Well I have had the 970 hooked up in my system for a week now and thanks to a minor neck tweak I have had a LOT of time to use it.

I would have to say that this is a really great sounding unit. One of my complaints in my other setup was that center channel dialog would sometimes sound really muddy. The new Pre-amp integrates into my room much bettter. Let me explain: I set the crossover freuency on my front three speakers down at 60Hz and now I have a much better integration with my sub. My room must have a peak somewhere in there because of my sub placement.

The quality of sound is also excellent. I have watched many hours of TV and Movies and would have to say that the 970 allows you to submerse yourself in the experience. Personally I think that is high praise for a system.

All of my listening has been HT style listening. I have done no 2-Channel listening. I had a SACD player that died about three weeks ago, and I don't own a good CD player.

I have a couple of minor gripes with the 970 that I feel I should voice. I don't like the 2 line display. I can't read it from my listening position (about 8 feet away). Maybe I am just used to my other pre-amp which had a large one line display. This is abviously minor, but my recommendation to Outlaw would be to use a larger single line display on the next generation. The one thing that I really don't like is the 3 buttons used to toggle through surround modes on the remote: Dolby, DTS and Stereo. I really wish that this was one button to toggle through all the modes. Again this is probably very minor since the button I will most use is the Dolby. Maybe Outlaw was forced into this, but I think that it is consumer unfriendly. Last thing is I wish that the component and DVI inputs were assignable.

All in all I would say that the 970 is an excellent unit that many people could be very happy with. The sound quality is excellent. Setup was easy. I really like the adjustable 4-way crossover. For me, this feature alone was worth the price of admission.

I am looking forward to many years of use from this unit.

Happy New Year to All.

Charlie

PS- If you have any CD player recommendations I'm all ears. I would say under $500.