Received my 976 last Thursday

I've had my 976 for a little more than a week and I am quite impressed. I replaced my venerable 990, which, to tell you the truth, I was pretty happy with. Turns out I didn't know what I was missing.

Setup was extremely simple; the manual was clearly written and easy to follow. I'm happy to say I was able to simplify the cabling behind my cabinets quite a bit.

The sound was impressive right out of the box, with no calibration at all. I auto-calibrated, and it noted an out-of-phase rear surround that I was unaware of.

TV and movies sound great and dialogue is more intelligible even at lower volumes. I've listened to CDs, DVD-Audio, and vinyl, and all sound spectacular, both in stereo and up-mixed to 7.1. My digital music is coming in through HDMI, so I'm using the 976's DACs.

Video looks great, seems sharper than it did through the 990 and switches fast. I don't have any 4K in my system, but now I can move in that direction.

I like my 7.1 setup a lot, and love my speakers. I'm not moving to 11.whatever any time soon, so the 976 works for me.

I have not encountered the IR challenges reported by some, but I immediately set up my Harmony Elite (I had to teach it the PowerOn code) and it's working great. I submitted a ticket to Harmony and they claim to be working on getting the 976 into their database, but if past experience is any guide it may take a little while.

I haven't run REW yet, that's my next project, after the holidays.

Full disclosure, I am a long-time Outlaw customer. My first purchase was a 1050 AVR in 2001 and I've been through multiple generations of receivers, pre-pros and amps. Over the years, Outlaw has consistently invested significant time and effort to produce quality components and the 976 is no exception. It has everything I need and nothing I don't.

Thanks for reading, and happy holidays all!

Great review Palmer !
You are so right about dialog being intelligble. It is something i struggle with, watching any other system in my house, but even low volume listening with the 976 is easy to hear.
Isnt the Harmony Elite an RF remote? Im tossing up between that and the Harmony 950, which is IR.
I am leaning toward the 950 because i am already set up with an IR repeater system. Love to hear your opinion on the Elite.

I have not yet connected my turntable to the 976, now you've got me itching to do so !!
I also have several DVD Audio discs that i have yet to play.

This 976 has got me exited about my theater room again !!

Nice review. I am long time Outlaw customer myself. I owned the 950 prepro and original 750 amp. The sound of my 976 is much better than I expected. I listen to all my music through the 7.1 analog input because I like the dacs in my Oppo 205 but I also tried the dacs in the 976 and they impressed me as well.

Hope you get to run REW. I ran it with good results for my 976 but I am only using the EQ filters generated for my sub. My main speakers had a decent response without the EQ.

Nice write-up, palmer. FYI, the 976 is in Harmony's database and I too had to "relearn" the 976's ON button with my Harmony 950. I've got a IR sensor coming in the next day or so that should take care of my IR issues as my TV is mounted above a fireplace and the gear is lower and off to the side. I'll locate the sensor higher and closer to the TV to take care of any issues. I'm remembering with some pain having to include delays and take care of the sequence of actions in each Harmony Activity to make sure everything sets properly. The OPPO and Apple TV work fine but I'm still having trouble getting a signal from my cable box and a tech is coming over tomorrow. Universal remotes certainly require an iterative process to get right.

I manually set each channel's trim using test tones and 976 sounds terrific as it but I'm looking forward to using REW to identify my room issues and make PEQ adjustments to address them. I've yet to sit down and watch a full movie yet! Rogue One is on deck.

Lastly, and unrelated to the 976, I have discovered my in-wall HDMI cables can't carry 60Hz UHD signals. I get a flicker and occasionally loose signal from my OPPO UDP-203. The cables went in a few years ago and I was worried they'd not be fast enough but 24Hz works and I'm trying out 50Hz in hopes it will too. I've moved up from a 720p plasma to 4K OLED and the clarity has been a little shocking to the family. There seems to be little distinction between video and film at this high resolution.

I added a IR sensor with my Harmony and the IR issues have been solved. There is still some programming of the remote to do but it is not critical. The new cable box was bad but a tech brought a new one today that works great so all my sources are up and running. The 976 can take a second or two to switch between activities (TV, OPPO, Apple TV for Cab/Sat, Disc, Media) but it isn't a big deal. The 976 is the first HDMI pre/pro I've owned and I understand a switching delay, even a short one like the 976, is normal. The cable box source is quite a bit louder than the OPPO and Apple TV and it would be nice to have a global way of equalizing the volume. Rogue One sounded great and I can't wait to try out the REW/PEQ to even out some tubby LFE.

Props to Peter Tribeman for pointing me to "soap opera effect" as to why I as he saw little difference between video and film on my new display. Not only did Rogue One sound good it looked much better after making the adjustments Peter suggested. Thanks, Peter!

Lucky me received a harmony 950 from Santa !!
Coming from a 10 yr old Sony RM-AX4000, (which i loved but it is just way outdated and impossible to reprogram ) this is my first Harmony.
I have set it up and done nothing more at this point but check this 976 turn on issue. Happy to say Harmony must have fixed this already !!

Quick update...I played a double feature last night, Avatar and 007 Quantum of Solace, and the 976 performed admirably. The sound was immersive and as others have mentioned the dialogue was crisp and clear. I also get a nice even soundstage with the three front speakers. My UMIK-1 mic arrives next week and it will be interesting what REW shows for my room acoustics, suggested PEQ settings and resultant sound.

I solved any remote issues when using my Apple TV and OPPO with my Harmony 950 and a IR sensor mounted near my display. However, I will not be using the Harmony for Cox Cable TV Contour as the Contour remote offers some very handy features (e.g. voice activation) that are not available on the Harmony. I can live with two remotes after Cox corrects their codes to use the correct "ON" code. Thanks to Ben for providing the 976's codes that I've offered to Cox.

I changed several major items in my system and I may have an issue with my OPPO 203. I'm hearing little "pops" periodically in the center channel only when playing a BluRay or 4K disc; the cable box and Apple TV do not pop. I'm going to switch HDMI inputs and on the 976 and replace the HDMI cable to see if it is a connection issue otherwise I will contact OPPO for guidance.

The last item, not audio related, is I need to accumulate at least 100 hours of use before having my LG OLED calibrated. According to the ISF tech who will calibrate it OLEDs have a decent break-in period and the settings will wander if the calibration is done too soon. Calibration is expensive but I found it well worth it with my previous display. A well calibrated display and the 976's sound will combine for a very immersive experience!

Nice to read these user reports. It seems that any new product will have some bugs that need to be ironed out.

Sidestepping a bit. Who are you contracting to have your set calibrated?

DVDs, blu-ray, or HD blu-ray?

Both were Blu-Ray. I have some HD Blu-Rays in the queue: West World, The Revenant, Alien Covenant and LaLa Land to check out soon.

mdanderson wrote:


Which dac set did you think has best SQ? I'm going to replace my OPPO 105 with either a 203 or 205, depending on whether or not the 976 dacs are as good as or better than the 205.
Anyone else done the dac comparison?

I have a UDP-203 and it would be an interesting comparison between it and the 976. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not think the 976's PEQ function is applied to the 7.1 direct input and PEQ used in conjunction with REW was a big selling point for me. My UMIK-1 mic arrived this week and I hope to use it and REW to check out my room's deficiencies. If the measurements show my room isn't a problem I'd be willing to break out the extra cables and give the 203 a listen.

Well to my ears, I think the dacs of my 205 sound better than the dacs of the 976. I have switched back and forth between the two and I just prefer the 205 for music. It sounds a little smoother with great detail. But I am surprised at how good the 976 does sound with MC music.

I would like to know what you think of the PEQ when you get your UMIK-1. I really my like my UMIK-1 and it works very well with REW and the 976 PEQ.

Hi kiwiaudio,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm loving the Elite.

The Elite supports IR, RF, and IP. I have a Wii U that is controlled via Bluetooth, so RF is a good thing for me.

Another thing I like about the Elite is the inclusion of the Hub and two IR transmitters, which frees me from line-of-sight issues. Not a big deal if you already have have IR repeaters.

Cheers,
Tony.