The advantage to getting the passive crossover out of the signal path and replacing it with an electronic crossover BEFORE the power amp input, is that each amplifier is only fed the frequencies that it will actually use for that speaker application. An amplifier channel that will be hooked only to the bass section will only get that bass signal as an input. The reverse is true for thw mid and tweeter sections.

In the sort of quasi bi amping I am doing with my B&W center channel speaker, I don't get that benefit since the crossover happens after the power amp. There is still a benefit doing it, but it's not as great.

What I noticed and enjoyed in the true bi amping I did with my magnepans was a noticable improvement in the music that the maggies produced. It just seemed more "live".

I'm not enough of a tech to be able to explain all of the reasons why this was true, all I know is that it was.

I have the same issue as XenonMan. The 7500 drives the speakers about 3 seconds after the 990 turns it on. The blue LED comes on about 30 seconds later. My amp is being replaced as we speak. Has anyone else seen this problem and what was the resolution

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Model 990/7500
Magnepan MMG, MMG-C,MMG-W
Velodyne 12" sub
Panasonic 60" Plasma

I actually received a part to replace myself from Scott at Outlaw. The amp does the exact same thing as before. Scott told me there is no danger to the amp but it does act a little strange when it starts up. Why are they replacing your amp, did they say?

Hmmm...I bought another 970 during the sale and have it hooked up via trigger to the 7500. The amp does the same thing as John F and XenonMan report...about a 3 second delay before sound starts and about 30 seconds til the blue light switches on. I noticed before when I had my Oppo hooked up direct it basically did the same thing...though I had to manually turn on the amp. I thought this was normal with the 7500...maybe not??? I don't remember this issue with the 7125 or 7075. I also noticed noise from the amp when connected direct when a cd was ending or beginning tracks...like a little pfff. Don't notice that now with the 970, but I do have some hiss that I didn't have with the Oppo hooked up direct.

When I spoke to Scott, he said the startup sequence is the same as for a 7125. I have both and they definitely don't power on the same way. I have finally replaced the part Scott sent me, but the amp powers on the same way as before. It is almost like the caps need a little time to charge or a warmup period. The amp is in its box right now waiting for me to swap it with the 7125. I ran with it for about a month while the 7125 went back to the shop for a dead channel fix. I powered it on about 100 times and it acted the same way almost every time. No issues with the amp itself once it was on.

When I called in about the start-up issue they said they had never seen it before. As a matter of fact, because my 990 failed after about 10 mins they thought I may have a (AC) supply problem... I think not! Anyway, the new amp arrives on Thursday I'll report in shortly after.

The new amp arrived on Thursday and behaves in exactly the same way. I fully understand why a turn on delay is needed, but what worries me is that I can hear a relay click when the speakers turn on which is reasonable but then another relay click when the blue LED turns on. Why would you need a relay for that? This is clearly a design problem, but without looking at the schematics I can't tell what's going on and neither can Outlaw. I hope nothing has been overlooked that will come back and bite me if I keep the amp.

John F,
Mine's acted the same way since I got it in March. I've not noticed a performance problem but I have something going on in my system...might be the Oppo or the 970, but I got some real distortion this morning while playing a cd via analog through my Oppo.

You have a 5 year warranty on the amp too, so if there's an issue with the amp it should become apparent during the warranty period.

Now I have another issue. The 7500 buzzes in cycles. It sounds like mains hum but it is the amp itself buzzing, the sound does not come through the speakers. Has anyone else come across this?

Yup.
It is standing DC on the AC line.
I had the same problem and finally took care of it with one of these .
I believe Outlaw also has a DC filter available.
You might want to check with them on Tuesday.