After a ton more reading - it just seems like the SNAP EQ in the Sherwood was either implemented poorly or isn't ready yet. I did read that Audyssey EQ won't be ported to Cirrus chips - so I hope that Outlaw is working on fixing the issues with the Cirrus Level 2 EQ as implemented by Sherwood or coming up with their own.

Anyway - what finally swayed me in my decision between the Outlaw and the Sherwood was one thing that initially I didn't care about...balanced outputs.

I read a review of my Amp (Sherbourn 5/1500A) in Home Theater magazine. S/N ratio went from -90.25 dBrA on the unbalanced inputs to -98.43 dBrA on the balanced inputs - significant enough for me to finally switch to balanced cables from pre to amp. The noise floor has always been a little too audible for me with the B&K Ref31/Sherbourn combo - the B&K isn't known for its low noise floor anyway.

Bass Management won't be too much of an issue for me at the moment. I cross over at 80Hz and use a Behringer DEQ2496 to dual SVS PCi 20-39's. I've had a Behringer ECM8000 mike and a UB802 mixer so I finally got around to using Room Equalizer Wizard. Wow - if you haven't tried it already - it takes a while to get it calibrated and get used to the interface but a 2 second sweep tone in the bass produced identical results to my manual SPL collecting and graphing.

As soon as I get the 990 in, I am considering doing an A/B comparison to be sure that the Outlaw is up to the challenge...

Where is the printed info on the Outlaw 30 day return guarantee? I can't find anything about it on the website and just in case the Outlaw isn't at least as good as the B&K - which I'm not expecting...