Good post David...and many of us have been in the same boat. I've tried about 5 or 6 receivers just in the last year. I'm sure they all would have been fine if I hadn't lived with an Outlaw, but since I have they all sounded a bit dull.

Athena's are great speakers for the money (IMO)! I had them before moving to Ascends. The only one I really disliked was their center speaker.

I think you made a good choice David...thanks for the update.

I'll go on a limb and say that what we all like about Outlaw sound, the sweet midrange and full-bodied sound with the right dynamics, come from that oversized toroidal transformer, that very potent power supply.
That is also responsible for the "true power rating", those "honest" 65Wpc (in the case of the 1070) which leave other 130Wpc in the dust.

Audio electronics design is all a game of compromise, when below the high-end, stereophile, price-no-object league.

Given the price point, a designer has to carefully choose what has to go and what has to stay to hit the targeted price. I believe Outlaw made the right call. They put the money in the power supply, where it matters most for the analog audio quality. Of course, everything else, the other components, had to stay in a decent, audio enthusiast league as well, but the power supply stands above all else in this receiver, and this pays off.

I'll reiterate what I said numerous times. Had 1070 not had the "no audio" bug, it would have been the best in its league by a nautical mile. With the bug, it's only by a terrestrial mile, give or take a handful of yards.

Of course, I reserve the privilege of being wrong in my assessment, as with everything else in my life... ;-)

So the pressure is on the Outlaw engineers for the next generation 1070/970! Let's start with:

1. Maintain/improve the sound quality
2. Debugify

3. HDMI-ify

I keep trying to pronounce that in my mind and ending up with "humidify" - and visions of a 1070 chassis with a water line connected to the back and a plume of steam rising from the vents is really amusing...

Actually I think even the cost-no-object engineers have to make compromises too, just none based primarily on cost.

4. Digital Plus, TrueHD, DTS-HD decoders

Outlaw Audio makes a receiver (the 1070) that is much better than it's MSRP which is our course, $899 direct from the company. Fact, the SQ for music when using the Analog inout in bypass mode with full analog bass MGT. is much better than 90% of the other receivers out there which cost even more $. The fact than you can use the 1070 and a full preamp and you have 4 digital coax and 4 digitial Toslink inputs! The setup is so easy, the unit decodes digital signals on the fly when using digital inputs (MOVIE soundtracks!)

IMHO, in order for Outlaw to keep the cost down, they do use lesser grade DACS that work well yet do not please the audiophile such as myself.

My high end Denon DVD 3930CI uses thhe Burr Brown PCM1796 current output 2 channel DACs to drive the stereo outputs. This means that you effectively have two DACs per channel. Ideally this provides lower noise and reduces nonlinearities and other unwanted transients in the output signal. I also have mine modified and mine sounds like a serious audiophile grade unit with no digital timing erros or that lean sound. I have full bass, depth, etc.

The 1070 uses less grade, crystal dacs (thanks Gonk for the info). I feel the SQ when listening to 2 channel music, esp SACD to be a lot better than most movies.

I did research and thanks again to Gonk for telling me that DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1 are both compressed. I even spoke with someone at DTS to learn more about this once Gonk told me.

I have an amp that should arrive today from Fed Ex . I feel the sound Quality of DVDs when using the 1070 for most people is great yet for the dedicated audiophile, maybe not.

The amp should improve the SQ in many ways. Should I get into Blu-Ray (not HD-DVD), I will think about getting a new preamp that supports the full onboard decoding of the HD Audio formats all the way up to DTS master. Againg, In much talks with Gonk, I feel using a Sony PS3 that can decode these tracks hopefully with firmware upgrades. will work. I have too much Money, time and effort with my superb DVD that I do not want another player just for movies. At current, I have a Ps2 hooked up to the 1070 via an Outlaw PDO and that is a lot of fun. Have any of you played G-d of war or G-d of war2 in progressive mode?

Do I feel the 1070 is the final answer, I think not. Was the choice to get a 1070 as a entry path in HT and music playback for this audiophile, the answer is YES!

The 1070 when using a high end pair of speakers, sub and front end on the analog inputs really makes me pleased. The unit will pass what you put into it. If you put garbage in, expect garbage to be played through.

As far as allowing hardware upgrades to make available HDMI inputs and chipsets that have HD Audio ability, this will cuase Outlaw to increase the price way above the current set prices.

What I would like to see in the next Receiver and also the lower preamp from Outlaw is:

1). Improved SQ - Better Dacs, less Op amps.More power say 90 watts times 7 in the receiver.

2). More control over bass MGMT, esp analog, not default THX 80 Hz set. Also, allow 5 or 10HZ increments. This should alao be in the next 990.

3) Full support for HD Audio up to DTS master Audio with HDMI inputs up to current and hopefully future specs.

4) A feature that alows you to trim bass in the sub from rumbling like in Movies.

5) Better grade speaker posts and RCA female plugs, wire inside the unit, better grade Caps,etc.

6) Support for HD Radio: so I only need an antenna.

7) More analog inputs than just the One!

This is a good point. All engineering involves making compromises, whatever the design, whatever the budget.
Like the HDMI humidification, this one is a given for a next-generation product - Outlaw even confirmed as much when announced October's "double down" promotion. Both the 970's replacement and the 990's replacement will include these new processing modes.