990 great!! for about 4 hours

Okay, it finally arrived today (after ordering on the 2nd, long wait) I swapped out my old Rotel 976, set my inputs, did a quick calibration job and got down to buisness. I was very impressed with the sound in 2ch compared to the Rotel (using a Parasound amp and Athena tech speakers)so I decided to give the surround processing a little test, watched Pirates of the Caribbian, the video quality seemed good throught he internals, sound excellent, I couldnt have been happier. Movie finished and I wasnt able to use the remote to power down the unit. I tried manually turning it off at the front soft switch, no go. No buttons on the front panel of the 990 were operational, great, a 4 hour wonder. Unpugged it from the wall and we'll see in a bit. I can truly say that If after I do a hard reset, then input all of my settings again, it will never pull this sort of thing again, I will be forced to look elsewhere for a new pre/pro. Heck, at least the Rotel works. Anyone have any suggestions? Not much you can really do about a software crash. I hope the 30 day trial deal is legit, oh, wait, Im at the end of my second week with it yet I only got it today, lol. Hopefully this is an isolated incident.

Okay then, unit will not reset, left unplugged for half an hour then tried the hard reset method (holding the buttons) no go on that either. I think I have found a solution though. Stuff it back in the box and ship it back to Outlaw as a failed experiment. I was really hopeful after reading these forums but lokks like my trying to be a cheapskate has bit me in the bum. Anthem it is then.

I think you're the 1st person to post this type of problem. Call Outlaw on Monday and have them swap it out...but it looks like you already made up your mind not to even give them the chance.

I agree with FAUguy - the 990's been extremely reliable as a rule. The 30-day trial is completely legit, but you might still give Outlaw's support a chance to get you on track.

Ok, Ive cooled down a bit. Scott was nice enough to reply to my customer service ticket from the site this eve, (amazing I might add, after hours an all) Said he could overnight me a new unit with a return ticket included for my current unit. I have to give a big thumbs up for Outlaw customer service on this one. Never have I gotten a response so quickly on a service issue, I had a bad experience once with a Sony Cineza projector and lets just say it did not go so well. I was quite taken aback when my unit started acting up. I have lurked theses forums now for many months before making this purchase and really have read no negative feedback on the 990, just technical set-up issues, of which being an enthusiast I can usually alleviate myself, thats why I decided to go for one in the first place. And like I said in the first post, there really was no comparison to the Rotel, this thing literally blew it out of the water (while it was operating) and I was completely stoked to have it. So I guess we'll have to wait and see to get a true objective opinion from me.

I am very frustrated as well...this is my second unit and I still have the same problem of not being able to play stereo music( front speakers and subwoofer only playing). Right out of the box I tune to a FM stereo station....center and front speaker playing in stereo mode. I reset the unit...same thing.
I am at wits end on this matter. I have had my unit for a month and have not been able to enjoy.... !

Are you using 5-Channel or 7-Channel stereo? That uses all of the speakers.

hometurf,

Are you sure your amp and speaker cables are going to the proper channels? I know I've got my cabling mixed up more than once before (It doesn't help that it looks like a giant ball of twine currently).

hometurf,

hometurf,

hometurf,

Along the lines of Andrew S's question, it has been so long that I cannot remember, what is the factory reset surround mode for the tuner? I do remember that 'right out of the box,' you hook up all the cables and almost nothing happens until you go through all the speaker and audio and video input menus. For any input, any mode other than STEREO, BYPASS or UPSAMPLE will generate center and surround channel signals. Are you getting any sub output from the tuner?

bimmerman2,

Sorry you had problems with your 990 right out of the chute, but I'm glad that Scott will get your unit replaced ASAP.

You've compared your 990 (while it was working) to your Rotel and were very favorably impressed. Likewise, I just replaced my Lexicon DC-1 with the 990 and the improvement was not subtle! Granted, I've had the DC-1 for eight years or so, but I paid $3,600 for it new and another $300 in 1999 for the Version 4 firmware upgrade. The 990 provides much better surround steering and to our ears is much "tighter". Even my SO (significant other) emphatically remarked how the 990 sounded so much better! I think she's more excited about this upgrade than I am!

I do know what you mean about having something hi-tech break on you. Today I am in the process of filling out the RMA paperwork to return my $6,000 DLP front projector. This is my fourth (!) new unit in the past 11 months and it just failed.

Wishing you the best on your Outlaw 990 swap-out. You'll be glad you did it.

Cheers!

Hey Automatic,
what kind of projector?

Got my new unit this week, everything flawless so far, have had it up now for around 24 hrs no problems. Hometurf, I would check the cable runs and outputs from the amp as well as the input mode as suggested above. Still prefer this unit over the Rotel (which was more expensive at the time) for both movies and 2ch music. Im running a Cambridge Audio Azure 640C for cd's so im actually running analog into the 990, I really like the Wolfson dac's in the Cambridge, anyone know how they stack up to the 990's? This is what is perplexing to me as how this can sound better on the 990, I'm running the cd analog with bypass as the mode, so basically straight through, was doing the same with the Rotel, yet I prefer the 990. I have always thought the Rotel to be a dry sounding, with a soundstage that was not very well defined. When I purchased it I also auditioned a Parasound pre/pro that sounded similar to the 990, nice and up front, well dimensioned, but it had some problems with backgound noise in DTS so I went with the Rotel.
And automatic, I feel your pain with projectors, went through unpleasantries with a Sony Cineza a while back. beleive it or not im happy with my new Proj, its a (dont laugh) Sanyo PLV Z-3. It plays nice with the 990. I had to go LCD cause im one of the unlucky rainbow artifact observers but cant afford the new gen dlps that have alleviated this problem.
So to get to the bottom of the story big thumbs up to Outlaw customer service, they made it right and dealt with my problem faster than any other company I have ever had to deal with. Heck, I even got a reply on the customer service board here on the web after hours on a Sat. night!! Now thats service.

Glad to hear that Outlaw got you back on track, bimmerman2!
You've Cambridge's DAC's are still doing the serious work, but you've got a different analog signal path through the processor that should be effectively transparent. The 990 is probably doing a better job of that - that's one aspect of the 990 that particularly impressed me very early on.

tmdlp,

To answer your question, my front projector is an Optoma H79. It's a 720p DLP unit and has a fantastic three-dimensional picture with great shadow detail on HD material. The overtemps and ($400) lamp failures seem to be all too common though. However, reading about other PJ's seems to indicate that the lamp in front projectors is the weakest link in general.

bimmerman2,

Have heard of your Sanyo, but haven't seen one. Hey, the world of 16:9 / 720p is great, no matter how you get there! Regarding the rainbows associated with single-chip DLP PJ's, I can see them if I look for them, but can tune them out most of the time. Really glad to hear that Outlaw Customer Support treated you well. Word of mouth is such a powerful factor for ANY business.

Cheers!