Outlaw Receiver

reeltrouble1 · February 2006

Well. the for those lucky enough to have had the forsight to purchase the new Outlaw Receiver, it is bodly gracing the front cover of March's Stereophile Mag in all its Glossy Glory. The reveiw is well written and in a nutshell this 500 buck wonder was hooked to a 80,000 dollar front end and 45,000 speakers on the other, it pretty much performed magnificently including the phono section.

Looks like the writer might of been visiting the Polk Forum boards. The "as we see it" article has some interesting writing on the differences folks hear with audio gear.

RT1

shack · February 2006

I have seriously considered "simplifying" and going with this receiver vs my NAD separates. I may still happen. If they had bumped this up to 150wpc or so....it would have already happened.

ohskigod · February 2006

I say good for outlaw. I really wish this product came out before my father passed. this was the type of thig he was looking for. he was old school 2 chaannel reciever only. He couldnt find anything to replace his Onkyo Integra TX85 with the advent of surround sound recievers. drove him nuts. I have a feeling he would have loved this thing.

Dennis Gardner · February 2006

Niche marketing is good if the product stands up. This receiver and the Onix SP3 tube amp may do more for 2 channel within the span of a couple years than anything we could have imagined.

reeltrouble1 · February 2006

Yea, I would say so Dennis, the mag pays homage to the Glory Days of 2-Channel, back when names like Kenwood, Pioneer, and Onkyo ruled the rooste. Seems their is enough of a ground swell and buzz from the HT crowd to make use of this Receiver, it has a sort of pass-through so it can be hooked into a multi-channel set-up, smart! Now if it only had tubes!!!!!!!!! The phono-pre was dead silent and it has a seperate volume control for headphones, more than just an afterthought.

RT1

heiney9 · February 2006

Somehow I thought it was the concensous that "stereophile" and reviewers in general are evil. There have been lot's of products discussed that get the "stereophile" endorsement that get slammed merely because "stereophile" is getting paid (common arguement) to skew their reviews. Now we seem to have a product that for the most part is heavily endorsed here on the forum and it's great that "sterophile" has given it it's endorsement. It's this kind of flim flaming that really irks me.

I don't have a bone to pick with anyone or any product in particular, just thinking out loud here. You have to admit it's pretty funny how when a product we like is reviewed and given good marks we generally praise the unit and the review. If it's a prouct we don't like then we pan the product and the reviewer and accuse them of being paid off to say good things.

Ok I'm done....thanks for reading my rant

H9

heiney9 · February 2006

Why on Earth would Stereophile think it would be realistic to hook up a $500 unit to an $80,000 front end and $45,000 speakers? Absolutely ludicris if you ask me. Anyone who buys the Outlaw isn't going to pair it with anything even close. It's completely absurd. This shows how out of touch publications like Stereophile are. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

OK...now I'm really done ranting

.

H9

madmax · February 2006

heiney9 wrote:

Why on Earth would Stereophile think it would be realistic to hook up a $500 unit to an $80,000 front end and $45,000 speakers? Absolutely ludicris if you ask me. Anyone who buys the Outlaw isn't going to pair it with anything even close. It's completely absurd. This shows how out of touch publications like Stereophile are. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

OK...now I'm really done ranting .

H9

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

shack · February 2006

heiney9 wrote:

Somehow I thought it was the concensous that "stereophile" and reviewers in general are evil.

Now we seem to have a product that for the most part is heavily endorsed here on the forum and it's great that "sterophile" has given it it's endorsement. It's this kind of flim flaming that really irks me.

You have NEVER seen me blast a review in any magazine or professional review web site. I take them for what they are. A professional writer (usually) writing about something they know something about. Like anyone else, they have biases, preferences, guidelines, etc. As long as they provide the basic info (specs, etc) the rest should be their opinion with some originality. I enjoy reading most of what is out there when it comes to audio equipment. It is entertainment...no more...no less.

As for this particular product...I posted favorably about it long before there were ANY reveiws. I like Outlaw and I like their gear.

Early B. · February 2006

heiney9 wrote:

Why on Earth would Stereophile think it would be realistic to hook up a $500 unit to an $80,000 front end and $45,000 speakers? Absolutely ludicris if you ask me. Anyone who buys the Outlaw isn't going to pair it with anything even close. It's completely absurd. This shows how out of touch publications like Stereophile are.

Seems like this is a great process for determining the quality of the component. If it sucks, those $45K speakers will let you know immediately.
Russman did the same thing with the Rotel CD player he wrote about a few weeks ago. Seems like a very reasonable thing to do.

IMO, this process also demonstrates the folly of spending a ridiculous wad of cash on audio components if a $500 receiver can hold its own with them. I'll say it again -- in the hi-fi world, price doesn't mean a damn thing.

heiney9 · February 2006

Early B. wrote:

Seems like this is a great process for determining the quality of the component. If it sucks, those $45K speakers will let you know immediately.
Russman did the same thing with the Rotel CD player he wrote about a few weeks ago. Seems like a very reasonable thing to do.

IMO, this process also demonstrates the folly of spending a ridiculous wad of cash on audio components if a $500 receiver can hold its own with them. I'll say it again -- in the hi-fi world, price doesn't mean a damn thing.

Quality that the avg. buyer of a $500 rec will never realize. Price doesn't mean a damn thing....but it's not absolute. The $125,000 of components Russ used with the Rotel seem to escape me right now. I'm not in anyway saying the Outlaw is not a good product, just the way it was used seems ludicris, IMO

H9

markmarc · February 2006

Forgive the self promotion, but my e-zine Affordable$$Audio reviewed the Outlaw in our January issue. So, if you want to know how it sounds with typical speakers visit the site and download the January issue.
www.affordableaudio.org

Holydoc · February 2006

markmarc wrote:

Forgive the self promotion, but my e-zine Affordable$$Audio reviewed the Outlaw in our January issue. So, if you want to know how it sounds with typical speakers visit the site and download the January issue.
www.affordableaudio.org

Mark,

Thanks for tooting your own horn.

I thoroughly enjoyed your January review issue. I did not even know your site existed until just now.

Thanks again!

heiney9 · February 2006

Holydoc wrote:

Mark,

Thanks for tooting your own horn. I thoroughly enjoyed your January review issue. I did not even know your site existed until just now.

Thanks again!

Spread it around Mark. It's a free service so it's not like you are soliciting for subscriptions. FWIW, that review is a bit more practical than the Stereophile review, IMO of course.

H9

Emlyn · February 2006

For what it's worth, the Stereophile reviewer used the receiver with Wilson Audio speakers partly to test Wilson's statements that the speaker is the most important component in the sound chain. The reviewer then went on to use the receiver with a modest setup in his living room and continued to be impressed by it.

The receiver must be selling well, as it's currently backordered.

reeltrouble1 · February 2006

Exactly Emlyn. I dont know if H9 read the article because you never said H9.
I dont bash Sterophile, yes, sometimes they are a bit pretentious, however, by putting this piece on the front cover of their mag, they are indicating they hear some of their readers, who want some attention paid to more common gear. Besides I read about high end and acutally have been able to acquire some used pieces because I read about them. No not a 90,000 Consortium but still fun to read about. I want this mag to review the extreme high end stuff, I can read alot about regular gear in the other ones I get.

The article also includes some findings with average gear and the Outlaw, a portable source cd player if I remember correctly but the CRS is bad today. The reveiwer did say the test was a bit unusual but addressed this issue.

Now about that source/speaker issue, well, we never agree, who cares, its a part of audio that I find very interesting to talk about.

RT1

kingsqueak · February 2006

I dunno, I was reading a review on a $9k CD player by one of the audiophile rags. The guy opened the review saying there was a harshness he couldn't figure out, then proceeds to suspend the player in some sort of audiophile basket and said it transformed the sound. How much amyl nitrate was that guy huffing?

It's exactly that sort of crap that caused me to drop my subscription to Stereo Review back in the 80's.

I put more stock in the reviews I weed through on forums like this one than on those industry rags.

Outlaw Receiver

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