I guess I'm not done with my rant.
What do we want a prr-pro to be ?
For me it needs to be the heart of my systom, able to accept whatever I throw at it and give me what I chose in return.
It needs a good analog section, though turntables could be supported by an outboard phono section.It needs great DACs,though again, Direct stream Digital and the like might be handled externally. In the current era, it also needs great video prodessing.
It should probably have both un-balanced and balanced ins and outs.
It should probably do a very good job with room correction/equalization, distance correction and bass management.
Wi-fi connectivity ? mabey.
So what else should a pre-pro do?

as someone who works with electronics all day and sees poor products all the time, i would rather buy quality componants in separate boxes rather than have one company jam it all in one box with only middle of the line parts and compromised design in order to make it all fit. not to mention they would then either sell a product much at a higher price than expected or they use lesser parts to keep prices down, either way its not good. more so i would rather see Outlaw design a pre-pro that does the main functions to the highest quality and performance, rather than force a bunch of extra novelties into one box just so it looks good on a features list but sounds like crap.

if you want every featuer under the sun with middle of the road peformance i believe one of the big brands already have your box waiting at target.

With regards to an Ethernet port and network ready I have two views of this.

First, I think I'm game for an a network ready pre/pro. Seeing other units being able to be configured though a web interface on a computer is pretty cool. I also like the ability to listen to net radio on the unit. Additionally being notified of an update is nice.

Second, I can go for no networking or radio at all in the unit. Just use the unit to process video and audio.

I really would prefer to have a box that tunes in radio, hd radio, satellite and net radio in one box. I listen to net radio more than OTA radio, but I tend to do it on my computer because it's too much of a hassle to setup on my entertainment system. I think those technologies should all be combined in one box instead of having radio and hd radio in a box and then having net radio in some separate box, that make no sense to me. Have all your radio regardless if it comes OTA or through the internet in one location. If it's a new separate, great! I'd actually prefer a new separate. But I agree that we don't need redundancy.

I gather a regular tuner is cheap and simple to add and an HD tuner isn't much more difficult, but when you get into net tuner you're adding a slew of new protocols and technology that significantly adds to the cost. Nonetheless, I rather buy them all in one separate unit or have them all combined in the pre/pro, but not separately.

it will be fun waiting for the 998.

Thanks for the heads up Peter T.

_Mark

Scooby wrote:
gonk wrote:

Yes, a couple of us 950 early adopters posted and Peter came back with a much-appreciated offer:

The 950 owners have been heard and recognized!

• Original owners of our "First Generation" products, the Model 1050 receiver and the Model 950 processor, will receive a $100 discount** on the purchase of a Model 997. Even though these products are long out of production, we want to show our appreciation for those who have been a part of the Outlaw family from the beginning.

Retep wrote:

+1 That's a good idea and would help keep the cost down and allow 100% focus on audio and video quality. And, Outlaw could make the Radio Box and have another product to sell.

And you might agree Hank, Austin radio is pretty lacking for a place known as the "Live Music Capital Of The World". I have no need for a tuner and your suggestion is spot on...focus on processing audio and video.

I live in Austin as well. KGSR is about the only decent station and even that isn't that great. But I travel a lot and the truth is most of the country has really bad terrestrial radio. That is why I am a huge fan of Sirius Satellite Radio. I would lobby for having the Satellite Ready interface on the new 998. It really doesn't cost that much at all. It takes very little real estate for the connections and the interface itself is very minimal as it really just needs access to the front panel display and very minor set of commands to tune the external Sat. Radio.

Memphis is the same way - city with tremendous musical heritage and not particularly good radio offerings.

What really surprises me is that ad-supported radio is still around at all. Other than NPR and classical here in DFW, most of the stations run their genre's 20-song playlists over and over again. It's a shame, but the ones that have changed this in the past usually fall flat in the ratings and go back to the old ways. The alternative (is it still called that?) station here has a few segments that emphasize talent over popularity, but at odd hours, of course.

I agree with the SR interface. It's silly to have a separate unit just for the proprietary connector for Sirius/XM. Same goes for the tuner. If I wanted to have one, I'm not sure I'd be keen on having to pay the couple of hundred extra for a separate unit. I don't really need more components right now.