I truly understand what you are talking about. And indeed, most people find me crazy for purchasing a 990 and 7500 when my current system with a yamaha 2500 sounds several times better than anything that they would purchase. Furthermore, most people do not know what to buy in the first place and having to connect a pair of rca jacks is a too complicated task. I stopped letting them know if i changed anything unless its a fisically obvious change.

here is one for you. I have heard that the outlaw amp is made by ATI. Well there are several posts on this site regarding this. Is it the same as the ATI2005 or ATI 2007? If they are, Why such a major price difference. We are talking about a 50% difference here. If you made amps for a living, would you badge one of your best amps for another reseller to sell it that much cheaper than yours? That means that Ati's greatest competion is ATI and at the same time ATI will loose marketshare.

As far as bells and whistles, I truly don't care for them unless that they make a difference in my quality like fully balanced inputs.

I think that there are many catigories and as long as you are in a certain catigory and keep it constant you should be fine.

What i mean is if you buy a $10,000 amp, you need $10,000 speakers to match not $500 ones and vice versa.