Has anyone done a shoot-out between outlaw and emotiva. Im a extremely pleased outlaw 990/7125 owner who is just curious.

There has been talk about a couple such shootouts, but very little has ended up happening. I know that AV123's forum regular DrunkonJack owned both a DMC-1 and a 990 and ended up giving the DMC-1 a slight edge over the 990.

A slight edge being if I could A/B them I could tell the difference. But if I took the time to unhook everything and hook things back up most ears wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

That's the impression I got - in an AB comparison you could tell that you were listening to two different processors, but it was a close contest. Keep in mind that we're talking about the 990 and the "big dog" in this case, too - and the DMC-1 is basically a re-badged Sunfire Theater Grand 4. The "UL" LMC-1 has been a more elusive target, since it has been backordered for some time after filling the pre-orders. At least one LMC-1 owner compared it favorably to the 990, but the LMC-1 has had a really hard time with firmware problems that has made it difficult for me to get a clear picture of its capabilities. It's also worth noting that the LMC-1 uses almost exactly the same DAC as the 970 (a DAC that Outlaw has said is not as strong a DAC as the chip used in the 990).

BW - I doubt that you will hear an improvement going to the LMC-1. Plus, it definitely has 2-3 outstanding issues. I would not recommend it to anyone at this point unless those issues are resolved with a firmware update. The DMC-1 may be a different matter.

I think the real comparison needs to be done in approx. 12-15 months when the next gen processors of all 4 models (with HDMI 1.3) are out.

Also, re: LMC-1 and 970 - apart from the DAC, the analog stage plays a HUGE part in the final SQ. So, even though the LMC-1 and the 970 have very similar DACs (the LMC-1 has a DSP that is one gen older), the final sound coming from them will probably be different.

I think there will be a difference. The Emotiva is more warm sounding and I will see with the 990, it arrives today. I hope there is a difference, I like neutral gear. warm sounding gear to me mask some of the highs.

MK,

Interesting, I had thought you were through with your evals after testing the DMC-1 per your thread over on av123 forums.

What changed your mind?

I'm definitely glad to see you trying out the 990, though I think you'll find the DMC-1 may hold an advantage over the 990, I'll be curious to see just how much of an advantage you feel there is after your eval.

Why is everyone saying the dmc-1 will edge the 990? They seem to both be in the same price range. Emotiva's website has their combo priced at 2999 while outlaws 990 with 7700 is 2998.

The DMC-1 has had its price significantly reduced - just a few months ago, the new price for a DMC-1 was something like $2500, and it dropped to $1600 or $1700 over the summer.

I liked the DMC-1 but was missing somethings I just could not get over that my Meridian had in sound quality. I setup the 990 and I turned everything on and my amp will not come on. Not another problem with this thing. My eval will have to wait because I need this amp to work to compare fairly. If the 990 does not satisfy my tastes then I will either try a primare(rated best processor by hometheater magazine) or just by a midlevel meridian.