i was interested to read outlaws letter to the editor response. i read the review, seems solid to me. well, what i would expect to hear. i agree some of the benchmark criteria are not the best. i think +25% in 2 channel mode is kind of silly, unless the product is supposed to do that. evaluating a ssp analytically is tough though, so as John Johnson replied the benchmark is a work in progress. distortion is obviously easy to measure, distortion of signal, power, etc. though i would bet all higher end products are pretty close... none the less you have to check, right? so the question is how do you differeniate between a lot of good products? i would say pricing...

pricing is what sets the outlaws apart.

frankly, 65wpc is going to keep a lot of people from buying the 1070 by itself. 65wpc with no distortion or clipping all channels driven is not enough for me, and i presume not enough for many others. there is no defense for not having a more powerful amp in there, other than cost. so if you like the 1070, but want more power, you need an amp. add an amp to the 1070s price and the value is gone. for that reason i would classify the 1070 as an entry-mid level system. no serious audio person would settle for 65wpc, period. it could make the sweetest sound you have ever heard, and have all the features in the world, but without the power to back it up people are going to pass on it.

i think the 1050 sounded fine, the 1070 sounds fine as well, but i would not own it as a stand alone receiver.

i think lots of people will not buy the 1070 because of its low power rating. yeah the power is rated accurately and not overrated, but 100wts is the standard. a lot of units rated 100 might actually produce only 65, but they get the buyers because of the 100wts spec. so the defense for accurate power rating is kind of silly. 65 is not enough. for some 100 is not enough. above that level basically you get into separates.

i like the outlaw product line and what they try to do, but they do miss the boat on some things (so to speak). 65wpc was a mistake for them. not enough people know and respect their brand name to get by with that low power rating, and even the ones that do question why its so low.