[FrancisB]

Hi,


I'm building a HT system, and have decided on Gallo Ref III's for the fronts (they sound amazing sweet to me) (and the center when it comes out).


I've budgeted about $2500 for a pre-pro/amp combo. I'll be driving a 5.1 system, and my TV is a recent Panny which has DVI/HDMI inputs. Figure 50/50 split between music and movies. Movies for the family, music for me.


I was thinking of the outlaw 990/755 combo, but am not familiar with other choices at this price point.


Any sugestions?


thx,

Francis

 

[DMF]

From the latest Outlaw Audio newsletter, they will be introducing new models shortly and are selling off their amps inventory:


"The Model 990/Model 755 [5x200W] combo is now $2,148 ... $250 off of their original pricing."


"The Model 990/Model 770 [7x200W] combo is now $2,498 ... $400 off of their original pricing."


Can't beat that with a stick!

 

[Jake Sm]

Rotel combo

 

[erick.s]

If you're not in a hurry ********** is coming out with their "Ultra Lite" combo that is going for $1200. It's a 7.1 prepro with a 7 channel amp rated at 125 Wx5 and 60 Wx2. I'm actually on the preorder list for their prepro but I will be stepping up the amp section with their larger "big dog" amp which is 200 Wx7. The combo pricing on that package is running me $2348.

 

[Jake Sm]

Quote:

If you're not in a hurry ********** is coming out with their "Ultra Lite" combo that is going for $1200

I would recommend tasting that "ultra lite" next to something with more Hops.


Couldn't resist.

 

[FrancisB]

Hi Eric,


thx, I'll look at the av123 line. I'm not too familar with them. It sounds like the 200wX7 amp would put it right in the ballpark of the Outlaw 990/770.


Jake,


I know Rotel has a stellar rep, but it seems the features you get with the Rotel at that price point are significally less. Also the Rotel pre (1068) is several years old, and doesn't have many of the features of the 990?


btw - what exactly does your .sig mean? Something about making a country out of a part of Germany (Alsace Lorain?), but you don't have the balls to hang w/us in combat? Just curious.


thx for the input guys

-f-

 

[Johnla]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrancisB thx, I'll look at the av123 line. I'm not too familar with them. It sounds like the 200wX7 amp would put it right in the ballpark of the Outlaw 990/770.

It will put it into the ballpark pricewise.....


But I think the 990 is a much better pre-pro, and offers more for your money, than the Ultra Lite pre-pro will. I also don't think that the big 200wpc Emo amp is really any better of a amp than the 770 is. But I do really think that the 990 is the better of the two pre-pros.


If it was me, I would go for the 990/770 combo long before I would go with the Ultra Lite and the big Emo amp.

 

[erick.s]

The 990 definitely has more features, but for $400 more than the UL prepro it should. I'm betting that the Emos will have better sound quality which is why I'm on the preorder list. There's no way to know for sure yet, obviously.

 

[Jake Sm]

Quote:

I know Rotel has a stellar rep, but it seems the features you get with the Rotel at that price point are significally less. Also the Rotel pre (1068) is several years old, and doesn't have many of the features of the 990?

True enough, but I am an AUDIO person first and the audio quality is very good in that price point, If you are looking for video switching bells and whistles at a low price point then I would look at using a Japanese receiver with pre-outs.

Quote:

btw - what exactly does your .sig mean? Something about making a country out of a part of Germany (Alsace Lorain?), but you don't have the balls to hang w/us in combat? Just curious.

Pardon my bad French, but the thought is "we carved you a country out of a piece of Germany and you don't have the balls to support us in this war?"

A nasty referance to the France being assimilated into Germany IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. I was in France recently and carried a copy of a map of Europe in 1943 that showed most of Europe as Germany...it doesn't please the French to be reminded of that.

 

[buddha33]

I bought an Anthem AVM 20 and used Anthem MCA-5 MKII for $2,600 shipped. I'll put this up against anything that's been mentioned thus far.

 

[eclou]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Sm Pardon my bad French, but the thought is "we carved you a country out of a piece of Germany and you don't have the balls to support us in this war?" A nasty referance to the France being assimilated into Germany IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. I was in France recently and carried a copy of a map of Europe in 1943 that showed most of Europe as Germany...it doesn't please the French to be reminded of that.

Probably not a JM Lab fan....

 

[nirvana_av]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake Sm Pardon my bad French, but the thought is "we carved you a country out of a piece of Germany and you don't have the balls to support us in this war?" A nasty referance to the France being assimilated into Germany IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR. I was in France recently and carried a copy of a map of Europe in 1943 that showed most of Europe as Germany...it doesn't please the French to be reminded of that.

Did the French ever bring up the fact that there would be no United States if it weren't for the French?

 

[Patrick TX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nirvana_av Did the French ever bring up the fact that there would be no United States if it weren't for the French?

Screw that, there would be no FRENCH FRIES! I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Sherwood Newcastle combo. The new EQ makes it a strong offering.

 

[Jake Sm]

Quote:

Probably not a JM Lab fan....

ACTUALLY I HAVEN'T LISTENED TO MUCH OF THEIR latest offerings but I have generally liked their stuff.

Quote:

Did the French ever bring up the fact that there would be no United States if it weren't for the French?

When the few who know history do bring that up, I remind them of our civil war and then mention that even if that view is accurate, that debt was repaid , certainly , by the end of WWI , if not before.

Quote:

Screw that, there would be no FRENCH FRIES!

after being in England recently I keep refering to them as "Chips"

 

[nirvana_av]

Actually, French fries as we know them are Belgian.

 

[Patrick TX]

Ok, French Kissing?

 

[Bondmanp]

Meanwhile, back at the topic.... The Outlaw 990 is based on the Sherwood-Newcastle P-965, with some extra features like balanced inputs/outputs, DVI (?) switching, etc. Although I would say the 990 is a better value than the P-965, the new P-965s will probably start shipping with a room-EQ feature shortly. Outlaw has said that they specifically do not want to add this feature to the 990 - they don't care for the options that are available. So, if room-EQ is more important than DVI switching and balanced signal paths, go with the Sherwood. Otherwise, the 990 is a heck of a deal.


Regarding the Rotel 1068, I did a shootout between the 1068 and the P-965 before choosing the P-965. If you do a search back to February of 2004, you can find my shoot-out review. Long story short - IMHO the P-965 sounds better than the Rotel, has more features and costs less money. The 1068 is a good pre-pro, and very well built, but except for the fact that it's much easier to use than the Sherwood, it was just not as good as the Sherwood. YMMV!

 

[Jed M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bondmanp Meanwhile, back at the topic.... The Outlaw 990 is based on the Sherwood-Newcastle P-965, with some extra features like balanced inputs/outputs, DVI (?) switching, etc. Although I would say the 990 is a better value than the P-965, the new P-965s will probably start shipping with a room-EQ feature shortly. Outlaw has said that they specifically do not want to add this feature to the 990 - they don't care for the options that are available. So, if room-EQ is more important than DVI switching and balanced signal paths, go with the Sherwood. Otherwise, the 990 is a heck of a deal.

Outlaw said this about adding auto eq on there site a few days ago.


"As has been pointed out in this thread, our colleagues at Sherwood are about to release an upgrade package including an “auto-eq†function for some of their products that share a similar platform with the Model 990. We are currently testing solutions that add an auto-eq function to the Model 990 as part of a planned software maintenance upgrade that both improves its functionality and addresses certain issues that have been brought to our attention. However, at this point the auto-eq system’s performance does not meet our standards, and we will not release it until we are completely satisfied with both its overall accuracy (especially in setup) and the control menus that drive it. (It should be also be mentioned here that while the Model 990 shares many aspects of its hardware platform with other products, the software menus and control system are uniquely Outlaw’s.) We are proud of our control system and will make certain that any additional features maintain the same level of flexibility and ease of use.


Right now our first priority is to complete the maintenance upgrade as a standalone release, with auto-eq to follow when it is ready. Please understand that while our pre-release testing has already validated the Model 990’s hardware to successfully perform any upgrades via USB or RS-232 connections, it will still take some time for the actual software upgrade to be completed and for us to put it through the required validation and beta testing."