No. The XLR input on the amp is then there for cosmetic purposes only since you lose the benefit right afterwards.

As an example, the new ATI and Theta Dreadnaught amps are fully differential balanced from input until it has to go the the +/- speaker terminals. There's where you get your benefit of low noise and no ground loops.

The Dreadnaught is zero feedback too.

What Outlaw should have done in their design phase is see the writing on the wall and put in the latest HDMI inputs and outputs for audio and video and had the firmware controller for it software upgradeable in case the spec. changed somewhat. That's what Integra did for their ever upgradeable pre-amp.

If there is a way to add these new high resolution, lossless and uncompressed audio features to the processor, you still would need HDMI with the latest encryption standards to carry the audio bitstreams to the pre-amp. I doubt Hollywood will allow any other way.

Maybe the regular legacy codecs like standard Dolby Digital and DTS and stereo PCM will be allowed to travel through coaxial and toslink outputs (since this is the most these limited bandwidth connections can handle), but the reason to move to HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray is also for the better audiophile grade audio too, not lossy audio (which is just there for backwards compatibility).

There are a whole slew of new receivers and pre-amps coming out soon that include HDMI in some form or another (and many are adding enough extra horsepower to add these new formats via software). That's one reason the 990 is "sucking hind tit" before it's even been released. I don't know why DTS and Dolby (besides reps from the Blu-Ray camp and DVD Forum) weren't in communication to let them know what was approved and what was not, so they could be ready. Maybe something broke down during all this.

I'd love to support Outlaw by buying another one of their products, but these high res. disc formats have me on a holding pattern.

Dan