02/02 Outlaw1

February 2002

Some Observations from a Beta Tester
(Pictures follow text)

I was chosen to be a beta tester for the new Outlaw 950 and, on January 31, 2002, this unit arrived for installation. Since so many people have been asking me so many questions about this unit I have chosen to put together this small article to describe the experience.

First of all, let me explain the beta testing process a bit, at least in terms of the Outlaw 950. This highly anticipated product was created in a marketplace which is a constantly moving target. Before the ink was dry on the first press releases regarding the 950 new sound modes were being made available. One such example was Dolby Prologic 2 (DPL2). In addition, since Outlaw uses a variety of sources for their components, various manufacturers were constantly upgrading their software. In an attempt to try to produce as current a unit as possible, the Outlaws kept pushing back the release date of the 950 until it reached the point where the delays were overshadowing the product itself. For full details on how this scenario played itself out I refer you to the Outlaw Audio web site here.

In any event, by the end of 2001 the product features had been finalized and the 950 entered the "alpha" phase of testing which involves a lot of sophisticated checking of the hardware, the software and everything else associated with the device in a clinical situation. By the end of January, 2002, Outlaw Audio felt confident enough to release a very limited amount of units (less than 5, I believe) for Beta testing. I was fortunate enough to receive the first unit out of Alpha. In fact, in some ways I believe my unit was a bit "pre-beta" since I was given a temporary remote (the remotes were still being manufactured but this was a fully functional mockup with the keys identified with paper labels). In addition, I was told that the AM/FM tuner in the unit had already been replaced by one with greater sensitivity and fidelity. One last "gotcha" was that the manual was still in the process of being written so I was asked if I would be comfortable checking out a piece of equipment with no reference materials or instructions whatsoever. Since Outlaw was anxious to get some in home reaction to this product they were willing to send me the unit "as is" but fully functional to avoid further delay. My test unit would eventually be replaced with a brand new production unit (with manual) somewhere down the line if that was o.k. with me. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to play with the first 950!

So on the morning of January 31, 2002 a box arrived by courier and I immediately set out to run the 950 through its paces. This is not as easy a task as it might first appear. I planned to remove my Denon 5700 receiver from its current position on my rack located on the bottom shelf (so that I can see the mode and volume displays below the screen). I planned on moving all the pre/pro functions over to the 950 but keep on using the 5700's amp stages (4 of them) to power my surround speakers for now. This is not a five minute task. There were over 100 connections on the back of the Denon and it took me the good part of five hours to label everything, disconnect, shuffle and reconnect my equipment. About another hour or so, once the connections were made, to go through all the setup menus and to map all the digital inputs to their respective components (remember, I was doing this by the seat of my pants with no instruction manual), a little balancing of the speaker output with a sound meter and I was ready to go. Incidentally, even without a manual the menu items were extremely intuitive. Being from the school of "RTFM" being a final option I felt right at home! <g>

Before I get into specifics, what was the bottom line? Without a doubt, the 950 performed much better than the 5700 as a pre/pro, even in modes where they have common functionality. The difference was not just a subtle one (remember, the Denon 5700 is a highly regarded component) but easily noticed. Those of you who have read my comments on my Home Theater Site regarding my feelings regarding the small but noticeable improvement in sound when I went from receiver amplification to mono blocks for my front sound stage will recall that I said the improvement there was small but significant to me. This time, however, the leap forward in overall audio performance is a much bigger one. Across the board the sound was cleaner, more distinct, and richer - you name the adjective, it probably applies. The 950's performance, especially at its price point, is astonishing.

Let me give you a concrete example from my perspective. Some of you may recall that I love to listen to SACD 2 channel music. In fact, when I first added Marantz Mono blocks to my system to replace the internal amps of my receiver for the front channels I used this medium to listen to the improved sound. One track in particular that I keep coming back to again and again (and that I returned to once more during my beta testing of the 950) was Jacintha's "Moon River" from her Autumn Leaves SACD (Groove Note GRV1006-3). This track (#10) contains a crystal clear a capella soundtrack that can be quite revealing. As I listened to this track late at night I thought I heard something I had never heard before (and I'm very familiar with this track). At around the 2:00 minute mark of the song there seemed to be a bit of music in the background. At first it reminded me of the days of tape when occasionally "print through" would cause some sounds to be transferred from one layer of the recording tape to another and show up as background sound. But then I realized that the music in the background was in sync with Jacintha's singing. (Print through sounds and music are usually more random than that). It finally dawned on me - what I was listening to was the music from her headphones! She was using musical queues to stay on tune so that when the piano joined in a bit later she would be on key. And the 950 was reproducing this! I was floored.

I could give you example after example where very familiar sounds - from CD's, from SACD's, from DVD's, from LD's, etc. took on new life when processed through the 950. I felt much the same way as I did when I added an SVS subwoofer to my HT. Now I was going to have to watch and listen to a huge amount of media once again. Thanks, Outlaw (I think!) Even with no manual and a paste-up remote and a tuner that will be upgraded by me later this product is a keeper.

A few other impressions to anticipate some general questions. The fit and finish of the 950 is very nice. While some people might not be in love with the Outlaw logo (I have no feelings on this one way or another) this has absolutely nothing at all to do with how the 950 performs. It appears to be a ruggedly built unit. Those familiar with the Outlaw ICBM may know what I'm talking about. And the inside of the unit looks very professional as well. Other people who know a lot more about this than I do assure me that the components are top grade ones. No cost cutting here that I can notice. Remember, beta testing does not involve bench testing, but real world home testing so I will not make any comments on specifications, etc. That is best left to lab reports and reviews which I'm sure will be in abundance. I can only relate anecdotal information such as that I've heard that a good number of engineers for companies supplying the components, having seen the construction of the 950 for its price point are interested in a unit for themselves.

Speaking of the Outlaw ICBM, the 950 does include bass management for a single set of 5.1 inputs (like a DVD-Audio or an SACD multichannel player.) However, if you have a need for bass management for more than one such analog source like I do (DVD-A and SACD-A) there is a simple solution. Simply add an Outlaw ICBM between the pre/pro output and the amplifier input stage and this will assure that the subwoofer is in the mix in all needed modes.

And what about the flexibility of the 950? It should be much more than adequate for all but the most sophisticated HT needs. When I first moved all the connections from the Denon 5700 to the 950 I discovered that the 5700 actually has more connections. In other words, I had some wires left over. However this is not a big a deal as it might first appear, especially since the features and performance of the 950 are far greater than that of the 5700. For example, there is no phono input as there is on the 5700, but an external phono pre-amp connected to one of the two AUX inputs will solve that. Besides, I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've used my turntable over the past few years, although the way that some of the processing modes of the 950 breathe new life into straight stereo sources may make me want to rethink this. In addition, there is no RF input (for the AC-3 output from an LD player with such capability). Once again, this doesn't affect me as much as I first thought it would. For one thing, my DTS LD's still work fine via the digital output of the LD Player. (Incidentally, the DTS track on LD's through the 950 is astounding.) Additionally, the presence of DPL2 and how great it makes the regular PCM track of LD's sound doesn't make me miss an AC-3 soundtrack at all. Besides, if I really needed it I could always get an RF converter. In this case I don't miss inclusion of an RF input in the 950.
There are the same number of digital inputs as my Denon 5700 (6) although they are configured a bit differently (4 optical and 2 coaxial unlike 5 optical and 1 coaxial on the Denon). There are also two digital outputs (1 optical and 1 coaxial.) There are five video inputs (which include S-Video, composite and L/R audio) only one of which (VCR) also has video outputs (the Denon had 2 sources with video output jacks.) However, there are also four audio only inputs in addition labeled CD, TAPE, AUX1 and AUX2 for a total of ten input devices were audio can be controlled. The TAPE input also has TAPE output audio jacks for anything that requires a tape loop. There is component switching for two sets of inputs (Y/Pb/Pr) to one set of component outputs. I could go on and on about these jacks and how they differ in number and function from those found on other units but that doesn't serve any universal purpose here. Besides, most if not all of this information is or will be available from other sources. Also, remember that I was working without a reference manual so I might shortchange some of the other functions that I might have overlooked. For example there are DC trigger and External Remote minijacks for what are termed "MAIN" and "ZONE." And the usual complement of FM75ohm and AM antenna connectors (although as indicated earlier I didn't test the tuner and won't until I get the newer model which will be found in production units.)

The remote is blue back lighted and functional, but I can't give you any final comments on the one shipped with marketed 950's since mine was a prototype. I don't expect any problem on this score. I was able to transfer control to my Pronto remote with no trouble and to program some macros to set up the 950 with the most commonly used functions. The POWER switch actually is a POWER OFF switch. (A hard ON/OFF switch is found on the back of the 950 for complete control.) To power on the unit you simply select any function (DVD, VCR, VIDEO 1, etc.) Therefore discrete codes for Pronto macros work seamlessly.
As mentioned previously, without the luxury of a manual it is hard to be sure that I've discovered all the gems buried within the 950. I've gone through all the menus and have, by trial and error, found most of the parameters. For example, there are selectable crossover points for the speakers, front, center and surround of 40, 60, 80, 120 and 150Hz. If there are some hidden menu controls that provide even greater flexibility I await the manual for guidance. There are many different modes available and many of these have adjustable parameters as well.

For Dolby there is Dolby D, Dolby EX, DPL2 Cinema, DPL2 Music, DPL2 Emulation Mode, DPL2 3ST and DPL2 Phantom. Within Dolby you can activate a "night" mode which varies from No Compensation through DR Comp 1 -> 4 (Which I imagine is like the old "loudness" control - at least in theory if not in implementation). Also, DPL2 has settable parameters for Panorama, Dimension and C Width. I hope to find the time to learn more about DPL2 in the future. Like I said, a manual and some theory will help me here for the ultimate fine tuning.

On the DTS side of things there is DTS, DTS-ES, and the "Neo6" DTS modes: C6, C5, C3, M6 and M5. For STEREO you have a choice of STEREO, 5 STEREO and 7 STEREO. And the 950 even features its own 7.1 surround modes - PL2C-CES and PL2M-CES. CES stands for "Cirrus Extra Surround." The CES algorithm processes the surround channels (Ls and Rs) to produce the extra surround channels (BsL and BsR) using proprietary matrix techniques developed by Cirrus Logic. In addition, you have analog bypass for all sources as well as the direct analog bypass with bass management for the separate set of analog 5.1 inputs.

For those wondering what else is involved in beta testing, be aware that with a piece of equipment this complicated there are some minor glitches that inevitably make their way through at this stage and must be dealt with. In no case has anything that has been discovered compromised the performance of the 950 - at least not to my ears. One quick example of such a "glitch:" It was discovered, and verified by me and others, that if you tell the 950 you have 5 speakers and choose an analog input, no sound would come through the 950. Interestingly, I might never have found this under normal circumstances since I have 7 speakers + SW and most of my inputs are digital choices. Also, you could work around this glitch by telling the 950 you had 7 speakers if, in fact, you really have five and the sound would be fine. However, in the interest of getting everything right this information was conveyed to the programmers and the code was adjusted (probably just a byte or two, if that) and will be in the final release.

One other observation about separates such as the 950 and others, as opposed to the pre/pro sections of most receivers. A dedicated pre/pro is generally far more sophisticated and performs a lot more things behind the scenes, so to speak, than a receiver. There is a lot of auto sensing of signals, etc. and there is some timing involved. It took me a while to get used to the slight delay when the 950 locked onto a source since I was accustomed to my 5700 but this quickly became a non-issue. Besides, I've been spending some time on forums where some of the highest priced pre/pros are discussed and this issue - a time delay processing certain modes - is a hotbed of discussion in units costing 10 times more than the 950. So this is not unique to the 950 but is part of this new world to me.

The most important thing to me is that nothing that I have found compromises the sound of the 950. You'll hear (if you haven't already) from people who have owned other pre/pros and in many cases they'll tell you that the 950 outperforms units costing several times more. And it holds its own with the really expensive pre/pros - especially in the area of sound which to me is paramount. Of course you won't get the total signal processing flexibility of a Lexicon (I wouldn't expect that at the price) but the sound you get is much closer than you might expect based on the cost of the 950. To me the world of separates with quality sound has now been brought into the mainstream. Just as my Sony VW10HT made high quality HT video affordable to many more people when it was released, I consider that the 950 does the same for the audio portion of the program. Where the price/performance ratio is important (as it is to most of us) such products take center stage.

Some Pictures and Comments

Click on single pictures for a closer look at individual frames

Outlaw 950

Outlaw 950

Outlaw 950

Outlaw 950

Some Helpful Links and Information

(use your BACK button to return to this page)

Outlaw Audio Home Page	Information about equipment, manuals, news, etc.
Model 950 Manual	For further reference
What about Component Switching Bandwidth?	Very pertinent when considering whether or not your equipment is capable of switching component inputs. Some myths dispelled.
Speaker Wire Length and Time Delay Issues	An interesting presentation of the difference between theory and reality. Some food for thought.