Model 5000 vs 7120

Hi All,

My 7120 is giving me grief and may have died, or at least not worth the expense to repair. Currently under review.

Question is knowing the 5000 is only a five channel amp, how close is it in sound quality to the 7120? Price point per channel seams quite a bit cheaper than the price I vaguely remember paying for the 7120.

Anyone with experience?

The specs are similar to each other assuming you mean the 7125. Contact Outlaw service for help before giving up. They are pretty reasonable for repairs.

I'd definitely call the Outlaws before putting it out to pasture. They repaired by 1050 years ago and it was really reasonable; they just fixed the problem without trying to upsell me a bunch of stuff that wasn't needed. Their repair work is good, too. That 1050 has been relocated to the bedroom and is still kickin' it daily.

Can you describe the grief you are experiencing from your 7125? Looking at the 7125 internals I do not think diagnosing a problem will be difficult.

If we can isolate the issue you will be better able to weigh your options. My first choice is to fix things myself whenever possible. If I find the problem is something I cannot repair shipping is cheaper for a component as opposed to a complete amp.

I suspect you already checked the fuse if it is a full failure? If not it is a good place to start.

When I say currently under review, I literally mean in the Outlaw repair shop in CA and waiting for their feedback. I did talk to them before posting.

That said . . . I watched multiple orange glows occur from my listening spot . . . at least two channels fried. Also have loud clicking sound and weird hum when the unit turns on . . . if repairs get too costly, will not proceed to fix. Cheapest option is to buy the 5000 and use a lower powered amp for rear surrounds. So far in the hole $100 in shipping. Debating when to throw in the towel . . .

Little disappointed on lifespan, but this is the only Outlaw product that has not stood the test of time (6 years old).

I have gone through a lot of their products.
- Pre-amp (950 / 990 / 975 / current 976)
- Amps (770 / 7125)
- Receiver RR2150
- ICBM
- Lots of cabels

Can't find another option even close in price other than used stuff on eBay.

Wow, orange glows is bad news. Definitely check downstream connections too. I had a channel fail early on my 7125 but it just stopped outputting, no drama. If they find a design issue they may just fix it for you at cost.

Depending on other issues you could pull the two bad modules and have a five channel amp. Please keep us posted on what you hear from the service center.

Glowing Orange is bad news. As Xenon said check the speakers. I have no idea what if any protection the 7125 may have but DC on the outputs can happen during a major failure.

Good suggestion on pulling the modules, I am hoping that is something that can be done provided other channels are safe to use.

I need to take a close look at tweeter in my center channel, everything else seems fine. When the amp fried it just made soft fussing sound, not a loud pop . . . so that was good.

Hoping to hear back from service end of this week.

Well that's a bummer. I forget how lucky I am that I can ship on my company's FedEx account. We get a massive discount as we're one of the highest volume shippers in the state.

I've had great performance from my 7125 for over ten years now so hopefully they can fix yours. If you had glowing, that whole thing could be suspect now, though. A lot of times a severe failure like that will weaken other components and it just becomes this cascade effect of failures.

Let us know what happens!