My folks are looking at getting a new stereo setup for their front room, and naturally they looked to me to help out with this. I've come up with a couple ideas, but I'm not sure which way to go. Since it's right before Christmas, my head is spinning with all kinds of things, not really helping much.

What they are looking for is a fairly basic setup for their front room to play CD's and radio. No TV out here and they're not worried about DVD-Audio or SACD. The current setup is rather old and it's not very good, so most anything I suggest will be much better than what they have now. The current setup does span into two rooms (that room and the bedroom), but I'm not sure if they really want it that way. I don't like it and I don't think my mother is sold on it. My dad likes it now, but he's a stone wall that has the ability to flip itself overnight, if you know what I mean. Having a simpler CD player and a display that works so they can use the radio is the biggest things they are looking for. Not too hard to please.

I have two solutions for them, only one of which I've said so far. The first one (what I've told them) is to wait for the RR2150 to come out and get that for the main unit. Then to get a decent CD player to go with it (I'd help pick it out). This setup would be much better than most any complete unit they'd pick up in a store. I don't know if my dad was paying attention, but my mom is turning this over in her mind. She wanted a black unit, but I may be able to sell her on the silver.

The other solution I have (which I've told no one yet) is for me to pick up a 950 and another M200 for my setup. Then they could have my receiver out front and still pick up a CD player, like before. My receiver is a Marantz SR6200, so it's a decent unit. This would give them a good reciever, a good CD player, plus it would allow me to make an upgrade to my setup.

The difficult part is that it would be more expensive. I only thought this second idea up after I saw how cheap the 950 had become. I'd love to purchase the pre/pro that Outlaw is making for the future, but I honestly don't know if I will be able to afford it. I'd really hate to wait and miss out on such a killer deal because it sounds like the 950 could be phased out by then. Then I'd be stuck as I'd really like to have more Outlaw stuff.

As for speakers, either way they could just use the Bose 301's I'm using for surrounds right now. I know they're not the best, but they are much better than anything my parents would pick up on their own. I'm not too worried about losing surround in my setup because IMO there is a fairly obvious difference in the sound of those and the front speakers I have. So if they got the RR2150, my setup would be exactly the same, minus the Bose. If I got the 950 and the M200 (for the center) I would have that plus the pair of M200's I already have powering the mains.

Either way I lose the surrounds, but I'm not too worried at the moment. I was looking to upgrade eventually anyway. The surrounds aren't even true surrounds at this time because they aren't even straight to the side, let alone behind because of the room layout. Modifying the room is out of the question, so let's just allow this to lie where it is for now.

The advantages the 950 would give me are the obvious sonic and useability ones that you guys probably all know about already (and I don't need to bore you with), plus the trigger control for the M200's. This would give me more options on turning the M200's on and off as my reciever does not have trigger outlets. The music sensing does not quite seem to be working as well as some of us would like. This can be looked at in the M200 section if so desired. If the trigger didn't work directly I could use it to trip a power strip instead. So to review my setup, it would have the 950, 3 M200s, and the mains & center channel.

One last thing, for either setup, radio is a big thing. I'm not sure how the radio antenae's hookup. I see the plug in the back and I can manage that, but in the manuals for radio I see a wire running to the cable antennae on the roof. Is this what must be done for FM? Is it possible to just get an antennae for indoors? Can it be connected to the cable coming in with the TV signal? This isn't something I've ever been concerned with, so I don't really know much about. My receiver has a small AM antennae, but I've never really used it. The receiver is supposed to have exceptional radio reception, so that would be nice for them to have.

Anybody have thoughts or comments on this? Would it be worth it for me to spend the extra money now? Outlaw would be getting good business either way. Money permitting, I could later use the 950 for controlling a setup for the rest of the house later on and use the not released yet released one for the HT eventually. I don't think I'd have to get it right away.

Wow this is a long post.