Quote:
Originally posted by Will:
Price IS an issue for me, so I tend to buy [b]budget pre/pro's or pre/pro/tuners and for the same reason, I don't upgrade every year like some folks do. I won't upgrade what I have unless it's for a "gotta have" feature and of course, the price has to be right. At the time I got my 950, a "gotta have" feature was DPL II.

As I recall, the very first inexpensive pre/pro available to the general public that supported DPL II was the Rotel 1066 closely followed by the even cheaper Outlaw 950. Even today, these two remain two of the least expensive pre/pro's or pre/pro/tuners with DPL II available to the general public -- which is remarkable since they've each been out for about a year and a half.

I don't yet know what will replace my 950. I don't know when I'll replace it. But I'm pretty sure it will be replaced by a budget pre/pro/tuner. I think a "gotta have" feature will be it has to support the STANDARD digital interface for DVD-A and SACD. And I think budget pre/pro's and pre/pro/tuners will support this standard before long since players and receivers (from different brands so they should interoperate) already support it. Hopefully budget pre/pro's and pre/pro/tuners will be made soon that support the standard that some receivers already support today.

Best,

Will

[This message has been edited by Will (edited August 31, 2003).][/B]



Will,

The problem is that the digital multi-channel connections that exist today are all proprietary. That means that for Outlaw to use it, they'd have to pay for the use of the scheme, which means that they'd have to pass the cost onto the consumer.

Ideally, someday these paranoid media twits will ease up a bit and agree on an open standard for multi-channel communication. That would make everybody (except those who shelled out for the proprietary connections, I guess) a lot happier.

Jeff