moment. I cross over at 80Hz and use a Behringer DEQ2496 to dual SVS PCi 20-39's. I've had a Behringer ECM8000 mike and a UB802 mixer so I finally got around to using Room Equalizer Wizard. Wow - if you haven't tried it already - it takes a while to get it calibrated and get used to the interface but a 2 second sweep tone in the bass produced identical results to my manual SPL collecting and graphing.

As soon as I get the 990 in, I am considering doing an A/B comparison to be sure that the Outlaw is up to the challenge...

Where is the printed info on the Outlaw 30 day return guarantee? I can't find anything about it on the website and just in case the Outlaw isn't at least as good as the B&K - which I'm not expecting...

I believe the 30 day guarantee is in back of the manual for the unit. I returned the 970 and kept the 990 due to better performance and had no issues returning it whatsoever. Their customer service is second to none.

Let us know how the 990 ends up working out for you.

30 day trial click on thirty-day, money back guarantee for more info.

Um, sorry about the screen name. I tried to change it when I saw that it was being used but screen names are not user editable. I'm more than willing to register an account with a new name.

Nah. No need to change your name - doesn't really matter to me.

Plus - we both are going to have 990's so it doesn't really matter if someone gets us confused...

An additional note to my above comments - turns out the Sherbourn 5/1500A is 110dB S/N A-weighted - the numbers above are what was actually tested by Home Theater mag.

Now I'm gettin' confused,it should be interesting.By the way,I think you'll like the sound of 990,at least for basic 2ch which is all I have till my other amp gets here.I've listened to music all weekend and a I like it more now than yesterday,for me thats a good thing.While not the last word in hifi(who thought it was for $1.1k) I can tell you its not all hype either.

What an interesting effect of balanced inputs! Thanks for that. Would anyone like to give a treatise on how balanced inputs affects S/N Ratio? Where is a good source for the special cables?

Outlaw :-)

Ah, balanced inputs... There were a couple really big, in-depth threads about this issue back in April of last year when the 990 was announced. Sadly, it actually got heated enough in one thread that one of the contributors (soundhound - a very knowledgeable fellow) got a bit burned out and took what appears to be an extended sabbatical from the forum shortly afterward. If you want to re-visit the debate, it makes for some very interesting reading - lots of facts bounced back and forth. The debate started around this post in the rather lengthy "990" thread and eventually moved over to this separate thread .

As for the balanced cables, you can look at Outlaw's Cables section for their PCB cables . Obviously there are other sources - some similarly priced , many more expensive .

I won't even begin to start another debate on balanced I/O or repeat whats on the other forums. To answer the Landon's question directly, balanced I/O increases S/N because it essentially nullifies common mode noise, and increases the actual signal by 2x. This gives and overall increase in the S/N ratio. Because of this 2x signal, single-ended noise is effectively reduced by 1/2 as well.