Hello, i read in a review of the 970, that it is basically the same thing as the 1070, only without the amp built in. Are there any 950 users who have listened to the 970 ? Is it supposed to be a better processor ? I guess i'm sorta confused as to why Outlaw would introduce a new, lower priced pre/pro.

I can't compare the 970 to the 950 (although I will readily tell you about the joys of upgrading from the 950 to a 990). The reasoning for releasing the 970, however was mainly a matter of retiring an older model for a newer one. The 950 was released in 2002, and its feature set was starting to reflect its age when the 990 arrived last year (at which point they discontinued the 950). The 1070 gave them a platform with essentially all of the strengths of the 950 plus features that the 950 lacked: a 7.1 analog input instead of 5.1, a true analog bypass for the 7.1 input, DVI switching, video transcoding from s-video and composite to component, a third component input, Pro Logic IIx processing, a headphone jack with Dolby Headphone processing, AV sync control, and some other setup improvements like individual distance settings for all eight channels.

oh, i see, i guess i didn't realize that the 1070 was more feature packed than the 950. thanks for the info. btw, what are the differences in the 990, that you feel are superior to the 950 ?

Some of the benefits are interface related (my wife is very fond if the editable input names), and of course the video switching has been nice (I am not making much use of the transcoding, but the three component inputs and the DVI switching are quite handy). The 990 also has better DAC's and has for me provided a more transparent listening environment (something that the 950 already did a pretty respectable job of). The upsampling mode is a nice option for listening to CD's, too.

thanks gonk, appreciate it.