First a preamble (bear with me a moment): About 9 months ago I decided to do a ground-up audio upgrade for my home theater (HT). First) I hardwired in two (2) 20 AMP dedicated balanced power transformers (EQUITECH) with fully isolated center-tapped ground to replace the standard wall electrical circuit. Second) I upgraded my 7.2 system to Klipsch Reference Series (RF-7s, RC-7,etc- the one's with 10" woofers!) to replace the Synergy series speakers I was using. Each of these steps provided a appreciable and noticible improvement in the sound quality in my HT. I've now decided to upgrade to separates and have decided to give the Outlaw 970 a try (purchased last night) to replace my Sony V444ES.


I'm getting custom modified monoblock amps (with upgraded wiring, ICs, 75,000 uF capacitors w/lightning fast caps) and needed a state-of-the-art preamp to drive them. In comes, the 970. I considered the 990, but don't need balanced outputs, room EQ (I do this myself), etc. etc, etc.

My question is , Am I going to be happy with the sound quality from the 970 when specificaly using analog interconnects between preamp and amp ? Is this preamp as musical as the 990 for the 1) direct analog pass, 2) digital processing and 3)other multichannel modes using the analog interconnects (i.e. not using balanced connectors)? It appears to have many of the same major integrated circuits, but are there significant differences other circuits that make the 970 inferior product in the direct analog pass-through mode?