Concert DVD's! I just spent a few days really testing this thing in surround mode. I highly recommend Diana Krall's Live in Paris dvd concert in DTS, as well as Norah Jones Live in New Orleans in Dolby Digital. These are truly audiophile productions that will have you grinning (if you like jazz).The new Eagles Farewell Tour concert dvd is also a delight. The downside is that my other stereo music recordings sound lackluster by comparison. Needless to say, the LOR trilogy sound mix is truly state of the art and SW III is far more exciting at home than at the theater. What do you folks out there listen to on your 970?

I can't speak to listening on a 970, but I really enjoyed Rush's new R30 DVD - it sounds great in 5.1.

Thanks, Gonk. It seems some of our Outlaw brothers are missing the point. Outlaw products are built to be "giant killers", and as such, will always have to make some compromises. At, $699, the 970 is ridiculously cheap. I wish I had the extra dough for the 990, but the need to obtain worthy cables made me "compromise". Yes, I have found some glitches too, but they don't take away from my newfound love for my cd/dvd collection. I will check out the Rush dvd. thanks.

I agree the sound is great, but the glitches should have been fixed before they started shipping these units. Can you expand on what glitches you found?

Rush in Rio sounded great on my unit. Love the new drum solo with the big band ending.


Nothing that is computer based is perfect and beta testing can never flesh out all the bugs. I was happy with how fast Outlaw responded to the Component Video issue...

Iardon, the Model 970 is directly based on the Model 1070, so I treat the two as a single design. From what I understand, the 1070 went through extensive testing (including external beta testing) prior to being released back in the late summer of last year. There have been some reports recently of issues with the 970, which presumably would also apply to the 1070 - but those issues have only recently come to light, which means they were elusive enough to slip past not only Outlaw's testing procedures but also the real-world tests performed by many (I'd assume hundreds) of 1070 owners in the latter part of last year. That means that those bugs couldn't be addressed before the product was released to the market, and the question that we are faced with is what will be done now that they are being discussed. The 970 and 1070 have an RS-232 port specifically to allow for bug fixes in the event that software problems are discovered, and we have recent historical evidence that they intend to make use of it - the component video switching problem was very extensively discussed back in December, and they had a patch available before Christmas.

I don't mean for my comments to try to prevent you or anyone else from bringing up issues that appear to be bugs or features that you may wish worked differently - to do so would be unfair to you, counter to the purposes of this forum, and detrimental to Outlaw customer support. It is beneficial to point out behavior that you think may be a bug or that you think would work better if it were different - even if it isn't a product bug or if it is a feature that they don't want to change in the current product, it gives you a chance to figure out what is happening with your unit and can help with future product development.

My glitches,or gripes are minor. I mentioned in a previous post a problem with my Dave Brubeck Take Five cd only being playable in surround without hope of standard stereo playback.I have also found on occassion a somewhat unresponsive remote. I admit it might be due, maybe,to the fact that my 970 sits about 20" above my ear level (?). Also, switching surround modes seem slow compared to earlier and inferior units (Marantz). I believe this to be a valid point, but again,it doesn't detract from my listening experience. On the plus side, this unit's software is upgradeable. I have read elsewhere that some of the electronics in this unit are based on Sherwood/Newcastle designed components that also happen to be very well regarded in the audio press.Again, at $699, there is nothing out there comparable to this.Try some Mapleshade cd's or some nice DTS concert DVD's (movies too)and try to answer this...Is it worth the money? Yup.

The 970 is not based on Sherwood hardware - it is a direct sibling of the 1070 (same unit minus the amps), and the 1070 is an original design from the ground up. The 990 is based on the Sherwood P-965.

I stand corrected. You see?, You can't trust everything you read on the internet. This is actually a happy revelation. I must have been confused as I had read the 950 had been a Sherbourn cousin. Are the amps also homegrown?

The 950 was an original design developed by Outlaw with Eastech (the manufacturer) that Eastech later made "clones" of for several other companies (Sherbourn, Atlantic Tech, and Fosgate - although Fosgate's FAP-T1 had some modifications such as a front LCD monitor that made it very hard to recognize as a 950 clone).

As I understand, the multichannel amps are designed by Outlaw and the amp manufacturer specifically for Outlaw (they are also made in the US). I'm not sure of the exact lineage of the M200/M2200, but I know there's at least one other company (NHT?) selling an amp that is cousin to the M200/M2200. The RR2150 was developed by Outlaw from scratch, as was the ICBM-1. The LFM-1 and LFM-2 are a design partnership between Outlaw and Hsu. The LFM-1/LFM-2 are not the same as the Hsu STF-3/STF-1 subs - different port configurations (Outlaw moved the ports to the bottom), different amp on the LFM-1, and different cabinet style/finish - but they are somewhat related.