I'm torn and am looking for some advice from anyone willing to give it. I'm very much enamored with Outlaw products even though I still don't own one. However, Outlaw's rep precedes it. So, knowing they make excellent products, I'd like to order a 1070 but I'm also fond of the Marantz SR8500, a model highly comparable to the 1070. However, the 8500 also has THX Select and a few more watts. Am I overselling myself on the value of THX select, especially since my A/V room's pretty small?

What can anyone advise? Are there other bene's with either unit that I'm overlooking? Thanks for any feedback.

This sort of thing is always a toss up and can get subjective. THX is not that big a deal to me, but that's ME. The "extra watts" are something to consider, but remember that Outlaw has always been VERY conservative on their power ratings and one would expect the 1070's amp to hold its own with competative products claiming higher power.

Both are good products. Both share a number of features. (RS-232, 2x1 DVI, etc.) Each has some features the other doesn't. The number inputs for some types are different on each. The size is different, the displays are different (two line on 1070 vs. one line on 8500). Some do the same thing in different ways (DOlby Virtual on the 1070, SRS on the 8500).

Oh, then there is the price. Even at the BEST web price, the 8500 is AT LEAST $300 more than the 1070, maybe even MORE MORE depending on what type of dealer you purchase from.

It's still too early to say exactly what the 1070 will offer - the additional rated power of the Marantz may or may not add up to a practical benefit (the 1070's rated with all channels driven at once, which is unusual for a receiver, so the 65W rating is likely to be very conservative). I agree with PodBoy about THX Select - it is the "entry level" THX certification, so there are the basic THX processing modes (which are not really much different from Dolby Digital and PLIIx) and some quality control testing that would not be difficult for the 1070 to pass if Outlaw chose to pay THX to do it.

With a price tag several hundred dollars higher (list is $700 higher than the 1070), the Marantz does offer some extras: one more component input, auto setup with an auto EQ (although I don't know how effective Marantz's EQ is in this price range), and a second zone. The 1070 will be selling for a good bit less, and it does offer most everything else that the Marantz has plus one interesting extra: bass management options on the 7.1 analog input. The 1070 offers three different options for this input, in fact: none (a pure bypass), an 80Hz analog crossover that keeps the signal in the analog domain all the way through, and an option to convert the signal to digital to apply the quadruple crossovers that are available in the 1070's digital domain.