Original early Outlaw adopter here (GS #58) hanging on with my 950 and its buzzing transformer and dirty volume control, but waiting patiently for the 978. I'll be at CES in January - will I see an Outlaw surprise? Hmmm?

Edit: I just did an exhibitor search on the CES web site and "Outlaw Audio" was not found. I wonder if they'll be unveiling the 978 in someone else's booth. Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Hank

I will be there in the Atlantic Technology/Parasound room (2501-A at the Venetian Hotel). Please visit us to hear a demo of the H-PAS technology (which will be in an Outlaw product in the future) and if I am in the room when you come by, I would enjoy meeting you.

Concerning the 978, at least one other Outlaw will be at the show and we have scheduled a progress meeting with our offshore engineering development team. We plan an update for all a week or two after the show.

Until then, Happy Holidays.

Peter

Thanks Peter. I'm with 3M and am Sourcing Manager for the projection division, including our pocket projectors. I will try to catch up with you. Send me your cell phone # if you want.

I have a new 7125 sitting in a box waiting for the elusive pre/pro with the right cost / benefit point for me. I am very interested in the AV7005 as it seems to be a good fit. I have a large room (18ft X 18ft) with very tall ceilings - 9 ft going up to 18ft. I plan on a 5.1 system. Can anyone tell me if it will be worth waiting for a Multeq XT32 component (possibly the 978) or will the Multeq XT be sufficient? What is Multeq32 going to buy me?

No real reason to wait. The AV7005 looks like a winner at $1499. Unless your room is really wacked you wont need Trinnov or the fancy Audyssey32.

I recently purchased an AV7005 from Outlaw in the hope of replacing my 990 or at least serving as a stop gap until the new 998 is released. As a disclaimer I'll remind everyone that the following is just my own personal experience and opinion of course and encourage all interested members to do their own experimenting. I'd like to first say that Outlaw was very generous in offering a trial period for the AV7005 allowing for a no hassle return in the event that you weren't satisfied (which describes my end result). I played with the 7005 for a couple of weeks before deciding to send it back. The high points for me were it's huge set of features, HDMI 1.4 switching, HD Radio, Satellite radio capable, media center control/access, great video performance, super easy to use automatic set up and EQ...this thing can control and access just about anything it seems! The single low point for me was, in a phrase, sound quality. In comparison to my 990 the sound quality of both the digitally processed sound with or without EQ as well as the analog direct were just not even close to the quality of both of these paths in my 990. I found that for movies, using the EQ processing gave a sort of overblown character to the sound..too much bass in short. This, dare I say, "Bose" like sound seemed to sacrifice nuance and detail and any hope of midrange bliss. This gap in audio performance between the 990 and the 7005 grew even larger when comparing two channel analog direct. The 990, especially as an HT pre/pro and at it's price point, does a pretty darn good job as a two channel preamp when asked to. My experience with the AV7005 was that the same thing could not be said. The 7005 let you know it was an HT pre/pro and it sounded, to me, obvious that it was a mass market type piece of electronics...maybe not quite Best Buy grade...but not a whole lot better. I would venture to say that for a decent percentage of the Outlaw's target market the Marantz AV7005 would satisfy well enough if not entirely. My bias, however, is skewed strongly toward audio performance and I am willing to sacrifice virtually everything else if need be to achieve that. So for now I'll continue to enjoy my 990 and cross my fingers and toes in the hope that a 998 release is not too far off.

I had the exact opposite opinion. I also took advantage of the 990 upgrade offer, and decided to keep the 7005.

I will agree that the EQ processing did not work for me at all. The Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume features, however, were a complete bust for me. When engaged, even at the lowest setting, Dynamic Volume produced bass that was overly boomy and unlistenable.

The Audyssey processing was very effective, however.

I posted a short review of my 7005 at the AVS forum, and I'll repost it in the 7005 section here.

Scott

Peter, it was very nice to meet you at the show, and as I've posted in the speaker forum, the H-PAS speakers were quite impressive.

From your post above: "We plan an update for all a week or two after the show."
Hey, it's been over two weeks, so consider this a friendly reminder.

I just got an email update from the Outlaws regarding the 978 at 6:30 this morning - check your email

Thanks for that. I strongly identify with your priorities. I supsect (but have no proof) that for folks like us a better option would be a gently used AV8003. They're priced in the $1500 range and going down.