You guys helped me pick it out and I promised to let you know my thoughts when I received it. Well it's here.

The packaging is quite excellent. The manual is short and sweet. The remote (though very basic in appearance) is quite capable--it took no time at all to program it to run my extras as a universal remote. I believe it takes up to 7 sources.

My initial impression of the unit was that it was light for its size. I know this is contrary to what most people have said, but remember I am upgrading from a Pioneer Elite VSX-45TX AVR. The size is about the same (the 990 is a bit deeper), but the lack of amps in it just gave me slight pause. (this is my first seperate pre amp)

The connections on the rear are spaced nicely and everything is very solid. The set-up (I am just running it through my TV and DVD at the moment) was quite easy and intuitive, assuming you have done similar before.

The unit itself is substantially darker than the website's pictures would suggest. In fact, I think it will pair nicely with the Sherbourn amp I am due to receive shortly.

The Dayton Audio interconnects I am using are also extremely solid. The connections are firm and I feel assured that they will continue to provide solid connections. I had previously used higher-end Monster and regular Acoustic Research interconnects. The AR had a decent connection, the Monster I was never 100% secure with the connections. With Dayton, I have no worries whatsoever. Once they were on, they were solid.

Everything looks great! The video is much improved over my old set-up using the 45TX and Monster interconnects for video. I was actually quite surprised at the improvement in clarity and vibrance of the colors. Blues especially are nicely defined.

I should be receiving the Sherbourn 7/2100A sometime in the next week or two and I will give you the whole ball of wax regarding performance when it's all set up. Also, I ordered an additional pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's for back surround duties, to get to 7.1. I will let you know how that goes as well.

Thanks again guys for all your help!

--TDA

Thanks for the info, TDA - I look forward to hearing what you think once you get the amp in and the 990 has the chance to really stretch its legs.

Interesting comment about the weight. I remember the 990 being pretty hefty for a processor, but it's been over two years since I moved my main amp at all. The reduction in power supply demands and the elimination of those big honkin' heat sinks does make for an effective diet compared to a receiver. It reminds me of my thoughts when I unpacked my monoblocks - the M200's seem so small, but they're nothing but power supply and heat sink and the weight startled me at the time.

TheDudeAbides,

From partsexpress did you go balanced or RCA for audio cables?

Thanks Vince

You can call me Dude, Duder, or El Duderino... (hope you have seen The Big Lebowski, or that will sound really stupid)

I went straight RCA... no balanced. My connection is only about a foot. If it were more than 10 ft, I probably would have gone balanced.

--TDA

Okay... I have all but the stands now... so the surrounds and backs are on a bunch of different pieces of furniture... but everything else is pretty much as it should be.

The most noticable difference so far has been the low-end clarity. Explosions are pure power--it shakes the house. With all the power it unloads insofar as bass is concerned I would have expected a bit of distortion, but nothing so far.

AUDIO:
Overall the sound is much clearer from high to low. The sound doesn't really seem to be coming from the speakers--it just kind of appears, then hangs out in the middle of the room until it is replaced by another sound... something I haven't experienced all too often in the past. It's pretty airy and clear. Dialogue is extremely clear (perhaps for Eddie the kind folks at Outlaw added a translator--I am not sure). I haven't watched too much thus far, but did take in a few things:

1) Gladiator: The beginning battle sequence was nothing short of breath-taking. The addition of the surround back channels played in PL IIx added a great deal of atmosphere to the room... rather than having a blind spot to the rear of the listening area, there is now an entire field of sound that blends seamlessly with the surrounds and fronts. This was made all the more apparent as the Gladiators exit the lower levels of the Colloseum and enter the main arena area--the sound of the croud grew louder as they approached the gate (this is nothing new), but as they entered the arena, the sound moved from the front, to the front and the sides, to the front, the sides, and the rear--it completely enveloped the listening position. Again, I was only spot testing the system... watching parts of movies that offer testable material... but as this sequence progressed my wife and I quickly forgot the goal of our watching and just watched the movie. By the end, our palms were sweating and it was midnight, and we had to go to bed. No more testing from there on... but it was truly an experience.

2) Matrix: This is another classic (at least for me) test piece. We watched the lobby and helicopter scenes. I have to say, it was like watching the movie for the first time. We heard the chinking of the shell casings--both as they exited the guns and as they struck the floor... these sounds were separate and distinct from the breaking of the granite panels on the surrounding columns and the force of the guns firing. Bullets whizzed passed us and the music blended perfectly with the entire experience.

As for the helicopter sequence--we generally listen to the shell casings and see how they compare and contrast with the whip of the helicopter's props, and the thump of the gun. That was all fine and good--but the real "wow" came as something of a surprise--it was when the sprinklers came on in the room Morpheus is being "questioned" in. The drops were discrete, the sound was encompassing, and it truly gave us the impression that it was raining--right there in the room.

3) Lord of the Rings--battle and bridge sequence:
The battle sequence was shockingly good. The clash of sword on shield and crushing impact of the troll's weapon on the stone were all represented clearly and realistically. When the elf runs up the troll's chain, we heard the chain clink, the troll grunt, and as well as the surrounding action in perfect harmony. It was quite impressive.

The bridge sequence wasn't too much different than our past experience with the Pioneer, however. The only tangible differences were the Balrog's roar (crystal clear and exceptionally defined), the clinking of mail as Frodo is restrained when Gandalf finally falls, and the Balrog's whip cracking when it reaches its fullest extension. Otherwise though, the sound was pretty consistent with that reproduced by the Pioneer.

4) Star Wars Episode II: Asteroid Chase
I was rather surprised here. Everything was quite airy and space-like, but I have to admit that I liked the sound of the Pioneer Elite more in this sequence. It had a kind of grittiness to it that was completely lacking in the new set-up. I am not sure that the grittiness was designed to be there in the first place... it may have actually been a flaw in the sound field, but I liked it nonetheless.

Everything in the sequence panned well from front to back, and diagonal. The smoothness in the transitions were certainly smoother in the new arrangement (the Pioneer had gaps between the channels at times). The explosions were spot-on. But like I said, it just felt like there was something missing (though it could have been that I had just watched the Matrix and LOTR).

MUSIC:
1) Dizzie Gillespie DVD-A "Matrix":
This had a terribly fuzzy quality to it. I have not been able to isolate the problem, but it sounded like ass. I was surprised at this, because it is one of my favorite DVD-A tracks. It sounded as though the producer of the disk had left a microphone on by a quiet fan... and it was blowing air across the microphone.

2) Eagles: Hotel California DVD-A:
Everything came alive on this one. This is an excellent disk to play if you want to feel good about your system. The whole thing sounded great on the Pioneer, but the difference was quite dramatic! We were able to hear the singer inhale between songs, detected something that sounded like a mistroke on a guitar (or someone hitting a music riser) and, overall, we could hear the vibrations of the guitar strings linger when there were prolonged silences. Everything was perfect. The best thing was when my wife said she felt as if we were there. She was a jazz performer for quite some time (opened for many a performer at the Monterey Jazz Festival), so it was great for her to recognize the improvement!

VIDEO:
What can I say? Video improved 10-fold. Colors are more distinct and vibrant, you can now see things clearly that were once quite fuzzy and indistinct. Blues and reds in particular are more defined and it seems as though there are more "shades" of both colors apparent. The outlines of of people--their hair, in particular, is pefectly defined. It's really rather amazing.

Build Quality:
1) A-#1: BlueJeansCable speaker wire is absolutely amazing. I had been using the Home Depot variety throughout my HT experience (about 6 years)... and had not seen or used anything else. The bluejeans cables are lovely--I have the Canare bi-wirable variety up front and the Beldon 12 awg pulling surround duty. The build quality is head and shoulders better than the Home Depot. I don't know if this results in a performance gain, but it sure makes me feel more confident--and I think that's half the battle right there. The Canare especially (only about $1/ ft.) was outstanding. There are four wires--two red coated, two white, all twisted with fabric strands in between, and then surrounded by a solid grey tubing. It's thick, it's rather stiff, and it certainly seems well insulated.

2) Outlaw 990: First impression (as I have stated) is that it was kind of light as compared to the AVR... which should be obvious, as there is no amp-section. Having used the unit for almost a week now, I am becoming rather fond of its functionality. The remote isn't the greatest--as many have noticed, but that's not why I bought this particular unit. The manual is a grand total of 51 pages long. They didn't include anything unnecessary, and provided illustrations only where they were useful. I would have liked to have seen the main remote control in the illustrations on how to switch things around, but the written instructions work pretty well in and of themselves.

The connections are solid. The RCA jacks are fairly well spaced, I had a little trouble maneuvering around back there after I had it all set up and in the pseudo rack/ shelf system I am using, but that's only a minor squabble.

The onscreen display is far more intuitive than the Pioneer's. There aren't too many levels of abstraction to deal with--the descriptions are helpful and everything takes you where you need to go without having to resort to a road map to get there.

The faceplate of the unit is awful sparse, but I knew that going in--I certainly didn't buy it for looks.

3) Sherbourn 7/2100A: What can I say... the UPS guy that delivered it looked extremely relieved to have it off his truck. He actually had difficulty getting it out, as the box and weight do not lend themselves to easy portage. I thought I was going to have to have a friend come and help me get it downstairs and set it into the rack, but through a series of leverages and shuffles, I was finally able to get it downstairs (I just pushed it to the stairs, slid it down the stairs (while supporting it from below) and then opened it up. Getting it out of the box was also quite an event... I didn't think 115lbs was gong to be too bad, but I was quite wrong.

So I set it up, used the Load Detection System to make sure all the speakers were connected correctly (an LED lights up in the back for each channel--green is good, red is bad, orange means something's amiss). I plugged it in and it sounded like a nuclear reactor was firing up. There were clicks and hums of all sorts, but after it warmed up a bit it was pretty quiet. I think I have a ground-loop issue (there's a consistent, fairly quiet hum) with its three-prong plugs, so I will attempt to get a couple of adapters for them and see if that takes care of the problem. I don't know what else there is to say about it--there's plenty of power to go around, the connections are extremely solid, and it's built like a tank (weighs about as much as one, too).

4) Dayton Interconnects: all very solid, thick cables. I am not particularly excited about the glass optical cable--the termination is "universal" (ie--it's round) instead of flat on one side and curved on the other... so the connection isn't exactly what I would like it to be.... but the sound is what I am interested in, and it all sounds excellent.

Nothing much more to report at the moment. I am extremely pleased with the set up and everything is functioning well (aside from the minor amp-hum). Lemme know if you all have any questions, and I will post more stuff as I get to spend more time futzing around with it.

Again, thanks much for all your help. I purchased most of these components on suggestions retrieved from this site and answers to my posts... and I think it spun out one hell of an impressive system!

--TDA