Hmmm good point, this is something for me to think about, or not. I am trying to decide between the Rega Apollo and the Meridian G06 CD players. The Meridian is 3x the $ as the Rega.. but it does sound better!! But 3x better?? Decisions decisions Will probably end up with the Oppo until I hit the Lottery.

Man the Oppo is sweet and so is the price. I see on audiogon that they are taking the Oppo 970 and upgrading it and selling it for $1095.00! At this point in time I'll stick with my $149.00 version as it does more and sounds as good as my Nad HDCD 542 & NAD DVD T534 combined and I like NAD products. Over the years I've probably spent as much on audio & video magazines as I have gear! Damn those reviews, they just keep making it harder for me to put that money in my retirement fund...

Well JimP, try it this way . Of course it's hard to quantify the sound of A vs. B in terms of dollars.

If you were given the Apollo today, would you be happy with it? Is there something about it you dislike or offends you to the point you could not live with it ? If not, you'll be very happy with it.

Of course , nothing really sounds 3x better . It's good to get what you really want ..... but probably not to the extent that you have to change your lifestyle or your only hope is the lottery Only you know that.

There's always something that sounds a little better isn't there? But, the "better" you go, you pay 2,3,4,5,6 times for that little bit. For some it's worth it(and have the cash) , some not.

-Garth

Well, in my case, the recent RR2150-driven upgrade cost about 3x what I had previously, but the result is easily 10x better. Just acquired the last piece of the puzzle—a custom-made SonoSilence One passive preamp—today. I must say that as cool as it is to hear what my fellow Outlaws are going through, it's going to be such a relief to stop thinking about all this stuff and just sink into listening.

I grabbed the owner's manual for the AS-P400, and with one of the RCA inputs, it really does bypass the sub volume control. I've never seen that level of stupidity before! It may be a fine subwoofer, but that's a major bug. I assure you Bug, all other subs I have ever seen are different. The bypass input must not disable the subwoofer level control on any sub I would own.

I really think you should have tried the other low-level input before dumping the 2150.

Toronado, if you go back and review some of my post's you will see that I did try both sub inputs and the regular input that lets you use the volume and crossover worked fine except the volume was at almost full output and I thought that wasn't right. I agree that the idea of bypassing the volume control isn't a good idea, I believe that's one of the reasons that they went to the 4000 series. Like I said, the sub worked fine with the NAD when used with the regular input.

I assume you used a calibration disc, test tones, or some other means of adjusting the sub's volume control so that it matched with the mains, right?

Bughunter, I'm just glad you've got something that works to your satisfaction. NAD is good stuff.

gonk, Yeah I tried all the disc's from Stereophile, HiFi and others and the Sub output was WEAK! The sub output on the NAD which has no adjustment mind you with my Athena AS-P 4000 set at # 3 on the volume was window shattering. The same subwoofer on the Outlaw using the bypass or the bass management was set on volume # 8 to achive the same volume but did not extend as deep! Now you explain the problem... I say I either got a lemon or the outlaws sub oulet is just plain WEAK!. Now I'm sure you all are going to say I must have got a lemon BUT indeed my friend in Tampa has had the same results which tells me that the output is different on the two receivers. Hail to the Outlaw owners that have not compared it to the NAD C720BEE as you are in for a hugh surprise when and if you do. What I'm saying is if you can't purchase both to compare you will never know unless of course you have a friend that has the NAD to compare it to. I simply stand by my finding, that is the Outlaw's subwoofer output is weak and the bass management does not make up for it when comparing it to the NAD C720BEE Receiver. Also the 100 watts per channel of the Outlaw do not surpass the NAD's 50 watts per channel in any way! I don't care what it may say on paper as I can't hear paper. I'm listening with my ears and what I hear is a 50 watt per channel NAD receiver that's sounds better in all respects than a 100 watt Outlaw receiver. I'm not trying to upset anyone or start some kind of fight here, I only stating what I hear with my components and speakers. By the way, my son gave me back the Outlaw and kept his Onkyo so again it's all in what we hear a what we all like. You know it applies to everything including HDTV's, Cars, Homes, Women/Men and so on. Again this is what I hear and my opinion and that's all...

I'll say this: Compared to what some of you Outlaws have in your homes, my system is probably about the equivalent of a "Close-N-Play" kiddie turntable, but all this talk about subwoofers just makes me doubly glad I have no need for one.

I actually passed on the NAD C720BEE, after hearing it in an audio store before I went for the RR2150. Sounded fine, but the salesman thought I should go for the watts and actually mentioned the Outlaw. He even tried to sell me a cheaper Marantz for the higher power output, but I was pretty determined to buy something solid state. In the end, I'm with Toronado: It's great that everyone seems to have found something that works to their satisfaction. I'm beginning to think that bughunter doth protest too much, though.