Will,

I agree with Iggy - amps are expensive to manufacture due to parts/materials alone. Plus $1799 for 1400W IS dirt cheap. To me that amp is overkill unless you are running large speakers all around and in a large room. Look around at other amps, 2 channel, 5 channel or 7 channel, how many sell for $1.29 per watt? In my opinion, if you want to spend less, get a 5x100W for all channels except the mains, and then a 2x200W for the mains.

Plus so much depends upon the efficiency of the speakers and the crossover setting. Running 86dB sensivity speakers full range could use 200W, maybe more for movies. Running 93dB sensivity speakers with a crossover of 80Hz, and 100W should be enough to drive you from the room.

Sure, they make cars and trucks in Asia and import them, but that IS expensive. Why do you think they make Toyotas in Kentucky? Many of the Asia models are now made here to save on shipping costs.

Sure, if more and more clones sold the same amp, that would reduce the unit price some, but not a lot, and with that much money tied up in materials alone, that gives manufacturers some room to distinguish themselves without driving up the price of the amp very much. Like I said, the Outlaw amp is still a bargain.

Another example is a computer and a monitor. The CPU is the 950 and monitor is the amp. Today you can easily buy a CPU that is fast, lots of memory, etc for less than $1k. But now you want to add a great 21" monitor to go with it, and you can spend more than on the computer. Although they perform a much simpler task than the CPU, displays, good and big displays, are inherently expensive. Same with amps. Back when life was 2 channel, spending identical amounts for an analog preamp and a 2-channel amp made sense. Today, buying a computer based preamp and a monster multichannel amp, tips that price balance towards the amp.