I was in Harvey Electronics today at the ABC Home/Carpet store in lower Manhattan on 17th st. & Bdwy, and got to listen to the C720BEE receiver. They also have my CD player there, (bought it there actually) which is the NAD C521BEE and ran them through some Sonas Faber's.

Unfortunately, the set up was not optimal, since one of the CD's used was a burned disc w/Mp3's and the other disc available wasn't really reference material. I'll probably go back next week w/my own CD's and give another listen, since the sales guy was more keen on that anyway.

What I'd really like to do however, is bring my RR2150 over there when it arrives, and hook it up to their stuff, so I can do a side by side comparison. I'm going to call the sales guy (Chris) and see if that's cool.

My initial impressions w/it though, was that it sounded a bit veiled on the mid bass range, which was a bit annoying. Resolution didn't really impress me all that much either, compared to some things I've heard before, but it wasn't that bad either. Of course the speakers are a big part of this, so to be fair, perhaps they weren't paird up as well as they could have been. Soundstage was IMO, a bit thin, but not completely out of reach.

To be honest though, I can't see how the RR2150 could be any worse than the 720BEE in terms of sound quality, but am looking foward to hearing it for myself. The ohter issue/point I feel should be mentioned though, is that for the $$ (they're both the same price MSRP -$599) the Outlaw offers some things which the NAD doesn't. Phono stage for one thing, is important. I'd have to shell out more dough for a phono pre-amp if I bought the NAD. Then there's the USB port, as well as dedicated input for Mp3 type devices.

So if the sound quality is at least the same as the NAD's, then it pretty much seems logical to me, to go for the Outlaw.

Doug