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Review 5 of 39
Price Paid:
$699.00
from Outlaw Summary:
I've had the 950/7100 combo for about three weeks now, and have but a few complaints, and even those are extremely minor. This is the third unit I've demo'd in a search for a replacement of my Denon 2800, the first two being the latest Denon 2805 (I ventured a guess that if the 2805 wasn't cutting it, the 3805 would be much the same) and a Rotel 1056. I've submitted a review on each of those in their own section.
Anyway, back to the 950. I basically found out about it by a comment in a magazine and checking the reviews posted here. The $1,500 special (combo deal with the 7100) wasn't a huge stretch from the $1,170 I was willing to spend on the Rotel, so I took a shot on it.
My first initial thoughts once I took delivery was that the components were as advertised, pretty plain and the amp was a chunk (around 50 pounds). Once I plugged everything in my second thought was that I had purchased a piece of crap, in that the sound was awful. Very thin and quite unbearable (this was not nearly the case while demoing the brand new Denon and Rotel), but I figured I was already into it by $135 for shipping (30 day free trial period), so I prayed burn-in would remedy the problem. Sure enough, after 4-5 hours of running, things started to clear up, and after a day I couldn't believe the difference over the other units. Even without a direct a/b comparison, I could tell this setup was leaps and bounds better. Soundstaging was better (where extreme "toe-in" of the speakers was necessary before with prior units, it isn't with this setup), reproduction was leaps and bounds clearer, and finally playback in 2 channel bybass mode off my cd player was incredible (no more harshness).
In home theatre mode, these components are every bit as incredible. There's no comparison to this unit with respects to the Rotel 1056, in any regard as far as I'm concerned, and I liked the Rotel. The obvious power/reproduction advantage of a separate amp is obviously apparant with the Outlaw setup.
My only complaints with the 950 pertain first to the remote, and second to flexibility as far as settings. The remote is no doubt cheap, even if it's the same one offered with other companies units at 3 times the price. Of all the remotes I've dealt with, this one's the cheapest. Secondly, flexibility with remembering custom settings is lacking. Selecting bypass every time I want to listen to the cd player is annoying, and the fact that you can't customize speaker levels and tone for each source is pretty poor for such a component. I'm sure these things will probably be addressed if Outlaw comes out with a replacement for the 950, but overall they're definitely "livable" problems in light of all you gain.
For reference, my setup consists of:
Rotel RCD 1070 with PS Audio Lab cable
Toshiba SD 9000 DVD
Monitor Audio Silver 9's
Monitor Audio Silver 10 Center
Monitor Audio FB110 Sub
Audioquest Bedrock bi-wire spkr cables
Tributaries Interconnects
Shunyata Research Hydra 4 Strengths:
Soundstage, clarity, power, smoothness, price (nothing can beat it, just ask any honest dealer). Weaknesses:
Remote
Lack of custom settings for each source unit. Similar Products Used:
Denon 2800 and 2805
Rotel 1056
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