I am sorry you are disapointed.

You are free, of course, to send the unit back.

While the difficulty of dealing with Canada/US customs, customs broker fees, credit card currency exchange rates, and trying to recover GST/PST will no doubt increase your aggavation and expense compared to a U.S. resident customer, that is not Outlaw's fault. The evaluation risk for an out of country buyer is just plain greater than for one within the U.S.

It may be the case that you received a defective unit. Perhaps ytou should try to see if Outlaw thinks so, based on your experience with the unit. But, I would ask some friends what they think first.

I hate to say this, but my BS detector is starting to go off. Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for my suspicions, but I wonder about the following:

1) Are you seriously comparing a HK 525 Receiver with 70 W/ch outputs against a generally recognized decent A/V pre/pro with 200 W/ch THX Ultra2-certified Aragon 2005 and 2002 amps? That's some $4k of amps there. I could see that you might consider the 990 inferior to the build quality of these amps, but not using the HK 525 as a reference.

2) The HK, like many cheap mid-fi receivers is likely "disco-equalized": boosted in the treble and bass, with a subdued midrange. (Note: I have not verified this, but it is common with mid-fi equipment). This makes it sound "louder" than it is and the effect is often initally pleasing: the music has "presence". It also tends to be tiring on most critical listener's ears after a short while. A higher-end pre/pro would tend to be more neutral and thus seam "dark" and quiet to you. Perhaps you like the sound of the HK.

3) If you went ahead and purchased $4k of Aragon amps, why are you kvetching about the shipping and customs cost of returning a $1.1k pre/pro? Chalk it up to experience. Just bite the bullet and pick up a nice Krell A/V pre/pro, often discounted for US$2.5k. Personally, I think the 990 is just as good, and if you really dislike the sound of one, you'll probably dislike the sound of the other. If anything, the Krell is a bit less hot than the 990, though not to a degree really worth mentioning.

4) Complaining about a difference of 2 db in attenuation/gain range? That really isn't audible. FWIW, when I run my 990 at -10dB to -6dB through my 150 W/ch Odyssey Stratos driving Radia 520i speakers (not known for their efficiency: about 86-88 dB/W/1m), it is about as loud as I ever care for it to be. If anything, attenuation all the way down to -76 dB might be a bit much, but hey.


5) You say automatic setup was "easy" but then you complain about the result. Doesn't sound "easy" to me.