Today I decided to take the plunge and ordered the
combo of the 990, 7125, and LFM-1 Plus.
I had a used (eBay) 950 for a year and the quality was very good.
Two months back I sold it with all my old Adcom gear because I wanted
to replace it with the 990 and 7125.
I was going to order it with the LFM-1, but decided to go with the new LFM-1 Plus
since it's only $100 more.

Once I get everything delivered, I plan on taking the 990 to the PC and
doing the S/W update via USB.

I'm sure I will be quite happy with the results.

Congratulations, FAUguy! I look forward to hearing what you think of the 990 and its friends.

FAUguy,
Sweet.....

keep us updated to your listening test and thoughts.

I got an E-Mail today with the three tracking numbers. I placed the order on Monday and it was shipped on Tuesday via FedEx ground.
They should be here by next monday.

I checked the traking numbers again tonight and noticed something weird.
The 990 is being shipped from BROCKTON, MA and is expected to be delivered on 6/16.
While the 7125 and LFM-1Plus are shipped from WHITTIER, CA and to be delivered on 6/19.

Does Outlaw have seperate warehouses for different products? I would of thought that everything would be shipped from the same lacation.

They do indeed have separate warehouses - the multichannel amps are all made on the west coast, so they are warehoused there as well (aside from some local transport, they only have to be shipped once - to you), but some of the products (cables, 990's, and some other stuff) is warehoused on the east coast.

I got the 990 delivered on Friday and installed the S/W upgrade. I checked the other tracking numbers and it said the 7125 was going to be delivered today (Sat) and the LFM-1Plus on Monday.
I got the 7125 today.
The weird thing was that the tracking # for the 7125 and LFM-1Plus were both showing in FL.

I got my 990 and 7125 hooked up this morning.
The sub just got deliverd tonight.
Why is the sub all black except for the top?!?
It looks like a gray swirl.

You sure it is not a protective covering?

About 20 min after posting this, I was moving the sub and noticed that part of it was pealing off the corner. Sure enough, it was a protective covering with a glossy piano black surface under it.

FAUguy,
So .... how does it sound? what is the 411?

So far I've only had a few hours today to try it out.

First, I decided NOT to run the Auto Setup.
I went into the settings and told it how far away the speakers were,
what the speaker size was, and crossover settings.
This is what I had:
Front L/R: Large, 40Hz (B&W DM603)
Center: Small, 60Hz (B&W CC6 S2)
Surround L/R: Small, 100Hz (B&W DS6).
All were at 0dB.

I listened to everything for a while and it sounded a bit out-of-balance, so I tried the Auto Setup.
It changed distance measurements for the L/R/C speakers. It said the sub was 16ft and the L/R were 12ft, but the sub is sitting next to the L speaker.
It changed the front L/R speakers from Large to Small. It kept the Center and Surround L/R small.
It said the front L/R were 0db, Center +1db, Surround L/R +3db, and Sub -8db (volume knob was at 5).
It did not change the crossover values (front 40, center 60, surround 100)

I listened to some passages from a few DVDs, and it sounded better, but something was missing.
There wasn't enough bass coming from the from L/R speakers.
So I went back into the settings and changed them from Small, to Large.
This made an improvement, so I then changed the center from Small to Large.
That made a difference too.

When playing a CD, I use an Adcom CD player output via Digital RCA (MIT Reference Digital cable) to a CalAudio Sigma2 DAC.
I would keep the 990 in Bypass mode since it sounded cleaner.
I then decided to take the Sigma2 DAC out of the loop, and connected the Digital out of the CD player directly to the 990.
I put the 990 in Upsample mode. It sounded just as good, if not slightly better. I would change between Stereo and Upsample
modes, and Upsample does improve the sound quality.
But it's hard to tell what sounds better: Using the Sigma2 DAC and 990 in Bypass, or just 990 in Upsample.
One thing that did make a difference was to have the sub on as well (in LFE+L/R mode) when playing a CD.
It did not make the bass overpowerfull, but did make it stand out more (most noticeable when playing the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony No3. You can "feel" the low pedal tones).

Overall, in the few hours that I've had to use it, I am quite happy with the results.
If I had an extra $1K, I would of got the 7700 amp, but the 7125 sounds as good or better as the Adcom amp I had.
I still need to look and see if I can find two Rear Surround speakers that would be able to ceiling mount because there is no back wall (open stairway).
I LFM-1Plus is gives more than enough bass for my room (using it in bass extension mode 20Hz).
I might also look into buying a new remote. I think I liked the remote with the 950 better. The blue backlight on the 990 remote is bright and distracting when watching a movie in a dark room.

I'm sure I'll have more to say after I've tried it for a few more days.

Edit: I tried the AutoSetup a few other times tonight to see if it would give the same results. One thing I noticed is that it DOES NOT change the crossover settings. If I have all the crossover setting at 200Hz, and run the AutoSetup, it is kept at 200Hz. No matter what I set them as, the AutoSetup does not change it.
Is this correct?
I thought the part of the AutoSetup was to determin the crossover settings for each speaker so it works best with the sub.

FAUguy,

Isn't 40 Hz a little low to run the crossover for the fronts? The B&W's have their +- 3 db level at 44 Khz, so you're creating a fairly large bass dip between 40 and 50 Hz or so that the sub could easily cover. It would also take off a lot of strain on the 603's to set the crossover at 60 or even 80 Hz.

I looked at the PDF files for all my speakers today.
It says the DM603 (front L/R) are 47Hz to 20kHz +/- 3dB.
CC6 S2 (center) is 78Hz to 20kHz +/- 3dB.
DS6 (L/R Surround) is 85Hz to 8kHz +/- 3dB.

I have the crossover on the fronts at 40, center at 80, and surrounds at 100 (80 makes to much bass distortion on the DS6).

The reason I had the crossover at 40 is because when I listen to 2CH music CDs, I like to get full front speaker sound. Otherwise, if I had the crossover at 60 or 80, then I would be missing the lower range.

Advice?

I would say that if you wanted to drive your fronts in full range, to use the bypass mode. However, bass that low (40-60 range) really shouldn't be too directional at all, so at least to me, I'd say you would be better off setting the crossover to 60 or 80 on the fronts, routing that to the sub, and it should fill that bass dip and probably let the fronts perform better.

I'd also consider trying out 100 Hz for the center, since the -3 db is so close to the 80 Hz crossover, the rears seem good. No real way to be sure unless you test it out, though, and decide what sounds best to you.

I'm going to agree with smackrabbit here (oh, and welcome to the forum, smackrabbit!). I used to run my mains crossed over at 40hz when I had an SVS sub for the very reason you mention (music listening), but with my LFM-1 I was able to bump that up to 60hz and have the sub and speakers integrate quite transparently. You might want to give it a try and see what you think. I'd also suggest trying 100Hz for the center channel to see how it works for you.

Ok, so if I'm understanding correctly...

[DD or DTS]

1)When all speakers are set to Small and the crossovers would be front 60, center 100, and surround 100. All bass below the crossover points + LFE will be sent to the sub.

2) If front L/R are set to Large, center Small, and surround Small, then the sub would get the bass from only the center+surround+LFE. The front speakers would get all the bass regardless of the crossover setting at 60.

Between these two choices, it would probably be best to have all speakers set to Small and have the sub handel all the bass below the crossover points when using DD or DTS.

However, when using a CD player with Digital out to the 990, should I keep the settings the same and use "Upsample"....Or I could change the fronts to Lage and sub to LFE+L/R. This way the fronts would get full range sound and sub would get low L+R bass (since there's no LFE on a CD).

What do you think?

Myself, I would keep the settings the same and experiment with 60 Hz and 80 Hz crossovers. From around 80-120 Hz and below, bass is non-directional, so to me you are getting the most out of your speakers (and I am from mine, which are around the same size as yours and are +-3 db at 48 db) since they won't strain, and the sub can easily handle bass up to 80 Hz without breaking a sweat.

It all comes down to personal taste, I just think that the current settings with the 40 Hz crossover was just leaving too large a hole there in the bass, and worry that doing Large+LFE will wind up with too much bass. If everything is calibrated right, it should be nice and smooth.

You've got the bass management figured correctly (if it helps keep track of it for other configurations, I've got a bass management diagram on my firmware updates page). I'd recommend leave the mains small (60Hz crossover) and playing with "upsample" in stereo mode for CD listening. If you do decide to go with large, you'll probably want to avoid the "LFE+L/R" mode because you'll still get the extra bass you didn't like before.

I played a few DVDs today and found that the best setting for movies (DD/DTS) was:
Fronts: Small, 60Hz
Center: Small, 100Hz
Surround L/R: Small 100Hz
Sub: Yes

That way all the bass below the crossover levels + LFE (.1) was sent to the sub.
One thing weird I notice that was when changing between a DD track and DTS track (on the same movie), there was more pronounced bass on the DTS. Not sure why.

I then left the above settings the same and played a few CDs using the Digital Coax RCA from my Adcom player connected directly to the 990 in "upsample" mode.
It sounded good, but not great. The bass was lacking (2CH bass ofset was at 0dB), so I went in and changed the Fronts from Small to Large and changed to Sub to LFE+L/R.
That fixed the problem. I got full range bass to the fronts and L/R bass to the sub.

On a some of the CDs, I could "feel" an extremely low frequency coming from the sub.
I tested this by playing a CD track that just had 1 person singing. I could not hear, but could feel the sound waves coming out of the sub.
I stuck my hand on the woofer and it was viberating very slowly.
Since this was only on a couple CDs, I guess this would be low frquency jitter that was durring the recording process?

DTS tracks are often mixed with the LFE track "hotter" (in fact, DTS tracks are typically mixed a few dB hotter across the board - it's one reason many people point to for the perceived superiority of DTS or DD).

Other than the DTS being mixed a few dB higher than DD, does one really sound better than the other?

I've recently been looking into this very question since up until I got my 990, I didn't have a choice. If you Google DTS and Dolby you'll come up with all sorts of interesting stuff on this. I guess even Dolby Labs and the DTS people have been in a cat fight for years over who's got the better format. Naturally.

Also not suprisingly, it seems great sound has a lot more to do with processes upstream, and how skilled the person was that did the mixing, than the particular formats themselves. Hence you can have great sounding DD and DTS tracks. It just depends on the movie.

Though it's interesting to me that so many people seem to swear they prefer DTS 90% of the time while it seems much less common to hear someone say that about DD. So maybe DTS tracks are consistently better, for whatever reason...

Anyway, I don't feel I have enough personal experience yet to form any preference. I'm still in awe over how good it all sounds with the 990/7125/LFM-2. Absolutely love 'em.

hello gonk and fellow audioholics!! I have just finished setting up my New 990/7700 that I am not ashamed to brag about the fact that I made a great deal at the home theater show in LAX.
It took me a total of eight hours to set it up. I do not think that the instruction manual is as accurate as it should be. I do think that with not much effort it could be made a liitle bit easier. However thanks to Outlaws great support system via STEVE, the setup was made without stress. Steve was right there to help make things easier to deal with. Patience 100%. Most important besides that,is the fact that he was dealing with a person who is not technical savvy as himself or a lot of you guys here on the forum. I am strictly a person who likes good sound and picture quality. It's that simple.
I admire you guys who talk about Hz, LFE, Bass Management and whatever else you can pull out of that bag of electronic wizardry.
I like good audio and a good picture.
When I was debating about whether or not to purchase the 990 or keep my yamaha 3300 receiver as the processor and get the 7700 for the amplifier I was unsure as to how much better if at all my sound for stereo and movies would be.
Now I know. The 990 is without a doubt awesome!! I noticed the difference right away. Having unexpected company watching (Underworld part 2) and the questions as to what I did to improve the sound was a good feeling. The fact that they noticed a difference was nice to hear, beause I thought that I was going to be the only one to really notice. My friends thought that I was nuts to get rid of the yamaha. They thought it sounded "fine". They were wrong, the 990 makes my movies sound as if the action is right there in the room. I mean as if they were making the movie in my home theater.
I know it sounds as if I am streching it, but I am a happy camper.
If you are debating about the 990 as to if it will make an improvement, don't!! It will go beyond your expectations.
Thanks outlaw for making a product.
If I had to say anything negitive about the 990/7700 I would say that the on and off buttons of both units seem weak along with the volume knob on the 990.

DTS will often, on DVD's, have a bitrate of around 1.5 Mb/sec. DD maxes out at 640 or 750 Kb/sec for a bitrate, so the DTS will have less compression then, if it was mixed well. This is why on some of the DTS DVD's that Universal used to put out (Out of Sight, Jaws, etc...) they didn't have the special features of the standard discs since they were using that room for the DTS soundtrack.

I'm glad to hear that you've got the 990 and 7700 up and running, rubbersoul! It sounds like it's been a hit!

It is amazing the difference between the 990 and the Yamaha 3300. The 990 goes beyond my expectations. I thought that I would notice a little improvement, but the 990 went beyond..To the OUTER LIMITS. This was not just my feelings but also a couple of local audio newbies who thought it sounded so life-like.
Gonk can you tell me if you know of any sites where I can pick up a CHEAP monitor for use with the 990. I had to steal my daughters' TV for the set up menu and I would like to have something that I can store in my Home Theater room for any future settings.
THANKS,
Rubbersoul

Do you want a little CRT, or do you want a fancier-looking LCD?

There's a little Coby 5" black and white CRT that Radio Shack says has an A/V input jack. You can get it from J&R for $17 or so or Radio Shack for about $25 . I've got a similar TV that I keep in the hall bathroom closet (handy for tornado warnings, left over from the big storm-induced power outage of 2003). Small, CHEAP, and effective (assuming Radio Shack's correct on the A/V input, which this PDF file appears to confirm).

If you want to get fancier, there are some little LCD's. There are two more Coby's available from J&R: 5" display for $100 or 7" display for $130 .

If you're going the LCD route, I'd probably lean toward the 7" display - easier to read. If you just want CHEAP, the little CRT would at least get you into the setup menus without taking much space or cash.

Thanks Gonk for the info. I am going cheap on this one. Radio shack is about 2 miles from the house. If they do not carry them any more I will go to J&R.
Spoke to Scott today problem with the Trigger cord that is supplied with the 990 to hook up with the 7700. For some reason it does not turn on the 7700. However, now this is weird, when I experimented by pulling the cord out of the 7700 while the 990 was on (BLUE LIGHT) the 7700 turned on. I hope that this is a faulty cord and not a problem with the 7700.
Keeping the faith I think it is the cord. We shall see. Scott is sending me a new cord.