Difference between 950 and 1066 (1 Viewer)

[Jason Kass]

Hi,
I am building a new home theater (and a new house to go with it)and I am on the 950 waiting (and waiting...)list. Since the house is not quite done yet I have a few weeks to make my decision between the 950 and 1066. I want to know what feature differences there are between the two?
Thanks,
Jason

 

[Andrew Pratt]

The major differences are that the Rotel sounds slightly warmer while the Outlaw is more bright sounding. The Rotel is firmware upgradable while the Outlaw is not. The Rotel is available in black or silver while the Outlaw is only available in black. The Outlaw has a tripple crossover so that you can set seperate crossover points for the mains vs the other speaker while the Rotel is a global crossover. The Rotel allows individual settings per input (bass levels etc) while the Outlaw does not. The Rotel costs approx $1200 to $1400 US while the Outlaw is $900. The Rotel is available right now at any rotel dealer, the Outlaw is only available from Outlaw's website and there's a long waiting list (plus they aren't shipping right now due to a problem with hiss in some units)

That's about the main things, sound wise they are both very good and both offer all the latest processing formats.

 

[Jason Kass]

Hi,
Now when you say the Rotel has individual settings for each input then It remembers them when I switch from DVD to CD , 6.1 to stereo? The 950 does not have this option?
Thanks,
Jason

 

[Eric_Lakes]

Jason,

If you are looking for specs or features, they are available at both manafactures website. If you are looking for sound characteristics... That would depend on your own personal perference. It really comes down to this.

Rotel is a more refined and mature product.
OutLaw is less refined and still needs to mature.

The price you pay for the more refined Rotel is $300-$500.
If you can can live with the minor inconvenences of the Outlaw, then the inconviences are worth the savings. If you dont like to fiddle with your system everytime you turn it on, then $300-$500 for the Rotel is worth the convience.

 

[TomH]

FYI,
We have one "authorized" Rotel dealer in Tucson and I still have not been able to audition the 1066. They will order one for you at list but that is as good as it gets.
Tom

 

[TomH]

Check out the "shootout" review.
http://www.htguide.com/CFBoards/inde...estTimeout=500
Tom

 

[Robert Derouen]

The Rotel costs approx $1200 to $1400 US while the Outlaw is $900.

I've heard this $1200 pricing on another thread, can anyone supply a link or phone number to a dealer willing to sell them for that? I'm very interested if so. If not, to me it's an issue of about a $500-600 difference. As I said on another thread, that puts the Rotel costing approx 1/3 over the 950. Even with the upgradability, I'm wondering if the Rotel actually sounds 1/3 better than the 950 to justify the price. Then again, point me to a $1200 Rotel and I might change my tune.

 

[TomH]

Check out the specs on:

DACS 192 vs 96

Video Bandwidth

 

[Jason Kass]

Hi,
I was actually looking at just the features, I know they sound essentially the same. What kind of firmware upgrades are available? If this just came out, why do you need to upgrade it? What can it upgrade in the future?
Thanks,
Jason

 

[Bill Bradstreet]

I called my local Rotel dealer the other day. He's telling me $1500+ for the RSP-1066. Anyone have any advice regarding getting this down a bit? I'm going to see about more dealers nearby, but can I order this mailorder from somewhere?

 

[Dzung Pham]

A big factor for me was the fact the 950 has a built-in tuner and the Rotel does not. Also, if you are running small speakers and listen to SACD or DVD-A, the 950 offers bass management on it's multichannel analog bypass. On the other hand, if you have 5 full range speakers, you can not avoid double bass on that input without using a crossover. As somebody else mentioned, the 950 also has higher rated bandwidth component video switching.

One of the major advantages of the Rotel is that there are much fewer complaints about hiss. Outlaw is apparently working on this problem.

 

[Jed M]

Since there is really too much to get into I will stick with what I like and dislike about the feature set of the 950 as compared to the 1066. So keep in mind, this is not supposed to be definitive, its just what I find important.

Features I wish I had with the 950 that the Rotel has:
1. Individual settings for each input.
2. Easier subwoofer adjustments.
3. Upgrade-ability (but not huge since its not hardware)

Features I am glad the 950 has that the Rotel does not:
1. HD component switching
2. Triple crossover
3. Simple way to listen to music and watch tv at the same time. (not sure how you do this on the Rotel but another thread lead me to believe it was more complicated, like the subwoofer setting issue on the 950, it can be done but not as easily as the 1066. I may be completely wrong on this and if I am I know somebody will correct me.
4. 192 DACS. (this to me is more for future proofing, but I do like knowing I have top of the line hardware.)
5. Bass Management, although there is now talk about Rotel having it also but I am unsure on that too.
6. Tuner. Yes, I realize I am the only one on earth (literally) that likes the AM reception. It is not going to blow anyone's mind but lets not forget its AM. It comes in fine for sports talk. The FM tuner is actually very nice and I would bet it beats the snot out of any FM tuner in a low priced receiver (which I have heard a few compare it to) in my opinion. Or at least its superior to any tuner I've previously had in a receiver.

So why is it 3 to 6? Simply because I have the 950 and am used to it. Besides two of the 950's features may also be on the Rotel so it could be 3 to 4 for those of you keeping score. I agree that if the 1066 could easily be had for 1200 I think a lot more people would be buying it instead of waiting but the fact is that most Rotel dealers aren't going to negotiate on something they have trouble keeping in the store. I was quoted 1450 in Las Vegas. That was the best I could do but I am a horrible negotiator.

 

[Bill Bradstreet]

I'm going to piggy back with a related question. Can I control both of these units from my computer? I see in the Rotel manual they mention that you can control the 1066 with third-party software.

What third-party software will do this? Will it also work with the 950?

This is a key selling point for me. It will give my wife total access to the stereo from her computer. (or will it?)

 

[Jeff Kohn]

The 1066 has an RS-232 (serial port) interface for control, but you may have to write your own software since I'm not sure if anything exists that you could purchase/download. Rotel has PDF documenting the interface on their website, but I haven't looked at it closely enough to determin how complete the interface is, becuase I don't have the time to mess with it right now.

AFAIK the Outlaw 950 does not have this feature.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

The warmth vs brightness has come up in every single 950 vs 1066 review I've seen and was observed in the review that Erik and Jeff did (see link above)

The Rotels firmware has been upgraded several times aleady but all so far were to adjust the default settings and a few minor things. There is plans for a more major update though. As for its usefullness I point you to the Sony TA-E9000ES since the later firmwares for it had huge gains in performance and added a few new tricks that weren't available when it first came out.

The seperate levels for each input means that you can set different bass levels for each input for example I run my LFE channel slightly hot for movies but tone it done for music.

The Rotel does have an RS232 port so I'm sure that what ever software was available for the previous Rotels would work with the new one though I've never looked into this so its just a guess at this point.

I'll also be looking into the listen to something else while watching a source soon...I'm sure its possible but I never use this feature so even if not it won't concern me.

I was told the Rotel does have bass management on its 5.1 inputs but I've yet to varify that.

 

[Robert Derouen]

Dzung Pham, I don't listen to AM radio but I have a great FM station that is all talk radio about news and politics. I listen to it almost exclusively in my car and I would like it as home as well. My wife likes to have the radio blaring when she cleans house to thats another plus for me for the tuner on the 950. While the tuner factor does not mean much to most people, I figure the more wife-friendly features I can use to justify a purchase the better
Rob

 

[David S]

"The warmth vs brightness has come up in every single 950 vs 1066 review I've seen"

Andrew,

I, on the other hand, have seen reviews mention Rotel = warm, Outlaw = detailed, more forward sounding. I feel concluding "detailed/forward sounding" = brightness is too strong, making it appear to be a negative. Its not! With analog bypass/MSB DAC I've got as much warmth as a sun rise over the Atlantic + the ability to disable the bypass on certain recordings that, to my ears, benefit from the increased detail. For HT/Movies, this detail, especially what I'm getting from my center channel(dialog)is amazing.

Also, its been mentioned over and over here at HTF + other boards, but almost 100% of the users ending up with the Rotel, 1)listened to it and are very pleased with its sound (which is THE only important thing here), BUT 2) seem to either have waited too long on Outlaw, got PO'ed, think the HISS issue is a MAJOR issue (I have it, its not, and I will patiently wait on a fix. I realize on some units it was "MAJOR", but those appear to be in the minority) and now seem to have an ax, and 3)were fortunate enough to listen to both units and make a valued decision.

Point here for Jason is to carefully evaluate the responses here, and over the net (HTT, HTGuide, AVS, etc) cause ALOT of the negatives on the 950 are unwarranted and very uninformative.

 

[Serge Breton]

the 1/3rd price difference is a drawback especially if your local dealer won't budge on the 1066 pricing. My local Michigan dealer will simply no go below $1500 (full retail) but yet my not so local Canadian dealer has them, will give me a discount but after the 15% tax is added to the price, the unit costs about the same as the full US retail price. Anyone in Michigan have any luck with this Rotel dealer (there's only two that i know of), the salesman seemed kinda "snooty" to me. Don't get me wrong, i know the Rotel is worth the $1500 and of couse the salesman also knows this but it always helps to find/get a discount
All in all, i'm pleased with my 950 for surround processing and analog passthrough only. When listening to music using the 950's DAC's i find that there is a compromise in my system. This of course is due mainly to the quality of the DAC's in my cd player so if you have a quality cd/sacd/dvd-audio player than using this players internal DAC's vs the Outlaws should yield an improvement.
If only the Outlaw had discrete codes then for me it would be a keeper. For me this is a major difference between these two processors; home automation is key in today's higher end home theaters so obviously in my view at least, the lack of discrete codes on the 950 is a big disappointment. Right now i'm stuck in between the Rotel and the Outlaw. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Daivd please don't feel like I was putting down the outlaws sound at all. Warmth vs brightness are subjective terms and which is better depends entirely on the user, the room and the gear...its all about synergy.

Serge I might be able to help you with your rotel problem if you'd like me to ask my dealer?

 

[David S]

Thats cool Andrew. I was just a little cranky about things/or maybe from a post over at the Outlaw forum stating a review/(actually a side by side to the Anthem)of the 950 was done/results were communicated as "positive" simply to "reassure the Outlaw faithful as to its merits". Gee thanks! Oh well, I think I'll sign off now and go and listen to some "drek" two channel performance through my 950 :b