I am a newby here, and am considering outlaw home theater equipment. I notice that, while brands like Denon and Yamaha have channel equalization functions in their AV receivers, the Outlaw equipment does not seem to have this. Is this a significant omission on Outlaw's part? Do the equalization functions (like Audyssey or YPAO) add anything important? Thanks to all.

Brands like Denon, Yamaha, and Pioneer have begun offering automatic EQ solutions throughout their product lines. Eventually, the smaller brands that build surround sound processors (Outlaw, Rotel, Adcom, Arcam, Anthem, ...) will also offer similar tools, but you will currently not find auto EQ on gear from these smaller brands right now. Some of that is due to product life cycles and R&D budgets, but the simple truth is that while automatic EQ in and of itself is feasible with today's hardware, effective and useful EQ is much more difficult. The Audyssey solution seems to have a good reputation as does the recent versions of Pioneer's MCACC, but I recently commented on some of the inherent dangers of EQ in this thread .

The ‘Hideout’ has a search feature that is handy when looking for information probably already discussed in this forum. A search for ‘auto eq’ will result in over 70 entries being found. If you limit your search to the 990 forum, you’ll find less but perhaps more germane to your question.

From the Outlaw 990 FAQ section:

“We are familiar with all of the various "Room EQ" systems currently on the market, and while they are a major step forward, we are not yet ready to put the Outlaw name on any of them. We will continue to examine the field and may offer an upgrade when we feel that the EQ system will benefit your listening environment.”

My quick commentary:

While I would work on room treatments first, when it comes to signal EQ to address environment problems, the area most needing attention in a home environment is the bass reproduction because of too-easily-established standing waves, hence the SMS-1 being offered.

‘Real’ EQ work is a somewhat involved process and the necessary electronics to both analyze and execute excellent results would likely exceed the cost of the 990, or more than double the 990 price if an excellent system were built in.

IMHO, cheaply done EQ is akin to the DSP modes (Hall, Studio, etc.) once touted as ‘enhancements’ to Pro-Logic. For a while marketing was mostly successful – who wanted to buy a new receiver without the DSP enhancements? DSP inclusion spread like wildfire. Later those that wanted the best sound found these modes to be mostly useless. Now the marketers are always looking for a new feature at the least cost to promote their wares. The most ‘solid features’ are those that are based on sound engineering principles. So for now the marketing is somewhat effective – why buy a processor/receiver without ‘Auto EQ?’ I think many mass consumers will be all too pleased to push a button and think that they’ve accomplished wonders. The more astute will find that EQ that is too simple tends to mask but not solve certain problems.