Outlaw 976
- Thread starter heeman
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MakeMineVinyl
Well-Known Member
Chasing video and audio formats these days is a fool's errand, and I'm sure manufacturers are counting on there being enough fools so that they can keep pumping out the must-have improvements. That, coupled with a rah-rah cheerleading audio/video press for the next new thing, and you have a never ending money-making machine - or so they hope. Remember 3D?
MakeMineVinyl
Well-Known Member
The major benefit of class D is that it is more power efficient and much cheaper to make than class A/B. Sonically, it is no better and frequently not as good. Class D can never be "better" than class A or A/B since those classes are already close to being perfect analogs of the original signal, and you can't get better than that.
That's an attractive unit for the price, for someone like me who's not planning atmos, but may want 4K pass-through and quality analog output, without needing all the fancy-schmancy audio/video processing that e.g. the Onkyo 885/886 does - and which most of us would never use.
Dentman
Well-Known Member
Would you put one in a "crytical" listening environment? Choosing only between it class A/B, and B, not class A (Tube).
I guess I should categorize "Crytical" listening to mean not something as alaberate as you have but something most of us would have for a dedicated music room with possible double duty movie watching. Emphasis on 2-ch audio though.
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
Looks like a great product at a super price - for anyone who will be satisfied by its feature set.
I read through the owner's manual and four things caught my eye (everything else is pretty much what you'd expect.) (And by-the-by, Outlaw continues to write / produce the world's best owners' manuals! - says someone who has previously contributed edits to one of them.)
1. To be consistent with my opinion stated in another thread, this is NOT a 7.2 unit. It is 7.1. The sub outputs are identical and that there are two of them is no different than having one and using a "y" splitter. In fact they suggest, in the manual, that if you want to use more than two subs (they recommend four as an option) to use two "y" splitters - one on each jack. It would have been cool if they'd allowed for, say, true stereo sub operation in the case of taking a stereo input and bass managing each channel separately and sending that to a dedicated sub output. Perhaps not audibly different in almost any situation with almost any source material - but cool nevertheless. (You just know that if it were so, and I owned one, that the first song I'd spin would be Tove Lo's Talking Body, with it's way way low stereo bass!)
2. It does not have Bluetooth. It has a Bluetooth-ready set of connections for an optional plug in module. For now that module is included in one of their special deals.
3. I like the addition of two (2) USB 5V jacks on the back panel for charging devices. One on the front would have been nice however.
4. It does not have a phono input / pre-amp. I see this as a big marketing gaffe given the surging popularity of vinyl and especially vinyl-capable gear. Sure all the established high-enders will already have their own matched pre-amps to go along with their pricy turntables and cartridges, but this processor is not aimed at that crowd (as far as I can tell.) It should have had a phono input - ideally with a MM/MC switch.
Jeff
I read through the owner's manual and four things caught my eye (everything else is pretty much what you'd expect.) (And by-the-by, Outlaw continues to write / produce the world's best owners' manuals! - says someone who has previously contributed edits to one of them.)
1. To be consistent with my opinion stated in another thread, this is NOT a 7.2 unit. It is 7.1. The sub outputs are identical and that there are two of them is no different than having one and using a "y" splitter. In fact they suggest, in the manual, that if you want to use more than two subs (they recommend four as an option) to use two "y" splitters - one on each jack. It would have been cool if they'd allowed for, say, true stereo sub operation in the case of taking a stereo input and bass managing each channel separately and sending that to a dedicated sub output. Perhaps not audibly different in almost any situation with almost any source material - but cool nevertheless. (You just know that if it were so, and I owned one, that the first song I'd spin would be Tove Lo's Talking Body, with it's way way low stereo bass!)
2. It does not have Bluetooth. It has a Bluetooth-ready set of connections for an optional plug in module. For now that module is included in one of their special deals.
3. I like the addition of two (2) USB 5V jacks on the back panel for charging devices. One on the front would have been nice however.
4. It does not have a phono input / pre-amp. I see this as a big marketing gaffe given the surging popularity of vinyl and especially vinyl-capable gear. Sure all the established high-enders will already have their own matched pre-amps to go along with their pricy turntables and cartridges, but this processor is not aimed at that crowd (as far as I can tell.) It should have had a phono input - ideally with a MM/MC switch.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff. None of those things would affect or bother me, but good to know about. This is the sort of unit I'd seriously look at if my current (~8yo) TV or my even older 885 were to die. Crossing fingers that won't happen soon... But I like outlaw's apparently fairly minimalist approach.
Those powered USB jacks on the back can come in handy for things like FireTV or Chromecast sticks. HDMI 2.2 and eARC don't matter unless your display (or soon to be future display) support them. No phono is an odd choice, as is no 7.2. Atmos isn't practical for most folks without dedicated rooms, but their target audience is the enthusiast crowd and that might limit the appeal. For that money, you'd be better off getting last year's flagship receiver as a refurb at an insane discount. This preamp is $100 more than I paid for my SR-6010 and I wouldn't make that trade.
I find this product fascinating, but there isn't anything on it that I need which I cannot get today from my current pre/pro. Maybe when I buy a 4K HDR TV for my HT I will sing a different tune, but right now it wouldn't make any difference.
HDMI newest spec looks great, so that might push me to upgrade in a year or so.
HDMI newest spec looks great, so that might push me to upgrade in a year or so.
Meh... I would be constantly bothered by there being an amp in there that's not even used - since my amps, even my crossover, are external.
My power amp is 170x5 and my receiver is 110x7. I run the front three off the amp and the back four off the receiver. Dividing the load across the two amps gives me more headroom, while keeping the more critical front three on the Class A/B amp.
What amp do you have?
Marantz MM-9000.