First a preamble (bear with me a moment): About 9 months ago I decided to do a ground-up audio upgrade for my home theater (HT). First) I hardwired in two (2) 20 AMP dedicated balanced power transformers (EQUITECH) with fully isolated center-tapped ground to replace the standard wall electrical circuit. Second) I upgraded my 7.2 system to Klipsch Reference Series (RF-7s, RC-7,etc- the one's with 10" woofers!) to replace the Synergy series speakers I was using. Each of these steps provided a appreciable and noticible improvement in the sound quality in my HT. I've now decided to upgrade to separates and have decided to give the Outlaw 970 a try (purchased last night) to replace my Sony V444ES.


I'm getting custom modified monoblock amps (with upgraded wiring, ICs, 75,000 uF capacitors w/lightning fast caps) and needed a state-of-the-art preamp to drive them. In comes, the 970. I considered the 990, but don't need balanced outputs, room EQ (I do this myself), etc. etc, etc.

My question is , Am I going to be happy with the sound quality from the 970 when specificaly using analog interconnects between preamp and amp ? Is this preamp as musical as the 990 for the 1) direct analog pass, 2) digital processing and 3)other multichannel modes using the analog interconnects (i.e. not using balanced connectors)? It appears to have many of the same major integrated circuits, but are there significant differences other circuits that make the 970 inferior product in the direct analog pass-through mode?

When you talk about analog interconnects between preamp and amp, I take it that you are referring to unbalanced rather than balanced? The 990 and 970 share the same DSP chip (the very widely used Cirrus 49400), but otherwise there are a lot of differences - the platforms were developed completely independently of each others and are manufactured at different facilities. I haven't heard the two side-by-side in my system, but my understanding from others is that the 990 is a nice upgrade from the 970 for two-channel listening and a small step up for movies (surround sound). For analog sources, I don't know - the 970 does offer a switch to select from full bypass, 80Hz analog bass management, or digital bass management (with A/D/A conversion) for the 7.1 direct input, while the 990 applies digital bass management unless all speakers are set to large.

I think you would be happy with the 970 although the Outlaw's 30 day return policy makes it easy to find out. I'm running a 970 in my bedroom using a Sony DVD player for movies and a Linn Ikemi for CD's. The Ikemi is hooked up analog only utilizing single-ended IC's. The sound is very transparent in stereo bypass mode and does not seem to limit the Ikemi in any way. I'll occasionally add DPLII processing to a CD via the Ikemi and it also sounds nice.

If you're using analog outputs from a CD player with good DAC's (or other analog device) the 970 should be transparent enough to reproduce the sound faithfully. If you're coming digital out of a CD player or transport and using the 970's internal DAC's for music the sound is pretty good but the 990 has higher quality internal DAC's (the 990 also upsamples). The 990 is a $1099 processor vs. the 970 costing $699 so higher quality internals are expected.

To simplify:
* 990 & 970 should sound very similar on movies (same processor chip)
* 990 & 970 should sound very similar in analog bypass mode
* Using it's internal DAC's the 990 should be better than a 970 when processing a SPDIF digital signal on PCM sources (CD's, cable radio, etc.)

Having heard both the 970 and 990 side by side, the 990 is definately better on 2-channel performance and I think a fair bit better on movies as well. Also, when it comes to build quality, the 990 is a tank and the 970 simply is not. Seeing the other equipment you listed in your post (you have some nice gear), I would say go up to the 990 especially if you plan on nuch stereo listening.

Doug917, was your listening for 2-channel music done with the digital or analog inputs? I presume it was analog since you mention the 'bypass' mode in your review.

John,

My testing was done with the digital inputs. I was refering to "bypass" as a surround field. However, I did try analog cables with both the 970 and 990 and quickly found the DACs in both the processors sounded better than the ones in my CD player.

Sorry Doug, I'm still not with you.

I can only set "bypass" mode for analog inputs, for digital inputs I can choose any of the other modes including "stereo", "5 stereo", "dolby plii" etc. Pressing the "bypass" button on the remote for a digital connection has no effect for me. Am I missing something here? Oh, out of curiosity, were you using the Pioneer DV-C503 DVD player that you mention in your review for CD playback?

I press the "Stereo" button. It will toggle through the 5 modes (Stereo, Bypass, Upsample, 5-Channel Stereo, and 7-Channel Stereo). I am not pressing the bypass button in any way.

I used both the Denon DCM-380 and the Pioneer DV-C503 players.

Oh, I get it now. The behaviour you describe is the 990 operation. I presume the 970 as well as the 1070 operate a bit differently. On my 1070, the "stereo" button doesn't go into a "bypass" (or "upsample") mode. "Bypass" is an analog-only option on the 1070.

You are correct. Sorry for the confusion. I need some sleep.