At last the user manual is posted, and we can get answers to our long-awaited questions, although some questions had been answered before this.

THE GOOD
1. All the available surround processing technology is there, every last mother's son of Dolby point-whatever.
2. Trust me, you won't tell any difference between the Outlaw 990 and a Lexicon, Meridian, Rotel, Bryston, etc. operating in the same mode with the same settings.
3. DVI is here! Although HDMI may take over in the industry, an adaptor will get you up to speed video-wise.
4. The 990 is a great value for movie watching.
5. It allows for expansion to 7.1 SACD when that day arrives, and it probably soon will.
6. Unlike the 950, speaker setup allows for separate parameters for surrounds and rears.
7. The 990 is a clear step up from the 950.

THE BAD
1. All the bad press here on DSP, I’m sorry to say, led Outlaw to cut corners on this vital aspect just as it did on the 950. No, I'm not talking about simulated "hall" modes, but I want the ability to adjust delay and high frequency contouring on the surrounds and back channels to get the best from two-channel, acoustically recorded sources. Surrounds in this case must NOT be full range, and adjusting delay and high frequency rolloff simulates hall size by utilizing the recording’s out-of-phase information. T’aint possible with the 990 any more than it was with the 950, blast it! Dolby IIx is great as far as it goes but fails on this aspect, too.
2. Related to 1 above, the 990’s tone controls appear to be the old-fashioned kind, not digital. A tone control bypass button on a digital processor is like putting a starter crank on a BMW.
3. It's big. In my case, that's no problem, but it might be for others.
4. The USB port is on the @#$(&^*@! back of the unit!
5. Distance parameters for speakers are still in 1 db increments. Precise channel balance is very important, and 1 db won’t quite cut it.
6. Room EQ is noticeable by its absence. Outlaw should, and probably will, rectify that omission.
7. Only two DVI inputs is a little sparse, adequate this year but probably not next.
8. Didn’t the 950’s remote have macro capability, or am I thinking of another product? I didn’t see it in the 990’s user manual.

THE WORTHLESS
1. Balanced outputs is a surprising inclusion at this price level, especially because they rarely, if ever, offer any audible improvement in a home environment. Unnecessary increase in the cost.
2. AM-FM tuner. In this age of satellite radio (and digital broadcasts as soon as music producers get over their paranoia), why bother? FM barely qualifies as a high-fidelity medium thanks to the broadcasting restraints forced upon it. Unnecessary increase in the cost.
3. Phono input. The ever-decreasing number of record lovers likely already have a separate phono preamp, and the 990 can't handle moving coil cartridges anyway. It's like putting a rumble seat in a Jaguar, i.e., another unnecessary increase in cost.
4. I can't tell from the user manual (and couldn't with the 950 either until I played with it), but that level trim control looks suspiciously unchanged. The circuit was pointless on the 950 because it did not add or detract from any channel's level but permanently changed original settings. Looks like more of the same, but, as Bill O’Reilly says, “I could be wrong.”