Wow. Glad to see that the Outlaw crowd is still opinionated.

willscary,
Good to hear from you, too. Glad to know you are enjoying your system.

And to the others, yes, I've moved on to a Lexicon and will probably never look back. This was a decision on my part and I've explained this elsewhere in this thread so I won't rehash it here.

And yes, now I find the MC-8 to be superior to the 950 because of its great flexibility. Does this make me a "shill" for Lexicon? Absolutely not! But having heard both units I can understand why some people become Lexicon zealots.

It's funny, because it was only a little over a year and a half ago that I was considered by some to be a "shill" for Outlaw! How the times change.


One thing is very clear to me, based on real world use of both units. The 950 lists for $799. The Lexicon MC-8 lists for $6000. While the MC-8 is, in my opinion, superior to the 950, there is no way that it is over 7 times better. This makes the 950 a remarkable bargain in the entry-level pre/pro field (especially when coupled with some of the Outlaw amp combination packages.) I've still not changed my opinion in that regard.

Is the 950 the only entry-level priced separates solution out there? Of course not. But, except for the used components approach, the Outlaw products still represent the best performance for the dollar. In fact, the sound of a 950 can get to be quite close to that produced by the MC-8 (although I have to admit that after living with the MC-8 for about two months now and learning more about tweaking it I prefer the Lexicon's sound). It's just that approaching that level of sound is a bit more cumbersome on the 950 (with the signal acquisition and volume issues I discussed elsewhere.) The MC-8 is just a lot more elegant in that regard, with a menu system and parameters that far exceed the 950's capabilities and tweakability (if that's a word.)

But, to reiterate once again, nothing that I've said above is a knock on the 950. In fact, if price is the major issue, then the Outlaw has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. One of the other 950 beta testers compared the sound produced by the 950 favorably to his Lexicon MC-12 (big brother of my MC-8 and sonically equivalent). I can now confirm his findings.

'Nuff said.

------------------
RAF

My HT (latest update 07/27/03)
Now includes my Runco CL-710 DLP FP
and Lexicon MC-8



[This message has been edited by Robert A Fowkes (edited August 26, 2003).]