I was curious if anyone knew of a reason the Outlaws decided to use a nonstandard 2-pin power cord for the 970? It seems much easier that they could have used the more prevalent IEC-style. Was there a technical reason for this?

I was under the impression that the connector was an IEC but without the ground pin, but I could be mistaken. The main reason I'm aware of for the two-prong approach is that it reduces the likelihood of ground loops causing trouble.

I've always thought of the standard IEC plug being 3-pin. It could just be that I've never seen a 2-pin before.

Interesting... so they compensate for the possibility of improper house wiring by using a lesser connection on their piece of equipment. I'm not sure that makes sense to me. It's not a major issue, more of a curiousity.

In the same way that orange juice is a lesser juice than tomato juice. Some equipment is designed to run with a ground, some is not.

The use of an IEC type power cord with only two spades on the plug is not uncommon on consumer audio gear. A number of other products and brands use it.

HOWEVER: Don't simply use these to substitute for a "three to three" type power cord. WHen a manufacturer uses the "three to two", it is because the unit was designed for that type of cord.

The 950 also only has the 2 prong without the ground prong. I connected a MIT Z-Cord2 cable without any problem.
The MIT Z-Cord2 does have 3 prongs that plug into the power and 3 holes on the other side that plug into the audio device.
Sicnce the 950 only has 2, the 3rd hole isn't used.

I've had no problems using it at all.

I come from a ee/aerospace background so maybe the consume electronics world is completely different, however outside of poor house wiring is there any technical reason you would not want to use a grounded plug?

I would think most of the people interested in Outlaw gear are fairly serious and have taken the time to sure their electrical is in good order or upgraded so the ground loop "problem" should be a non-issue.

I guess I should note, I'm not NOT going to use the outlaw gear because it only uses a two-prong plug, I was/am just curious as to the logic behind that decision.

As an EE, the following will make sense to you.

The house wiring system in a typical US home has two conductors at ground potential. One is a non-current carrying conduct which is called the grounding conductor, the other is a grounded current carrying conductor called the grounded conductor, or neutral. Both these conductors are connected to earth at the distribution panel OR, in case of mobile homes and such, at the service entrance.

Outside sourced signals over copper, such as the telco and cable signals, are generally not earth grounded at the same grounding electrode as the home distribution system. They are, rather, earthed at a remote location.

This sets up a situation where stray current can (and often will) travel in a circuit from the outside sourced system (say, down the cable wire) and out on the grounding conductor rather than the grounded conductor, and then (perhaps) also back to the remote system earth grounding electrode.

This is a bad thing. Bad house wiring isn't a factor, really.

Makes sense, but I'm sure you're aware of all issues with a standard 2 conductor line. Most modern homes have been built with 3 conductors inbound and three conductors to every outlet. As I mentioned I would think most of the niche Outlaw customer base would have upgraded to a similiar scheme at least for their home theater/listening room.

If everything is grounded/filtered correctly I really don't see how low voltage signal will bleed over onto AC.