I know, and I wish I could forget those tv speakers even exist, but with a 2 month old baby boy in my house, sometimes I just have to keep it down.

This may make some of you twinge, but the speakers in my JVC 40" LCD are actually not bad. You have to take it what it's worth though, they're tv speakers, and for that they're pretty good, but when I get to crank up my paradigms, life is good.

Thank you everyone for your input on the Blue Jeans Cables. My next order will definitely be from them. I was looking at their stats and they seem really clean. The HDMI I got from BetterCables is a really nice cable, but I paid for it, not like a Monster, but I paid for it. I think Monster refers more to their price now than anything.

Hey obie, can the JVC compare to the 1070? The 1050 was very impressive and I can only imagine how nice the 1070 is. I would normally put JVC in line with Kenwood and Sony. These makers do make some ok stuff, but you have to get in to their top lines and spend a fortune to match what you get in the 1070 for under $1k.

On the issue of the OSD, while it might vary for you, I tend to use mine a lot. I'm picky and rather particular about having my audio always set up just right and sometimes it requires a few little tweaks. The thing I mainly use it for though is to adjust the volume levels. Even after tweaking the offsets most of my sources tend to vary wildly with what level they need to be at to be considered reasonable. Thus I can change the volume to the proper area easily and then know approximately what I'm getting before I switch inputs. Same thing when I'm watching TV late at night once my girlfriend has gone to bed.

The reason I use the OSD for such a simple thing is because, as cool as it looks the blue display is nearly impossible to read unless you're very close to it. At a distance of 8 feet I typically have to lean forward a bit, squint slightly, and make some informed guesses to tell what it's trying to display.

I'd still love it without the OSD, but I'd probably complain a little bit more often.

I'd have to admit I'm a little bit of a tweaker myself. I like to make sure the settings are optimal at all times, which is why I'm starting to spend the money on quality components.

Have you seen obie_fl's theater room? Scroll up a bit and cehck it out, he's done a good job.

Has anyone read the latest article from Outlaw about the prices going up July 1?

I was in a meeting yesterday with some contractors (general and subs), and a secondary debate popped up between them about prices. The electrical sub remarked that three major Chilean copper mines have been on strike since the first of the year, driving copper prices up significantly worldwide (on the order of 75%+ increases, apparently). Steel's been a moving target in the US for several years now - the story I was told about three years ago was that some Chinese investors came to the US and bought a couple of the major steel mills, broke them down, and shipped them to China because it was faster than building mills from scratch. (I've never seen proof of that tale, but it was told right around the time that sheet metal prices went completely mad and they don't seem to have really stabilized since then.) It's not been unusual in the last few years for contractors to offer quotes with a disclaimer that prices were only good for a week (rather than the previous standard of 30 to 60 days). It's a major issue affecting all industries. Sad, but definitely true.

YIKES! Like every other guy out there, I'll be pissed if I wait and the price goes up a lot!

Does anyone know when the 1070 first came out? Is there a newer or replacement coming out soon?

I seriously doubt there will be any huge increases, and cables will probably be the most likely victims.

The 1070 came out late last summer or early last fall, and I wouldn't expect any changes to or replacement for it before early 2008 (based on past Outlaw product life cycles).

Wouldn't the amps qualify as well, since those huge transformers are mostly wound wire?

True, the amps are also potentially going to see an increase - especially since they're built domestically.

HDMI and DVI are not equivalent for video, DVI is inferior:

See this for details, definate difference:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_4/feature-dvi-hdmi-hdcp-connections-11-2004.html

HDMI can offer some advantages (or disadvantages, if its improperly implemented). In the case of the DVI switching used by Outlaw's processors and receiver, however, it's a moot point - the video signal pin-compatibility of the two formats allows the Outlaw DVI switching to be transparent to HDMI signals (in other words, the "blacker-than-black" data issues don't apply). DVI is not going to be around in new products much longer, but at least for video purposes the Outlaw DVI switching will work just fine for HDMI components.