Outlaw usually has some product announcements in May and/or June. Let’s be patient and see what announcements there may be.

As far as the 950 being outdated, it would seem silly, in some ways, to try and defend a product that has had the same design for as long as the 950 has. On the other hand, a product is not truly obsolete until it can no longer perform the tasks you require. With the features present and at its current price point, there is still an argument to be made for the 950 as the pre/pro part of a separates duo. What will you get for twice the money? Will you genuinely use the additional features or note a difference if you do? Which of the features added deliver real benefits and which are dubious? I’m not being critical with my questions, I’m genuinely asking questions. Here’s one more: is the built-in parametric EQ in some of the newer receivers merely the latest must-have that the industry is beginning to include just to remain leading edge, or is the built-in parametric EQ implemented in such a fashion to be a real and genuine benefit? The same can be said of some other newer features. I don’t have a receiver with parametric EQ built in, so I’m not going to say either way. But I’m leery of a purported solution that would lull people into believing that a very simplified solution will be the answer to a more complex situation, and that I should be happy to pay more, or more often, for something that may be of no real help at all.

We know that in the high-end audio market, there can be a lot of snake oil out there. Such oil usually doesn’t serve to improve products; it does serve to lubricate marketing and sales.

In a wider scope, the consumer market is strongly driven by “New, New, New!” Isn’t it a marketer’s dream to have a new model to replace their company’s last “most advanced ever” product every year or even more often? (Why are some 2005 model vehicles already being sold, hmmm?)

I applaud the Outlaws for not falling into a new-for-the-sake-of-new pattern. When the Outlaws have something genuinely new above and beyond the 950, not just incremental changes every so often, I’ll be glad to consider it. For now, I’m still happy with my 950!


[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited May 17, 2004).]