For many of us, getting into truly high-end home theater equipment would require either winning the lottery or robbing a bank. Simply put, going beyond a basic A/V receiver and speakers requires opening the purse strings – a lot. But Outlaw Audio believes there should be more reasonable options for those who don’t hedge their bets on lottery tickets and want to stay on the right side of the law.
The Internet-only audio/video retailer recently introduced an aggressively-priced home theater processor for the A/V enthusiast who might be constrained by such things as a budget and credit limitations. The Outlaw Model 975 Surround Processor supports the latest Dolby and DTS formats including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master Audio, along with Pro Logic IIz and DTS Neo:6 post-processing.
This unit offers the promise of precision surround decoding, which is enhanced by the inclusion of flexible bass management controls using Quad-crossover settings from 40Hz to 200Hz with 12dB/octave (2nd order) high-pass and 24dB/octave (4th order) low-pass slopes. The company claims that once decoded, the signals travel through an ultra low-noise signal path, driven by a robust power supply with a compact torroidal transformer.
And the Outlaw Model 975 has plenty of connections, too. It offers four 3D-ready HDMI inputs and an HDMI output with Audio Return Channel (ARC) for sending audio back to the processor from a TV (handy for those who watch over-the-air HD or streaming movies and TV). The unit further includes two inputs and one output for component video, as well as ‘legacy’ composite and S-video inputs and outputs (all but abandoned by most heavy-hitter A/V companies. Those legacy video connections benefit from a high-performance 480i to 1080p video scaler that reportedly meets all of the industry standard tests with flying colors.
On the audio side, the Outlaw Model 975 features two optical and two coaxial digital inputs, five stereo inputs, a record output, a low-noise ¼-inch headphone jack, and a configurable 7.1-multichannel output for use with surround back or front height enhanced speaker systems.
The Outlaw Model 975 is available now from OutlawAudio for the incredibly reasonable price of $549.
