hello all

I just stumbled onto the outlaw website today and have become very interested in the 1050. I was down to the Harmon Kardon AVR 220 or Marantz 5200 after a few months of searching - now the Outlaw has me back to square one. any thoughts on the three receivers mentioned - specifically why you would receommend the Outlaw instead of the HK or Marantz? any thoughts would be appreciated.

The Marantz 5200 looks very nice -- the 6.1 DD and DTS is similar to the 1050, and Dolby Pro-Logic II is a nice bonus. It doesn't appear to have the same bass management features that the 1050 has. If you like the sound of the Marantz, it looks very interesting, but I don't know how it compares on price. The HK looks a little anemic to me next to the Marantz and Outlaw. The AVR 220's amp is rated well below the Marantz's and the Outlaw's (and the Outlaw 1050 has earned a reputation for seeming far more powerful than the 65WPC rating). It also lacks 6.1, which many people consider very valuable.

I have been wary of HK (perhaps needlessly) for some years now -- I had a CD changer from them that had a reputation for trouble, and they had a series of receivers that had a lot of quality control problems. I don't know much about the Marantz, but I can vouch for the 1050 and from the specs on the Marantz I'd say the 1050 is a fair competitor for the 5200. The Outlaw also offers first-rate support, although you can't demo it in a store before you buy (the 30-day return policy is meant to solve that).

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Gonk

Newtoht, I was also in your same situation but the two I had it narrowed down to was Denon and Yamaha. Then like you I found out about the 1050 forcing me to re-evaluate the situation.

There were various factors that pushed me towards the 1050…

1. Reviews … They don't lie
2. Customer Service … It is great
3. Qaulity … Much goes into the 1050
4. Features (or lack of them) No bells and whistles
5. Sound … The 1050 holds it's own
6. Price … If it was retail, it would go for much more.

Get the 1050, you'll be glad you did.

Well, I've owned my 1050 for several months, but I couldn't listen to it until about 6 weeks ago - waiting for the rest of the house and HT system to be ready. All I can say is that I'm very pleased. There are things I'd like to see changed, but at his price point, or even a bit higher I would be stupid to expect more.

One observation: I work in an engineering office (software) and it has the feel of a product where the engineers had a great deal of influence, perhaps the company officers are engineers or they have small marketing and product management teams, dunno.

That's not a bad thing, I kinda like it, but I'm an engineer too, so....

Their appears to be a lot of attention given to function, practicality, usability, very little to filling in checkboxes in comparison charts, swoopy design, etc.

The manual volume control is the epitome of this design philosophy to me - it works good enough, they moved on.

[If you spin the knob fast it skips counts]

The 6.1 is VERY much more immersive than 5.1 for movies that are encoded for it. If you watch movies much take it into account.

And - this thing is solid. 42 pounds. They didn't fill it with lead either. There is a lot of copper in this puppy.


Charlie

basically,i would say dont get the h/k due to the quality control problems ive read about(including this model).my guess is the marantz will have a slightly smoother sound(but not as much detail)as the outlaw-if your speakers are very bright sounding the marantz could be better.if you watch a lot of vhs tapes dpl 2 will be very useful.as was mentioned the outlaw probably has more crossover settings than the marantz(to match your speakers),so unless you need or want the attributes of the marantz described above i would probably get the outlaw.

Managed to babble a bit (sorry). Just thought I would post my decision process, as I was also looking at the HK receiver line you mentioned.

I bought a 1050 about a week ago. Before finding the Outlaw site, I was planning to buy an HK. Originally I just wanted a receiver to put downstairs, so I could put the old Sony back up here with the computer. Web-shopped at Circuit City and the like and thought I would buy an HK AVR120 for $399. Was concerned about the power though (I think only rated 45/channel at 0.07% thd). Thought maybe $399 was too much to spend for something that I wasn't sure was what I wanted. Started looking at HK AVR-220 and 320 even though they were more expensive.

Saw the name Outlaw in a list of 100s of receivers on audioreview.com. Went there to see if maybe there was something I had not thought of, and the name just stuck out (had not heard of it before). Lurked on the boards here a bit, read all the info on the 1050, downloaded the manual, etc.

At $499, the 1050 is between the prices of HK-120 and 220, and I felt like I was getting more for my money with Outlaw. Would have liked Pro-Logic II but figured I could live without it. One thing in particular was that I liked Outlaw's statement on how they rated their power. Also saw many mentions that although only 65W/channel, it felt more powerful than many so-called 100W/channel models. That plus the lower distortion when compared to the HK was a big factor for me -- as mentioned I was concerned about the HK's lower power, and I didn't want to have to run out and buy a separate amp.

Might upgrade to 950/750 combo or equivalent sometime, but not in any hurry. I like the clean sound of the 1050 and feel it is a definite improvement over my old Sony. Well, that's how I decided, best of luck with your decision.

*definately* not the HK. junk.

Personally, I would look into a Marantz SR-8000 which is last years model (and is $800), or buy the outlaw.

I've heard bad things about this years Marantz 5200 and 6200.

I love the outlaw.

Loomis