What ever you do, you should definitely invest in some sort of surge protection. I live in south Florida and we have lots of lightning storms and my stuff has weathered them so far.

I completely agree. We don't have the storms that South Florida has, but we get power surges and outages frequently where I live because we are surrounded by trees. Surge suppression is an easy one.

[[WARNING: Blathering, pointless post alert]]

Aaaaah, the glory of Florida power. When I lived there (just east of Disneyworld on the inland waterway), one afternoon during a lightning storm, a strike near my condo actually lit up the lamp on my bedside table!!! Lost a computer modem but, fortunately, that was all.

We don't have lightning strikes like that in Los Angeles, but the power brown- and black-outs occur more frequently here than anywhere I've ever lived. I also swear by a little power protection (better than swearing at the lack of it.)

My sympathies on the death of your 950. A WONDERFUL preamp. The Outlaws are getting jerked around IMO on the development of the 997, which leaves us Outlaw Loyalists in a tough spot. I'm currently eyeing the Onkyo Pro 5507 (even though I have a prejudice against the company because of their notoriously poor customer service) and the Denon 4810 (a receiver, which would slightly take me out of SeperatesLand, even though I'd still use my Aragon amp to power the front channels.)

It's a tough situation.

Good point on the surge protector, it is on one so it wouldn't have been the power outage that did it. Now that I think about it, it hadn't been working pre power outage. I'll try to find some time this evening to open it up and check the other fuses.

I really wish SN wasn't taking Outlaw for a ride at this point, I'd like to stay an Outlaw Loyalist but I just don't see it happening. Sorry guys.

I opened up the 950 today to find the remaining fuses (there's five of the buggers in there) and found that what is marked as fuse 5 had blown. Haven't had a chance to find a new fuse yet but at least there's some promise that all isn't lost until I can get a replacement.

That's VERY encouraging Alex. I bet the fuse will resolve the problem. A few years ago my beloved Aragon amp failed to come on and, after several minutes of heartbroken agony, I contacted Aragon and they pointed me toward the internal fuse. That's all it was.

bobliind,
I to have thought about jumping ship for another prepro...Anthem...used but in excellent condition and with a full warranty.

However I gained some self control to hold out for the 997 since owning the 990/7700 combo works well for me and in my system.
I always thought about the issue of customer service and I have never been let down by Outlaw.

For what it's worth my good friend purchased an Onkyo some time ago and without going into specifics was disappointed in the way Onkyo handled the problem.

rubbersoul wrote:
AMEN BROTHER to both

(1) My 990/7700 combo is superb
(2) Fabulous customer service

So....yes to the 997 when it comes out, but not because the 990 is deficient. Rather, because of HDMI and codecs. Other than that I'm happy. OK so if Trinnov really works that well that's a plus.

Love Kef....and the 107's

Went by one of the local B&M's last night to check out the Integra DHC-40.1 and they didn't have any in stock; said they won't until they clear out their remaining 9.9's but I could special order. They also had a Denon 3808 on sale to clear them out of inventory. As there really aren't too many differences between the two in terms of the feature set I ended up getting a 3808 to replace my 950. One nice bonus about this route [aside from saving money versus the 40.1] is that I can use the amp and additional zones in the Denon to power some outdoor speakers by the hot tub at some point in the future.

Got everything connected last night but didn't have time to set everything up yet. Pretty psyched to get a chance to do that and finally watch some movies in Dolby True HD and DTS HD. This should hopefully have me set for the next 5+ years.