A little birdie just told me that the Model 200 draft manual is available for perusal. Follow this link: http://pdf.outlawaudio.com/outlaw/docs/200manual.pdf

Thanks for the link!

The section about heat and ventilation doesn't seem to clearly state whether it's OK to stack these amplifiers up or not. It suggests one can (by talking about not putting things in the middle of a stack), and indicates there's ventilation from the bottom, which suggests the feet are high enough to provide sufficient ventilation between multiple amps in a stack. Sound right?

The specs page on the main website says that there are two RCA input jacks, but the diagram of the rear panel on page 4 of the manual shows only a single input. On a possibly related note, the manual makes no mention of bridging two amps together. I take it this feature got dropped?

In an email from the Outlaws I was told you "could only stack two units at a time due to heat ventilation and weight factors."

Thanks for the info, obie. I figured there had to be a limit, but I would have hoped it would be more like 3-4 units in a stack. If the issue were just ventilation, it should be possible to add some kind of spacers to leave more of a gap between units in a stack, but there's not much to be done about the weight.

The fact that the M-Block is only 1 rack unit high sounds great, but if you can't stack more than 2 of them, and they don't have brackets for rack mounting...

I wonder how performance/heat dissipation would be affected if, instead of using it in the normal "flat" configuration, you were to rotate it 90 degrees so that the "side" now becomes the "bottom"? You could slide a whole row of them together then with no concerns about weight.

I don't know about putting them on end. Off hand, I would not recommend it since the cooling path might be comprimised to some extent. I would call Outlaw about that one.

Hmm, can only stack two at a time... can only trigger two at a time... Doesn't sound like they're going out of their way to make these things useful in a 7.1 system...

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Matthew:

They may have said that you can't run more than two units off the trigger, but there is no reason that you can't put them in the "music sense" mode and run as many units as you want with auto turn-on.

I wonder if anyone asked them about the stacking. Is there some specific height that you can use between units so that you could stack more than two and get the needed coooling?

On the other hand, while it sounds neat, one has to wonder if this type of product is really meant to be used in a stack of seven or eight. Me thinks a multi-channel amp is the better route for that.

But what do I know, I'm only a dog!

ARF ARF, says Iggy

[This message has been edited by Iggy The Dog (edited January 07, 2003).]

Update:

While we were being somewhat conservative with our recommendations, the sheer weight of these units really limits the stack to three units. More than three units does increase the risk of heat or weight related damage.

The trigger will accept as little as a 6 V DC 4 mA signal. However, since many of you will likely be using higher voltage and mA triggers you should easily be able to trigger seven or more of these amplifiers.

Best,

Scott



[This message has been edited by Scott (edited January 08, 2003).]

If a person were using an actual equipment rack that would eliminate weight concerns. I wonder what sort of spacing or ventilation requirements would exist on a setup like that. I guess it would also make a nifty sub amp for the 1050 if you have a passive sub.

If a stack of 3 units is acceptable, that's a substantial improvement over a stack of 2. It makes a 5 or 6 channel setup a double-stack instead of a triple-stack. It also helps anybody who wants to use 3 M-Blocks for the front soundstage but rely on lesser amps for the surround channels.

According to the manual: "Both in and out trigger jacks are provided so that the control signal may be cascaded". From that, I would think you could daisy-chain quite a few of these together for external triggering- right?

Well, I doubt they're amplifying the trigger signal; I would expect it to get weaker as you pass each link in the daisy chain. If a 950 has enough juice to trigger six of them, then that's good.

Three in a stack is a big difference, definitely. With a rack on each side of the TV, as many people have, you can put three on each bottom shelf and have a nice symmetrical look.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net

Check out page 4 and the description of the trigger output jack:



Apparently an endless daisy-chain is not advisable, but there are alternatives.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Would this work? It's what I've been thinking of doing with my 950 and Parasound monobloc amps.

The amps for the front left and right speakers will be connected to the trigger on the 950 (trigger goes to one amp, then that amp's trigger out is connected to the trigger in on the second amp). To control the other three amps, I planned to get an X10 appliance module and plug a 12vdc wall wart into it. I would plug it into one of the three remaining amps, and daisy chain from it to the other two. This way, the 950 turns on the main left/right amps for stereo and if I want to do home theater, I can turn on the other three via remote control.

Any one see any problems with this? I really don't need to do it as the 950 seems able to turn on all 5 amps with no trouble. But I thought it would be convenient this way.

I guess I don't understand why everybody is hung up on the trigger limitation issue. Why not just place the amps in the auto-sensing mode so they only turn on when there is an audio signal sent to them? Wouldn't that eliminate the whole prolem? Maybe there's an "understood" issue that I don't know about using this approach, but I don't see why it wouldn't be the most convenient means of controlling them.

Well, there's a school of thought which says that audio equipment should warm up for, say, 15 minutes to reach its optimal operating characteristics. In this case, you might prefer that your amps come on and stay on even when you're not playing anything yet.

There are also some people who believe that power cycles on things like amps are hard on them, so even if you're listening to a stereo source you don't want your center and surround amps to turn off.

Speaking of auto-on, how long are people finding it takes for the amp to decide there's no signal and go to standby mode?

I don't know how I missed this. This is exactly what I do, except I am using a 1050. The 1050 triggers my main two amps while my center and surround amps have an x10 trigger. I also use the amp button on the 1050 to control x10 signals with an x10 ir converter. So it should work for you and I do find it convenient since my use is about 50/50 stereo vs. multichannel.