N. Abstentia
05-05-2006, 05:19 PM
My Outlaw Audio 990 pre/pro arrived today, much props to both Outlaw (for shipping it same day after my afternoon order) and FedEx Ground (for delivery a 'day' early..it was scheduled for Monday delivery).
Good packaging, no need to go into details. It's a box. It works!
Of course the first thing you notice when unpacking something is the build quality. This baby is put together nicely. Real nice. It's solid, does not rattle when you hit it, and just feels really good. It's very heavy for a preamp, obviously not as heavy as a receiver but it's got some serious heft.
This unit is HUGE! I's a good 3" taller than my Onkyo receiver and a little deeper. You might want to measure if you plan to put this in a rack. But for me, it's not a problem.
The layout on the back is roomy, one advantage to it's height. Plenty of room for cables, and room to get fingers in.
Hookup was straight forward, no surprises there.
Setup was a breeze. Plug in the supplied microphone, run the auto setup, and it's done. Speaker size, distance, everything is done for you. However, the tweaker in me will do this by ear.
The menu system is very simplistic and straightforward, giving you only what you really need. My Onkyo had pages and pages of menus with all kinds of settings. Navigating the menu is a snap and it's impossible to get lost. There is a main menu, then each option under that is just one page. You can't get lost going from page to page because there is just one page!
It didn't take long to get all my video inputs mapped to the correct digital inputs and get it up and running. It works great so far.
I have not had a lot of time to sit down and do critical listening, but so far I'm impressed with the sound quality. I didn't expect a huge difference from my Onkyo but it does seem a little cleaner, maybe just a little brighter.
The multi-channel input is not working quite to my liking yet, my SACD channel levels are all out of whack which should not be since that's handled by the player. Probably just needs more time and attention to get ironed out.
In time, I will mess with the audio upconversion and bypass modes, as well as testing the DAC's against my Marantz DV-6400.
When I upgraded my Nakamichi AV-10 to the Onkyo 898 I had severly outgrown the Nak. I needed multi channel analog inputs, component video inputs, Zone 2, and more audio inputs. The Onkyo gave me all that, but I kind of missed the simplicity of the Nak. I also think the Nak sounded a hair better, but not a major difference. Overall, my Onkyo has been a top notch receiver and if it had more component video inputs and video upconversion I probably wouldn't bother to upgrade.
So, I have barely outgrown the Onkyo. The only input I really need that it does not have is 1 more component video input. So going with this Outlaw pre/pro is more about getting a proper modern preamp (I've been using the Onkyo as a preamp for a while so adding amps is a moot point) with a few more inputs. It also has DVI for future expansion. The video upconversion works flawlessly, and I really feel that it will bring me back to the sound quality and straight forward-ness of my old old Nakamichi AV-10.
So far, so good. This baby is feature rich, and if you're looking to upgrade to a pre/pro don't hesitate if you need the extra features the Outlaw has. But for me, my Onkyo did 90% of the stuff the Outlaw does (plus I used it's internal amp for zone 2) so I need to decide those convenience features and extra inputs are worth $1100 to me. If I didn't already have a top notch receiver, the Outlaw would be a no-brainer. It's phenomenal. I just need more time with it to decide if I'm going to keep it. I probably will, unless I run into something that changes my mind.
So far, here's the main good points it has over my Onkyo receiver:
-Video upconversion. Any component or s-video source is output through component automatically.
-3 component inputs. I'd actually like to have 2 more just to be on the safe side, but 3 is all I really need right now.
-Seperate remote for zone 2. Nice touch.
-Auto setup via supplied microphone. Another nice touch.
-It also has a phono preamp (my Onkyo does too, but not many pre/pro's have them if you're looking for one)
I do miss two things that my Onkyo has that the Outlaw does not:
-Individual source level controls. My Onkyo allows me to adjust the level of each source, like if DirecTV is twice as loud as DVD, turn that input down. I miss this, but I can get over it. The 'audiophile' in me wants to say that this 'waters down' the audio signal since it goes through that level adjustment processor.
-Front panel dimming. The screen is BRIGHT! It can be set to turn off after a specified amount of time, but I'd like to just see a dimmer added. I don't mind it being on, but I'd like to just have it dim.
I will hopefully get a chance to spend some quality time with it this weekend. But so far, I'm impressed. It's pretty much what I expected, which is a good thing!
Good packaging, no need to go into details. It's a box. It works!
Of course the first thing you notice when unpacking something is the build quality. This baby is put together nicely. Real nice. It's solid, does not rattle when you hit it, and just feels really good. It's very heavy for a preamp, obviously not as heavy as a receiver but it's got some serious heft.
This unit is HUGE! I's a good 3" taller than my Onkyo receiver and a little deeper. You might want to measure if you plan to put this in a rack. But for me, it's not a problem.
The layout on the back is roomy, one advantage to it's height. Plenty of room for cables, and room to get fingers in.
Hookup was straight forward, no surprises there.
Setup was a breeze. Plug in the supplied microphone, run the auto setup, and it's done. Speaker size, distance, everything is done for you. However, the tweaker in me will do this by ear.
The menu system is very simplistic and straightforward, giving you only what you really need. My Onkyo had pages and pages of menus with all kinds of settings. Navigating the menu is a snap and it's impossible to get lost. There is a main menu, then each option under that is just one page. You can't get lost going from page to page because there is just one page!
It didn't take long to get all my video inputs mapped to the correct digital inputs and get it up and running. It works great so far.
I have not had a lot of time to sit down and do critical listening, but so far I'm impressed with the sound quality. I didn't expect a huge difference from my Onkyo but it does seem a little cleaner, maybe just a little brighter.
The multi-channel input is not working quite to my liking yet, my SACD channel levels are all out of whack which should not be since that's handled by the player. Probably just needs more time and attention to get ironed out.
In time, I will mess with the audio upconversion and bypass modes, as well as testing the DAC's against my Marantz DV-6400.
When I upgraded my Nakamichi AV-10 to the Onkyo 898 I had severly outgrown the Nak. I needed multi channel analog inputs, component video inputs, Zone 2, and more audio inputs. The Onkyo gave me all that, but I kind of missed the simplicity of the Nak. I also think the Nak sounded a hair better, but not a major difference. Overall, my Onkyo has been a top notch receiver and if it had more component video inputs and video upconversion I probably wouldn't bother to upgrade.
So, I have barely outgrown the Onkyo. The only input I really need that it does not have is 1 more component video input. So going with this Outlaw pre/pro is more about getting a proper modern preamp (I've been using the Onkyo as a preamp for a while so adding amps is a moot point) with a few more inputs. It also has DVI for future expansion. The video upconversion works flawlessly, and I really feel that it will bring me back to the sound quality and straight forward-ness of my old old Nakamichi AV-10.
So far, so good. This baby is feature rich, and if you're looking to upgrade to a pre/pro don't hesitate if you need the extra features the Outlaw has. But for me, my Onkyo did 90% of the stuff the Outlaw does (plus I used it's internal amp for zone 2) so I need to decide those convenience features and extra inputs are worth $1100 to me. If I didn't already have a top notch receiver, the Outlaw would be a no-brainer. It's phenomenal. I just need more time with it to decide if I'm going to keep it. I probably will, unless I run into something that changes my mind.
So far, here's the main good points it has over my Onkyo receiver:
-Video upconversion. Any component or s-video source is output through component automatically.
-3 component inputs. I'd actually like to have 2 more just to be on the safe side, but 3 is all I really need right now.
-Seperate remote for zone 2. Nice touch.
-Auto setup via supplied microphone. Another nice touch.
-It also has a phono preamp (my Onkyo does too, but not many pre/pro's have them if you're looking for one)
I do miss two things that my Onkyo has that the Outlaw does not:
-Individual source level controls. My Onkyo allows me to adjust the level of each source, like if DirecTV is twice as loud as DVD, turn that input down. I miss this, but I can get over it. The 'audiophile' in me wants to say that this 'waters down' the audio signal since it goes through that level adjustment processor.
-Front panel dimming. The screen is BRIGHT! It can be set to turn off after a specified amount of time, but I'd like to just see a dimmer added. I don't mind it being on, but I'd like to just have it dim.
I will hopefully get a chance to spend some quality time with it this weekend. But so far, I'm impressed. It's pretty much what I expected, which is a good thing!