At the end of the day, ranking products based on their performance is a slippery slope - it's too dependent on the individual user's tastes, associated equipment, and too many other inconsistent factors. That's why I created my SSP chart back in 2002 - it can't compare sound quality or other factors because those factors cannot be tabulated fairly, but it can compare simple features.
As much as a piece of my ego might enjoy the notion that my 990 does X% of what a product (Meridian, Lexicon, or whatever) costing an order of magnitude more, the reality is that in general Sanjay is right. (I say "in general" because there will be a few cases such as mktheater's when someone actually does compare units at this wide a price range.) We can try to assign values, but in the end it's a pretty fruitless exercise because the values will be different for each person.

I think this thread has morphed from a comparison of the Meridian Version 2.81 vs. the 990 to a larger debate that includes other products and our various comfort levels that we got what we wanted for the money invested.

Sanjay, I can only conclude from your comments that you have had the benefit of the 861 Version 2.81, Version 4.2 and the 990 all in you system to compare and contrast. I have not, and unfortunately, such comparisons are above my paygrade

However, I do feel MKTheater's thorough audition of the Meridian 2.81 and 990 provided a good insight into the relative sterngths and weaknesses of both units. If I had been privy to the audtion, maybe I would have come to the same conclusion; maybe not. But MKTheater's findings do comport with my own experience that significantly larger expenditures on gear often yield incremental improvements.

With that, I wish everyone a great weekend and hope you have a chance to sit down, fire up your system, and enjoy a great movie.

I have more to add. The most realistic system I ever had was my Mcintosh and Klipsch system. The sound effects were so real that when someone knocked on a door some of friends would get up to answer the door, then they would realize it was the movie. Same goes for cell phones and such. Then I came across my favorite theater speaker and had to have them. I liked them better than my Klipsch THX ultra 2(these were great). They had better highs. The only problem was that I lost that real sound. So I was on my quest to find it with these speakers. Guess what guys, I did with the 990, Gemstone amp, and my M&K S-5000 thx speakers. Once again people are getting up to answer the door. It fooled me one time as well. Very accurate. I am liking this better than the Meridian for movies. The Meridian never did this.

- We've tried to answer some doorbells and knocks on the door over the years, and we also had a case where my father-in-law walked in the back door and said "hi" while we were watching a movie and we thought it was the movie.

You would be suprised how many pieces of equipment (high end) don't do this. To me a theater should sound life like, real. I know it is easy to fool the guys that never heard 7.1 or 5.1 before but when I get fooled then we are on to something. I have been at this for 11 years and started with a receiver, klh speakers, and a laser disc player. I found a high end store and told myself that is what I like. Well, I have exceeded those expectations. I think many audiophiles like a warm or a laid back presentaion which may be good for music but I never liked it for theater. I think this is why many never consider the 990 for their processor because it does not present that type of sound. I have tried going the great musical home theater(equipment and speakers known to produce great music) route but it always failed me for theater. You know people say that a great piece of equipment that can do music right can easily do hometheater, I disagree. Been there, done that. I did not like it. When I started putting together a pure theater(equipment built for theater) then it came together. The music happen to be good too, but then again my speakers were meant for theater. I know people might say why didn't you stick with the Mac system, I will say changing that system to this one I get better results(slight) and with the extra money I bought 6 theater seats. Gonk what speakers are you using? I am assuming that you use outlaw pre and amp.

mktheater,

I too have been very impressed with the 990 and Klipsch combination. When I set out to convert my garage into a home theater (project took longer than I care to remember) I auditioned many speaker systems but absolutely fell in love with the Klipschorns and essentially designed the room for them. By pure luck run across a very favorable review in a home theater magazine about Outlaw Audio and the Model 990. Ended up with the 990/7125 LFM-1 combo.
The realism is incredible. Everything from movies to my sons Xbox 360 gaming seems to come to life.

I've got an Outlaw 990 and Outlaw amps (7500 and a pair of M200's), Outlaw LFM-1 sub with SMS-1, and Paradigm Reference (Studio 60v2 mains, Studio CCv2 center, Studio ADPv2 back surrounds) with some Axiom M3's for side surrounds due to some mounting limitations on my side walls.

I did not use the 990 with Klipsch. I used Mcintosh with it. Everyone who has watched a movie recently has said it sounds better than ever. Most reactions are Wow, did you change something. Yes, I swapped out a $15000 piece of gear for a $1100 one. HAHA. Don't get me wrong I love the Meridian. I just don't agree with the people that say the 990 is a great bang for the buck, It is a great processor period. Just because the Meridian was so expensive does not mean it is that much better in sound quality.

Dr. megalito,
What klipsch speakers are you running?

He said in his post that he is running Klipschorns.