Good aesthetic design is not expensive.

To say you must add "a thousand dollars" to look like a Krell or Mark Levinson is ridiculous. No one is intending or even suggesting that you match their choice in materials or form factor - just their design execution.

You give very little credit to Outlaw when on the one hand they can "hang with the best" in terms of performance at 1/10 the cost - but seem "stumped" or "Rain Man-esque" when it comes to designing a product on a budget.

The new Rotel 1066 is (opinion alert!) by far more elegant... Audio Refinement seems to do very well with little - heck, no one will accuse Parasound of being outside the reach of current and future Outlaws customers - and they can build and design the Halo "A" Series.

I think the point of this thread is to assess and evaluate the visual statement that Outlaw is making with the 950. And, IMHO, I think that they can do better - much better. As I said before, and this is a qualified statement, Aesthetics do matter.

If you think they made a concsious decision and executed their overall plan flawlessly, and that the aesthetic look and feel was the height of that perfection, then say so.

This their first pre/pro - so feedback should be very much welcomed.

Imagine if the Rotel 1066 and the Outlaw 950 exterior were switched at birth - Outlaw 950's would come in your choice in Silver or Black and look three times it price. (the killer combo when performance and looks blend together to be three to five times its price.)

And people who owned Rotel 1066's would have bass issues, video bandwith issues, no tuners, pay double the price, and.... tada... have an "ugly duckling".

How could they even compete with Outlaw at this point?

One vote the 950's looks could be dramatically improved!


[This message has been edited by trancethereal (edited January 21, 2003).]