I have finally finished reviewing the 990. All I can say is that I can't believe the difference Processors make on sound. They all sound great and people have their own tastes. I like clear, detail, accurate, and dynamic sound. The Meridian is the reference(for me) for this. IN my humble opinion the 990 sounds just like the Meridian. A liitle brighter but not harsh at all. I would say that this 990 has the best synergy with my Gemstone and speakers to date. Everyone that heard this combo says it is the best in my theater room so far. Very open sound. I love it. I will be keeping the 990. It has that wow factor that I have been missing since the meridian. I would call it the $1000 Meridian. There is no need to upgrade anymore. For those that think this processor is good but not as good as expensive processors then they are being fooled by the price. When I was evaluating it I was actually waiting for something bad. It never happened. I have owned ADA, Lexicon, Krell, Mcintosh, Meridian, Emotiva, and have heard anthem and parasound with my Speakers. The 990 is right next to the Meridian followed by the MAC, Krell and ADA. It mates well with my amp. Synergy is key. My speakers are M&K S-5000 THX(7 of them). I use a SVS PB12/PLUS/2 subwoofer. I am still amazed. I have read that people like the anthem better but it is taste, not because it is better. Same goes for the Emotiva.

I'm thrilled to hear that you've found what you were looking for! It's all the more impressive in light of how challenging a task you had set before yourself (finding a substitute for the Meridian 861 that sacrificed as little as possible). It's also cool to hear such a complement paid to the 990.

I was not expecting it to be this good. It sounds just like the meridian with a little more brightness. I actually like that difference. My dog ears guy looked at me and said IT's back, meaning the sound of the meridian is back. He could not believe it either. What was even better is that I set all the crossovers to 80 with small speakers and let it auto calibrate and this is the result. Excellent job. I am still amazed. I will stick with this until hdmi and dolby true hd becomes more widespread.

MK,

So glad to see your review finally!

I'm also very glad to see you're enjoying the 990. I've so far found it to be a very good pre-pro myself.

I'm hoping Outlaw will debut a next generation pre-pro that will include HDMI 1.3 video AND audio capabilities sometime next year. I'm keeping my 990 shipping box and packaging materials so that I can sell my 990 whenever this occurs.

Again, excellent review!

Let's not kid ourselves. Much of what you're paying for when you buy a Meridian processor is their intellectual property and modular construction. Their proprietary surround processing and room correction technologies are not available elsewhere, at any price (let alone $1000).

It's always nice to fantasize that you're getting champagne at beer prices, but that's not the case here. No slight against the 990, but Outlaw isn't going to catch up overnight to Meridian's three decades of research in digital audio, surround processing and room correction technologies. The best you can hope for is off-the-shelf stuff, licensed from companies like Dolby and DTS.

Outlaw's strength is in the value offered. You get a feature-rich stand alone pre-pro with excellent sound quality at a price that few manufacturers can touch. But that's very different from what Meridian is offering, both philosophically and practically. The 990 is no more a "$1000 Meridian" than the 861 is a $20,000 Outlaw.

I disagree. The Meridian is better, no doubt. But for watching movies or TV they sound very similar. Music I think the meridian is better due to trifield. I have owned many high end processors. The outlaw hangs with them for movie watching. It has all the clarity and detail. Some lacked the clarity that the outlaw has. The meridian sounds just like the outlaw, just a tad smoother on the upper end. For my purposes(home theater and high definition TV) the outlaw is awesome. Of course you have to like clarity, detail, and dynamic sound. If you like warm, then the outlaw is aweful. This is just not my opinion as well. Trust me, I was looking for something bad compared to the meridian. It did not happen. I have a circle of friends that come over all the time to watch movies. They have know idea I swap out gear. But when they say WOW, what did you do, I know something is good. It happened with the meridian and the outlaw. Don't get me wrong, i love the meridian and when I say $1000 Meridian I mean how it sounds. I know the meridian can do alot more and is upgradeable. I know they make their own dsp's, but for 7.1 movie watching it is close. Very close. I don't like warm sounding equipment, that is just me. I have owned the meridian 568 and the meridian 861, are they that much different in sound quality, no. Can I hear the difference, yes. The 861 has more clarity on every level. The outlaw is better than the 568, at least with my equipment. If I matched the 861 with their speakers and dvd player will it be even better, no doubt. I was looking for a processor that could match the 861 sonics as close as possible with my equipment and the outlaw is damn close. If I had a $10000 pair of speakers maybe that would change but not with my $3000 a pair. I am not kidding myself at all.

Whether you're listening in a movie theatre or at symphony hall, more than half the sound reaching your ears comes from the room and not from the speakers or performers. The same holds true when listening at home; you hear more from the room than you do from your speakers.

The dimensions of your room will cause some low frequencies to bounce back and forth between walls for much longer than other frequencies. This is the major reason for the "one-noted bass" sound. The long decay times also tend to obscure details that immediately follow.

The Meridian pre-pro can minimize the decay time for these problematic frequencies and cut down on the ringing. Since we're dealing with low frequencies, the wavelengths are large enough for the benefits to be heard at multiple seats.

With the lingering notes tamed, sounds that were normally obscured by the overhanging sounds are now unmasked, allowing you to hear everything more clearly across the entire frequency range. This is especially noticable with dialogue in movie soundtracks and TV programs.

You get to hear less of the room's unwanted contributions, and hear more of what your speakers actually sound like and more of what's on the recording. Always a good thing, irrespective of movies or music. And you don't need $10K speakers to hear the improvement.

How does the 990 address room resonances?

All that is true. I don't disagree. My Meridian was not a version 4.2 with room correction although it could have been upgraded. I am not talking version 4.2 vs 990. I am talking version 2.81. So the only way to fix any problems with the room is with room treatments which have been done. Is my room perfect, no, but it sounds pretty good. So in the area of build quality, upgradeability, looks, name, the Meridian is much, much better. No question. But for simple dts, dd, 7.1 with my equipment the 990 is at least 95% of the meridian. That is all.

mktheater:

First, thanks for taking the time to compare and contrast the various SSPs. The information is most helpful to us Outlaws!

Second, in the surround sound processing realm, aren't the 970 and 990 essentially the same? The reason I ask is that I am quite happy with my 970, but if your conclusions about the 990's movie performance apply to both units, it makes me even more pleased with my purchase (And, like you, will stave off my usual case of upgrade-itis! At least for the foreseeable future)

Third, with all due respect to sdurani's comments about room equalization, I do not find that a compelling reason in its own right to justify the price differences between the two units. I could be missing something about the purity of the Meridan's room correction circuitry, but the whole concept seems at odds with conventioanl wisdom: i.e., that that degree of signal manipulation, at least with repsect to mid- and high-frequency information, is anathema to preserving the fidelity of the input signal. With that in mind, I was always told the way to attack room problems is with acoutical treatments, or in the case of bass inaccuracies, a product such as the SMS-1. Neither of which puts you at risk of mucking up the critical mid range and higher frequencies, imaging, tonal balance, etc.
Lastly, any issues with the 990's tendency to be more neutral than warm can easily be addressed with careful choices in assoicated electronics, interconnects and speaker cables. So I do not consider this a drawback in the least.

Thanks again for the review.

The 990 and 970 are completely different platforms, actually. The 990 is based on the Sherwood (Etronics) P-965 with software and hardware revisions to add several features. The 970 is a processor version of the 1070, which was developed from the ground up by Outlaw.

Sdurani makes some good points. Room correction and equalization can be a very difficult thing to do properly and an easy thing to mess up, but Meridian and Lexicon (which I'll include since Sanjay happens to use a Lex) have both done some pretty unusual amount of research and development on things like this. Even moreso than the hardware involved, the engineering, programming, and research involved in doing what the latest versions of Meridian and Lexicon processors do is very costly, and you simply can't get it without moving to the five-figure price bracket. Outlaw can't do it, and neither can Rotel, Adcom, Anthem, Emotiva, or the other usual suspects.

On the other hand, mktheater makes some interesting points about how the 990 compares to his older version Meridian 861 when it comes to a few of the core design features. Any surround processor should strive to do standard surround decoding (Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro Logic IIx), D/A conversion, and analog output well. If the 990 can get close to the Meridian in these regards, then kudos to the 990.