US-made stuff I've used: Dynakits (assembled by me); AR turntable bought in 1962 and still in use with upgraded Mayware unipivot arm made in Japan; Grado Red phono cartridge; and Magneplanar 1.6QR speakers, which are better at their price level - in my opinion and that of a lot of others reading this - than practically anything else made anywhere.

Sorry if I was misunderstood.

I'm not advocating buy-in-America, or buy-Canadian, or buy-anywhere-else. I'm advocating never-buy-from-China.

For reasons that have nothing to do with price (or even quality) I refuse to buy anything that's made in China - if I can find a similar product that's made elsewhere - even if I have to pay more.

So if it comes down to the Outlaw 997 (at say $1400 less my $100 credit as a Model 950 owner) that's made in China, or the Onkyo PR-SC886 (for the $1600 that I can get it for) then I will gladly pay $300 more for the 886. Both products, while different in some of their specifics, are as "similar" as you can get in the marketplace - as far as features and functionality goes. But the difference is simple: the 886 is made in Malaysia. Done deal. No surprise to Outlaw since Peter T and I had a great conversation about this a couple of years ago when they launched their subs - and we pretty much agreed to disagree on the subject.

Same deal with BD players. No I will not be able to find an all-in-one BD/SACD/DVD-A etc. comparable product, but I can stick with my current slate of SACD and DVD-A devices and simply buy a great BD player for the same price as the Oppo which does everything with BD that the Oppo does - and just as well. Reason for not buying the Oppo: it's made in China.

I have a conscience that trumps my needs as a raw consumer. I refuse to MallWartize my conscience by buying made-in-China. And the world will be a much better place in future if others did the same.

Like that's going to happen!

I believe that Outlaw has its electronic products made in Taiwan. At least at this time in history, that is not China.

It depends on their products. The multichannel amps are all built in California. The BLS and LCR are also built domestically (east coast, as I recall). The 970 (and the 1070, 950, and 1050) is built in Malaysia by Eastech. I think the Model 2200 is built in Taiwan. I'm not sure where the RR2150 is built (they moved factories several years ago, but I don't know where either the old or current facilities are located). The Model 990 entered production in Korea, where Etronics/Inkel is based, but based on what Jeff's noted about R-972 pictures it seems they may have moved some of their manufacturing to China. The subs are built in the same facility that builds for HSU Research, which I believe is in China.

I'm running an all maggie surround system as well. 1.6s in the front (phantom center for now), MMG sides and MGMC1 rears. I have a 4 channel Exodus (hypex class D based) amp running the surrounds, but the 1.6s are actively crossed at 100Hz each to its own dipole dual 15" woofer cabinet so the setup is flat down to about 25, wih some more in room response as well. Then I have a sub as well The 1.6s and woofers are all run by two Crown macrotech 2400s (about 8-900 wpc into 4 ohms). My house is a very open floor plan, and I run things at full reference often, with very minimal distortion.

In other words, I think one of the secrets to using maggies for HT is to unload the low end from them and have plenty of power to spare if you are going for full theater like sound levels. As for the effect of the dipole design on surround character, I think the issue there is placement. I have a enthusiastic and supporting wife, so big black cloth covered panels all over the family room is OK. My speakers are all placed right where they should be, but the room itself has uneven architecture. Once I applied my Onkyo 885's room correction, I noticed a pretty definite improvement in the channel steering, so the 997 would be a definite asset in a similar situation.

Additionally, I'd argue that a maggie setup can have just as much punch as box speakers if you augment the low end as I have. IMO magnepan is way too generous with their quoted lowend capability, but then that the practical side of marketing needs I guess. I personally found my 1.6s o be pretty weak from 70-80 Hz on down before I built the woofer cabinets.

I drive my maggie 1.6's with a Threshol s500e, which puts out 500 watts per channel into their 4 ohm load. They can get REALLY loud with no distotion or over driving problems.

For anyone who cares, I have been enjoying my Oppo 83 for several days now, and the picture is beautiful on blu-ray, as one would expect. But the shocker is that regular DVD's look astoundingly good. I was upconverting my DVD's before, but this is a new order of magnitude. My son watched Star Wars 3 tonight, and it was like watching a new movie, with the all new picture.

The sound on the various new blu-ray audio formats is fun as well. The sound is really low in distortion, which allows you to turn the Maggie 1.6's up to ridiculous volume levels (which my wife did not appreciate) (I bought the Outlaw interconnects to pass the multiple channels.). It works okay as a CD player as well, although it seems tilted up a little. It should sound good through unmodified Maggies, since they're a little lacking upstairs.

I.m not as worried about getting a new processor right now. I'm having fun with this new toy. It IS a bit of a pain without HDMI thoroughfare, though. On the 990, I've got SACD and BD through the 7.1 channel, DVD through the DVD channel, and stereo CD's bypassing the 990 and going directly into the Jolida.

So how is that dhc 9.9, Strindl?

I'm loving it. I bought it from a local high end store in february, the week before I ordered a 990 from Outlaw. I've been able to compare things between the two extensively.

Sound quality wise, I put it as a wash...they each sound superb. Same for the ergonomics...both are set up nicely. The integra does run warmer than the Outlaw though.

Where the Integra has a distinct advantage is it's HDMI and video upscaling capabilities. I just got my Oppo BDP-83 last week and was able to get rid of all of these cables from my old DVD player..which had no HDMI capability, and replace them with one single HDMI cable.



I also only need one HDMI cable from my integra to my samsung TV. The 9.9 allows me to set each video input individually..I can upscale any input to whatever resolution I want and adjust a myriad of picture enhancements separatly for each input.

I upscale my HD cable box to 1080P and the picture looks even better than it does natively with either HD or SD programing. For the Oppo..I let that handle the upconverting and video processing and have the Integra just pass the picture it receives through to the TV. It works great.

A number of folks have found that the results are quite good when using 7.1 input for DVD, as well. Might be worth a little experimenting to see which you prefer.

There are good reasons and bad reasons for not buying stuff made in China. Oppo seems to be doing things right, their quality is not suffering because they must be watching the factory like a hawk. Companies that go to China just to save money will find out they must spend more on QC. But the fact is that China DOES have some of the best equipped factories for this stuff. Going elsewhere might cost you in start up time.