Did not hear a difference Vince; I went with the 7700 because I plan to keep this Amp a very long time and I want to have the power to run any speaker I might ever desire and this amp will do that.

When I installed my 7700 I did have a ground loop problem that I did not have with the 7125 and this was because the 7700 has a 3-prong plug where as the 7125 does not. I found the cause of the ground-loop hum in a couple of minutes - it was a dimmer switch for my ceiling fan. I have been wanting to put in a remote controlled fan so this was the perfect time to do it; the remote controled fan (Hunter) also dims the lights with the remote so no dimmer switch is needed.

Vince, one slight correction: dB are always 10 but never 20 times the common logarithm of the numbers in question, so the difference dB difference between a 200 watt amplifier and a 100 watt amplifier would be, as you state, 10 log 200 - 10 log 100 = (10 x 2.30103) - (10 x 2.00000) = 23 - 20 = 3 dB.

I forgot to add that a 1-dB difference in loudness is the minimum loudness difference that can be reliably detected by alert listeners in lab conditions, a 3-dB difference would correspond to "a little" louder or softer, and a 10-dB difference is reported by listeners as about twice as loud (or half as loud).

AndrewS, I think I'm finally getting a good handle on what you are running into. If I have time this weekend (which I may not - family and work are looking to pretty well occupy both days), I'm going to try to confirm my suspicion. Excuse me if everybody else already had this figured out and I'm re-stating the obvious, but what's happening is just starting to click with me. You report that the channel trim imbalance appears in upsample mode - does it also occur in stereo bypass? What it sounds like is you are using a few modes that bypass some or all of the digital processing sections of the unit (which is typically done to maintain as clean a signal path as possible, and is limited to a few "special" cases). The only modes that I thought did this in the 990 were stereo bypass (which obviously avoids it because it remains purely in the analog domain) and the 7.1 Direct input (which only enters the digital domain if the speakers are set to small, and then solely for bass management), but it is entirely possible that upsample behaves similarly to the 7.1 Direct mode. When this happens (as I've heard of happening in a number of other processors as well, not just Outlaw gear), the trim settings can be bypassed. If you had significant amounts of channel trim on the left, right, or sub channels, you would notice that difference very readily in a stereo mode that skipped the channel trim. Since I have almost no adjustment to my left and right channels (either 0dB or -1dB) and not much more trim on my sub (-2dB), I've never noticed it. Like I said, though, I'm mulling over some ways to test this and verify it.

Very interesting

I've spoken with Steve - totally awesome guy!

I had an issue with a scratched 7700 and then bought the 990. I love the combo.

I am not sure about his saloon. Very few active posters and very little traffic but that does not say that nobody buys Outlaw.

I admire their openness to let people criticize on their site.

As for me, I'm a convert

Rob

Vince

I am not sure if I am one of the "20 Active" forum members, I do post from time to time. I have had my 990 since the orignal batch shipped, and could not be more happy with it performance. I use an Outlaw 755 with two Outlaw M200 in a 7.1 system. I run all large speakers so the base-management issue is not a concern of mine. Also I run the video via HDMI and DVI/HDMI of my HD Sat box and DVD straight to the Tv, so I do not switch video with the 990. For on srceen menue I run the 990 monitor out to a 13" LCD. For me the 990 is an Audio Machine and a very good one at that. I just recently added a turntable into my system, a cheap one. My Tehnics SL1700 MKII needs an new cartridge and Tonearm drive belt. I am very pleased with the 990 Phono Performance. I have been listening to records I purchased in late fifties to the early 80s and they sound fantastic on the cheap turntable, can't wait to hear them on the 1700. My only problem with Phono was finding my 25 year old Discwasher brush. IMHO anyone considering new HT/Audio equipment should take advantage of Outlaw's 30 trial period and listen for themselves.

As the title of the thread indicates, it appears that LOTS of people buy from Outlaw!

It is really kind of typical to see a small number of stallwarts in any forum such as this, where a core of enthusiasts are around and help those who come in for a question and then go back about their business.

I have been enjoying the 990 so much that I have not been posting much. All I can say is, the combination with the Anthem MC50 in my system is truly impressive. The Anthem is one of the most neutral and potent amps I have heard. Back when I was younger, I had owned an older Krell and Threshold amp, so I am familiar with subtle sounds/colorations an amp can impose.The Krell did not do it for me. It was a bit bright and hard to listen to at higher levels. The Threshold was detailed yet powerful, and never fatiguing. For that reason, I held the Threshold in high regard. That is what the Anthem reminds me of; very neutral and dynamic.

For the money, the Anthem is hard to beat, and as a combination with the 990, a class act.

Gonk:
Where this "trim" issue appears is with Input 1-5 vs the CD input. I set both modes to "Upsample". I renamed one of the inputs to DVD and used it to calibrate via test tones. When I switch to the CD input and check calibration levels, the sub "trim", if it is negative on the DVD input, is now basically 0 on the CD input.

Note that I am not using any analog sources. The CD input is coax digital and the DVD input is optical digital.

Now that's interesting... I'll have to play with that a bit - I've got an input set up that way already.

EDIT: Does it only affect the sub, or does it affect the trim across the board?