Good to see someone that has quite a bit of hands on experience with various models making comments about this unit.
My Father was / is interested in the 950, as was i a while back, and i talked him out of it for the same reason that i did not buy one. First of all, i had read WAY too many "horror stories" about poor quality control / units with "quirky operation". Another problem that i had was that most of the people raving about this unit had only used receivers prior to purchasing this unit and had little experience with quality separates. Another factor was that those that had "audiophile credentials" kept complaining about high noise levels with this unit when using it in 2 channel mode. On top of all of this, while cosmetics don't usually effect my point of view about unit, build quality does. As such, the Outlaw looks like a cheasily built NAD product from yester-year. Put all of this together and it was enough to turn me off, even if the price was VERY reasonable for all of the features that the unit came standard with.
After all of that, i later found out that the Outlaw is made in the same plant as the Sherbourn and the Atlantic Tech units. Supposedly, the Sherbourn is built to their specs and is quite different in performance from the Outlaw. That is, according to Sherbourn marketing reps. While i can understand Sherbourn's reluctance to specify how / why / what is different about their unit from the Outlaw in terms of internal design, especially since the Sherbourn is WAY more expensive and the differences might not be that great, the fact that the Sherbourn has been relatively well received lends a bit more credibility to its' "sibling", the Outlaw. On the other hand, the Atlantic Tech unit is supposedly identical, yet costs several hundred dollars more than what Outlaw is selling the 950 for.
If you don't mind, i'd like to ask you ( and the others that own / have owned the 950 ) a few questions:
How does the unit perform when running it strictly in 2 channel mode ?
Have you tried using the DAC's within the 950 to replace / bypass the DAC's within your digital source ? If so, how do you think they rank compared to some of the other processors that you've run ?
How would you rank the sensitivity / audio quality of the FM tuner section of this unit ?
How satisfied are you with the bass management options with this unit ?
While i think it does, does this unit provide analog pass-through ? If so, how many inputs can you do this with ?
Thanks for taking the time to post this and listing your thoughts on the various units that you've already owned. Sean ( who is currently running a Sunfire TG II in his HT system )
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My Father was / is interested in the 950, as was i a while back, and i talked him out of it for the same reason that i did not buy one. First of all, i had read WAY too many "horror stories" about poor quality control / units with "quirky operation". Another problem that i had was that most of the people raving about this unit had only used receivers prior to purchasing this unit and had little experience with quality separates. Another factor was that those that had "audiophile credentials" kept complaining about high noise levels with this unit when using it in 2 channel mode. On top of all of this, while cosmetics don't usually effect my point of view about unit, build quality does. As such, the Outlaw looks like a cheasily built NAD product from yester-year. Put all of this together and it was enough to turn me off, even if the price was VERY reasonable for all of the features that the unit came standard with.
After all of that, i later found out that the Outlaw is made in the same plant as the Sherbourn and the Atlantic Tech units. Supposedly, the Sherbourn is built to their specs and is quite different in performance from the Outlaw. That is, according to Sherbourn marketing reps. While i can understand Sherbourn's reluctance to specify how / why / what is different about their unit from the Outlaw in terms of internal design, especially since the Sherbourn is WAY more expensive and the differences might not be that great, the fact that the Sherbourn has been relatively well received lends a bit more credibility to its' "sibling", the Outlaw. On the other hand, the Atlantic Tech unit is supposedly identical, yet costs several hundred dollars more than what Outlaw is selling the 950 for.
If you don't mind, i'd like to ask you ( and the others that own / have owned the 950 ) a few questions:
How does the unit perform when running it strictly in 2 channel mode ?
Have you tried using the DAC's within the 950 to replace / bypass the DAC's within your digital source ? If so, how do you think they rank compared to some of the other processors that you've run ?
How would you rank the sensitivity / audio quality of the FM tuner section of this unit ?
How satisfied are you with the bass management options with this unit ?
While i think it does, does this unit provide analog pass-through ? If so, how many inputs can you do this with ?
Thanks for taking the time to post this and listing your thoughts on the various units that you've already owned. Sean ( who is currently running a Sunfire TG II in his HT system )
>