More 950 clones on the way? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Pratt]

But both Sony and Marantz have yet to update their prepros in over 3 years

Well not exactly Sony has offered firmware upgrades to their pre pro unlike Marantz

Also someone above said what if speaker manufactures did this? They do! API is the parent company of Sound Dynamics, Energy and Mirage and they all share some componets from the other's line...Energy had the TAke 5 that everyone raved about but Mirage also had a VERY similar design out at the same time.

 

[Legairre]

Even though all the 950 clones appear to be the same unit. We'll also be getting pre/pros from Sherwood and Rotel soon(Ok,the Sherwood isn't until Sept.). With all the sub $2K pre/pros coming out within the next 6 months. Manufacturers with 3K units might finally start to pay us some respect and start producing cheaper units. This could be a good year for reasonably priced pre/pros.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Acurus didn't go "belly up" .
Acurus is made by Mondial Designs, who also makes Aragon. Klipsch bought Mondial Designs. The Acurus name has been semi-retired so they can focus on Aragon.
BTW, there is now an upgrade available for the ACT 3 which supposedly brings it sonically into the new Aragon Soundstage territory. (Not ABM, something even newer.)
There has been rumors of a TA-E10ES from Sony, and an AV9200 from Marantz. But, looks like Outlaw is going to make *a lot* of money because everything else is so late.
A newer Parasound pre/pro would be nice to see too.

 

[Mike H]

I'm just wondering if I'll be able to order a power button in something other than green. That and the silk screening are the only real differences I can see.
Mike

 

[Will]

Any pictures of the Sherbourn pre/pro? I see pix of the AT pre/pro, but not the Sherbourn pre/pro.

 

[Legairre]

Will,
Scroll down on the link. The 2nd pic is of the Sherbourn. I saw your post in another thread about the noise floor of the Rotel pre/pro. I emailed Rotel today. They said the S/N is 95db and weren't aware of any problem with the noise floor on the 1066. I don't think they would tell me if there was a problem, but I did ask.
http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2.../page_02.shtml

 

[Will]

Ah! Very cool. The AT pre/pro and amp are here
and the Sherbourn pre/pro and amp are there

 

[John Morris]

They said the S/N is 95db and weren't aware of any problem with the noise floor on the 1066. I don't think they would tell me if there was a problem, but I did ask.

Legairre: Rotel makes some nice stuff and I'm sure that any problems will be solved on the 1066 before they release it. They made the mistake of releasing a previous pre/pro with a noise problem and it died on the dealer floors and on the review pages. I don't think they'd make that mistake again.

 

[Legairre]

merc,

I remeber listening to the Rotel RSP-976 last year. I wasn't to impressed with the sound. To me my receiver sounded just as good. I'm hoping the new pre/pro has better sound. I'll have to take it home along with the AT or Sherbourn(depending on the price). I'm dying to know how the Rotel stands up next the the Outlaw clones. It sounds like the Outlaw is one hell of a unit.

 

[John Tompkins]

OK, I been dying to say this since the CLONE thread started.
To all you outlaw CLONES out there "WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE"
Romie is going to lay some serious SMACK down on the issue. My take on this is, if the other companies want to clone the outlaw, more power to them, I havent been what you call an outlaw fan..but I think this will HELP outlaw more then hurt them.If the other clones do sell and sell good for 2000.00 or so,,then of course Outlaw reaps dittos from every side..consumers,retailers,oem the works..IM OUT
PS..Jim Romes an idiot, but I like him

 

[Michael Yung]

It's hard to imagine how the other manufacturers expect to make money on cloning the Outlaw 950. The only angle I can think of are customers who are not online and does not know the Outlaw brand name b/c Outlaw does not have a retail presence. But if I was one of these customers and at a later time found out that I pay twice as much I would be very upset! For crying out loud, the three preamps looks exactly the same! AT and Sherbourn should have at least change the butt ugly faceplate if they are going to charge so much more. I just don't get it.

 

[John Morris]

It's hard to imagine how the other manufacturers expect to make money on cloning the Outlaw 950.

Michael: Just take a look at SVS. Even with how successful they have been for a few years now, and all the good reviews they've received, their market share is still probably a small one compared to companies like Velodyne. Not everyone is as internet savvy as you are. It is not unusual at all to talk to a B&M owner who has never heard of SVS... or is it just that they are in denial?Folks will buy the AT and Sherbourn from dealers at full MSRP and believe that they got a fantastic deal, without ever knowing about the Outlaw 950.

 

[Pete Mazz]

Reminds me of an old comic.

One guy at the food processing plant training a new guy at the assembly line.

Caption:

"When you run out of the cat food labels, start putting on the liver pate` ones."

Pete

 

[Jim_C]

We all know that the AT P-2000 is a clone of the 950. Is the matching A-2000 amp also a clone? I assume that it is. If so, does anyone know what it's a clone of?

 

[MatthewJ S]

I am always suspicious of companies that use too many OEM parts, or have their products assembled by others...While vifa,focal, ss.,etc all make WONDERFUL drivers/tweeters for some companies, we all know that it isn't ussually these quality parts that brand"x" is buying to put in their $1,000 pair of speakers. And while organ and furniture manufacturers may be able to build a good box, it isn't their name that's going on it ,either. WHILE some audio manufacturers often used toshiba and panny parts for their early version dvd players (until they could set up new production facilities) they usually beefed-up the audio performances.I would look to see if any of these companies take the basic "framework" and beef it up sonically...and if these companies don't start to mnfgr these items themselves (eventually) then ask "why"? Q.C. STARTS AT HOME,

AND THE SUBCONTRACTOR RARELY CARES AS MUCH ABOUT IT AS THE GUY WHOSE NAME IS ON IT (UNLESS HE'S JUST A MONEY-HUNGRY FREAK CASHING IN ON HIS NAME);>;>;>;>;>;>

 

[BruceD]

I think everyones got the wrong idea about this clone/OEM thing.

I think the deal is that "Eastech" is the main part of this OEM equation and all the other HT companies offering this prepro are essentially contracting through "Eastech" for any small changes and maybe manufacturing using the same basic design as Outlaw.

This mirrors what I used to do in the LAN hardware business, trade away rights for the design of a product for better cost structure on the manufacturing.

 

[BruceD]

I think these reviews have brought to the surface the importance of S/N to the quality of the sound reproduction.

I've found with various components in my system that quality sound certainly depends on a good S/N ratio to extract all the detail from the source.

The AVM-20 has a S/N of 110dB for analog, 102dB for digital.

The Ref-30 has a S/N of 89dB.

The Lexicon DC-1 has a S/N of 90dB.

The Lexicon MC-1 has a S/N of 105dB.

The Lexicon MC-12 has a S/N of 111dB.

Here is what Rotel says about somne of their products:

RSX-1065 HT receiver with Crystal processors

S/N Ratio IHF A weighted

Stereo 95 dB

RSX-972 HT Receiver with Crystal processors

S/N Ratio IHF A weighted

Stereo Analog 92 db

Dolby Digital DTS 90 dB 0dBFs

RC-1090 stereo preamp

Signal to Noise Ratio (IHF A) 100dB

Legairre got a response from Rotel that said;

quote:

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They said the S/N is 95db and weren't aware of any problem with the noise floor on the 1066. I don't think they would tell me if there was a problem, but I did ask.

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I'm not sure that the 1066 will really have high quality analog sound (i.e. high S/N ratio) like the Anthem, MC-12, or from what we hear maybe the Outlaw.

 

[John Morris]

Wow, don't offer me anything now. I think I can locally do the service I can. If not, I'll let you know......