Outlaw 950 w\Camelot vs. Anthem Avm20 (1 Viewer)

[dave alan]

there are thousands of 950 prepros in use. there are 9 people who chronically gripe, two of whom do not even own a prepro. btw, austin, which prepro do you have? probably the new model for 'grown ups'. and...the gripers had 30 days to return the 950 for a full refund.

the point is not that the 950 trounces any other prepro...it's that the $3k prepros do not trounce the 950. the man said it himself. the 'gizmos', like the crystal cs49326 dsp (found in the lex mc-12, rotel 1066, marantz sr9200, etc.), and the crystal cs4396 multi-bit delta/sigma d/a converter are state of the art.

noise floor specs? i suppose outlaw will publish the 'true' specs shortly after anthem, et al, publish their 'true' specs.

upgrades? pay $3k, then pay more to upgrade to features that are already on the 950, if the upgrade works properly and it comes in time to beat it's own obsolescence.

i don't have a noise floor problem. i use 5 full range speakers in the itu standard setup, so crossovers, global or triple, are of no use to me (although, setting the triple crossovers to the same value is the same thing, no?).

all of the 'tons (features are measured by weight??) of features' that you get for $1,600.00 difference (and up) are digital and therefore useless in sacd/dvd-a. like phase control, multiple crossover slopes, the remote that senses your mood and consoles you, etc. are gonna change whether the thing sounds good or not.

we'll see in a year or two, when the new prepro is available from outlaw and anthem and whoever else, who is gonna upgrade and who is gonna keep their $3k dinosaur cause it really isn't upgradable and cost too much to give to the kids and pay too much for the new model.

receivers are a joke. they have always been a joke. and to pay 4 figures for one to use as a prepro is the ultimate joke. the anthem avm20 and it's peers are very fine products, just too expensive in this ever changing, format wars battlefield.

dsps is dsps and dacs is dacs. outlaw did the impossible (unless you can point me to another brand with ANY features for 900 bucks and a 5 year warranty?). i bought one. i thoroughly enjoy it every single day. it sounds excellent, does what it's made to do very well and is backed by a company that has been a pleasure to deal with.

and...once and for all....research THIS.

 

[dave alan]

i apologize to any and everyone who may have been the least put off by the above post, but....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,
that felt good.

scott...some say they hear a definite improvement in the anthem's sound over the 950. most do not. i am one of those who heard little, if any difference. hope that helps, and good luck with your final decision.

 

[Mifr44]

Scott,

"Will moving up to a higher priced ProPro (Anthem, Sunfire, Etc.) offer sonically better analog performace than my 950 with a Camelot Roundtable connected in bypass mode??

While I believe you would, any performance improvement you might experience (depending on your system) will not get close to the cost differential of the 950 vs. the $3-4K processors, meaning at 3-4 times the cost you will not get 3-4 times the performance. Not even close.

If, as you state, you are quite happy with the performance of the 950 and are not experiencing the hiss problems reported by a small minority of its owners, I think you might find better use for the $2-3K price difference. Of course, an audition of a higher cost processor would also give you a more accurate feel for whether it is worth the switch or not.

Michael

 

[TomH]

The Anthem is overpriced by ~$1500.00. It must be to support the margins required by a smaller company and the "authorized" dealer distribution model. It may be worth a few hundred more than the Outlaw but I think you will be extremely disappointed to find similar performance for your additional 2k.
Across the forums the same few people continue to bash the 950. It represents a serious threat to the B&M and "authorized" dealer system. It has already forced some competition in the pre/pro market.
The Rotel 1066 has as many or more problems as the 950 but it is not continually hammered. But then it is sold through conventional channels.

 

[Bill Polley]

That is, if you can find the Rotel. My local dealer wouldn't stock it, but would special order it if I was sure I was going to buy, then I could return it and only be out a 10% restocking fee! I really wanted to do some in-home comparing, but ended up listening to one in a dealer showroom while on vacation.

 

[Brian Fitterman]

I have never heard the 950, but I own the AVM-20. I have not heard a pre-pro for that price or less that sounds nearly as good as it. Again, that is my opinion. Some of the others that I have listened to: B&K Ref 30 (owned this one), Act3, Meridian, Proceed, and a few others. Some of these cost more (way more) than the Anthem, and yes they do sound better. But were they worth the extra money to me, obviously not, because I did not get them. Now others may feel the same way with comparing the AVM-20 to the 950. I cannot comment becuase I have never heard the 950, but if I had to guess, I would probably stick with the Anthem.

Outlaw is a small company and if they could make profit on the 950 at less than $1000, I do not think there is any way they could use the same quality parts that the Anthem has in it. Just as Krell can say there is no way Sonic Frontiers (Paradigm) could make the AVM-20 with the same quality parts as the HTS II. This is especially true when you take into account Paradigm's buying power. When making a choice like this you also have to take into account the rest of your system. I would not see the full potential of the Krell HTSII on my system. Would I hear a difference, probably yes, but if I had a pair of Thiel CS6's, would that difference get bigger, yes again.

But to get back to your original question, will the camalot DVD player with the 950 sound better/as good as the Anthem with a scaled down DVD player? In my opinion, I would get the Anthem. I used to own the Sony SCD-777ES SACD player, the $3500 top loading one that is built like a tank. I used to use that through the analog inputs and it sounded great (it better for $3500 unit - BTW I did not pay near $3500 but that is what it listed for) When I first got the new Marantz 8300 universal DVD player I played it the same way, via analog inputs and thought it was ok, but I thought the 777ES was better. But then I tried it via the Digital connection, and WOW, it sounded fantastic. It was like I had the 777ES playing. That is how good the DAC's and Analog staging in the AVM-20 is. And that is the consistant type of performance you will get with the AVM-20 for all the formats. IMO, it is just that good.