After reading many posts on the forum and I appreciate the replies you guys have given me to my 990 questions.

I decided to call Outlaw, to get their view on some issues I was concerned about. I had a 20-25 min conversation with Steve. Nice guy....

phonecall Highlights:

Q: "Steve, I know you guys have the consumer-direct business model thing going, no factory of your own, keep your overhead down etc..What if one of the 100 or so 990's you sold needs repair, how do you handle that? do you have enough techs to support?

Steve Reply: First off, 990's hardly ever break, of the over 2000 990's we have sold to date only
2-3 have required repair.

Vince: But there are only 20 active guys on the outlaw forum!!!

Steve: Yeah, I guess most 990 owners don't post on our forum....Steve went onto to say, if your 990 does need repair, you send it back to us, one of our techs will repair it, or at our discretion we may send you a new 990....We stand by what we sell

Vince: What about these bass issues I read about? These guys are waiting for an update from you? and the seeing all the parameters on the 990 display itself?

Steve: If you have speakers set to small, and sub-yes, that 97% of the users you are fine now. We are real close to bass fix for the other 3% users with a software update only. Giving them all the parameters from the 990 display itself is a tougher challenge, not solved at this time, and might require software and firmware change, not known at this time.....

Vince: Steve, What about these guys who say Arcam is the ultimate, take your 990 back!!

Steve: Very few guys of the 2000 send the 990 back to us...Give us a try, if you don't like its sound, send it back to us..............

Vince: what about your new balanced amps? Why should I buy one?

Steve: The new 5-ch and 7-ch amps are very sweet sounding, there was some blurb about rail voltage, true balanced etc..he said there will be some pro reviews soon............

Conclusion: Overall I was impressed talking with Steve...I'm real close to pulling the trigger on the 990 ...The debate is over the outlaw vs anthem mca50 amp?

Vince

hey, glad you posted this for all to see. I've only had my 990 for less than two weeks at this posting.

Yeah something i'd have done different on the 990. I'm not sure I completely understand that "bass issue" people are talking about. Although I do have to say...that i'm having trouble finding the right balance in my bass with the 990 pre.

It's either to low for home theater and to loud for 2 channel listening. Not sure if this is the problem or not.

Also, i use a set up disc i use in my DVD player.. and manually set up all the speakers. I start with Dolby Digital, then once those levels are set with a SPL meter.. i usually move on to DTS and run the set up manually again. What i noticed is that there is no difference in the DD and DTS settings. The pre doesn't remember different settings for both formats.

I'm used to setting up for DD then for DTS.. and my Marantz would remember the different setting for each format. We all know that both DD and DTS sound different.. so the 990 pre should remember the settings for each different format. Meaning one size doesn't fit all.

Interesting conversation, indeed. I've always said that most Outlaw owners never even register here, much less post - but owners who encounter problems are significantly more likely to post about those problems (the squeaky wheel principle). I'm looking forward to seeing what tidbits crop up in the firmware update (there have been some good ideas tossed out by 990 owners).

What does an Anthem MCA50 cost? At $1500 (or actually $200 less if you factor in the package discount with the 990), the 7500 seems like a pretty nice bang for the buck.

You may want to try dailing it in for home theater and then using the two channel sub offset to dial it down for that stereo listening.
The 990's channel calibration is global - while DD and DTS do sound different, the two should not vary between individual channels (DTS is generally about 4dB louder across the board, but that may vary somewhat from disc to disc depending on how the DD and DTS tracks were mastered). I've generally had good results using the 990's internal test tones for channel calibration.

When i first got mine.. i did the automatic set up too. the distance was spot on.. but the levels were all set to 0 i found that very odd. I went in and measured all the speakers using a SPL meter and found that the surrounds were to low and the center was to loud.

I use the test tones manually - just change the "TEST TONES" option in the CHANNEL CALIBRATION menu from "OFF" to "MANUAL" and as you move the cursor to each speaker you'll get a test tone. Be sure the master volume is set to 0dB (or whatever point you calibrate to reference) and adjust to get 75dB.

The MCA50 retails for $2100, most dealers offer 10% off, some of the shady dealers will do 20% off and ship out of their zone. Anthem has gestapo rules on shipping out of your local dealer zone.......

If I go the outlaw amp route I save a decent chunk!!
Vince

I was in Vince's position almost a year ago before the 7500 came out. I was deciding among the Outlaw 755, Anthem MCA-50 and Rotel RMB-1095, all 5 x 200 W/channel amps. All three were quite acceptable. The differences were small, as they should be for well-designed solid state amps of similar power. I was getting a pretty good price break from the Anthem dealer (unlike the Rotel dealer) but the MCA-50 was still going to cost a few hundred more than the 755. I chose the Anthem for a number of reasons. It has balanced inputs; the 755 did not. A power amp should be useful for a long time, and I wanted the possibility of balanced inputs in the future even though I am happy with unbalanced 0.5-m Outlaw cables for now. It is hard to imagine anything can be more quiet than the 990 with the MCA-50. I would describe the 755's bass being controlled and tight (some have described it as a little lean), and the Rotel as just the opposite, somewhat full or warm. I found the Anthem's bass to fall between the Outlaw and Rotel (just right?). I like crystal clear highs with no sizzle and found the Anthem revealed details in some recordings that I did not hear with the other amps and that human voices sounded just a liittle more like real voices than recordings of voices. That all being said, without very careful side-by-side comparisons, the differences are small, and I admit I might horribly fail a blind A/B/X test. I am still happy with my decision.

Though I tend to be skeptical of "audiophile" adjectives, and I have not heard any of the new Outlaw amps, some of the descriptions I have read elsewhere and on this forum (you say Steve described them as sweet sounding) lead me to believe the 7500 may have moved somewhat in the direction of the kind of sound the MCA-50 has, so I would encourage you to try them out as I did and judge for yourself. Who knows, with the balanced inputs in the 7500, I might choose it over the Anthem if I were making the choice today.

I am glad to hear the results of your conversations with Steve. I bought the 990 along with a few hundred dollars worth of cables, and tried out and returned the 755. I exchanged a few phone calls and emails with Steve and Scott before and after purchase and they were very helpful. I am looking forward to the 990 software update, and hope they can address a couple of my favorite issues.

I hate to bring this into the mix... but the Sherbourn amps are quite lovely... and rather substantial discounts are often available for new and used!

--TDA

Guys,

Thanks for the amp comments...In my case my gear has to fit into the wife's ent cabinet. Closed front glass door, and 18" wide shelves "wall to wall" Sherboun I think are 18+" width... The outlaws and anthems fit just right....

I came close to buying a used B&K amp at a super price. I called B&K on the phone they told, their tech support told me there amps are powerful and sweet but they give off heat like a toaster oven...no closed cabinet...

I have the option of boring the back wood panel and I will let the amp have 6-9" above to the 990 shelf...

Are the outlaw amps hot like toaster ovens?
I have read the anthems run cool...........

Thanks Vince